Index – Culture – Al Pacino ruined the Oscars in just one minute

Unlike previous years, the 96th Oscars started much earlier, starting on Monday, shortly after midnight local time – although it used to start around two in the morning. Jimmy Kimmel performed a quarter of the duties of the presenter of the award ceremony, who already mentioned in the first lines of his monologue the unworthy situation he was in Barbiefor which neither the director, Greta Gerwig, nor the main character, Margot Robbie, were nominated – even though Kimmel called the work the best film.

Before the gala, you could already guess that he was one of the big winners of the evening Oppenheimer will be, which received 13 nominations, but we couldn’t be sure how much it would be squeezed by the one with 11 nominations Poor couples.

A memorable gala

It was also questionable Oppenheimer does it overturn the Titanica Ben How and The Lord of the Rings: The King Returns record – which are the most awarded films with 11 awards each – and whether Lily Gladstone will become the first Native American to win in the best actress category. Although none of them came together, the gala remains memorable in several ways.

Watching the award ceremony, one could easily have the feeling that they tried to distract him as soon as possible, since the awards were handed out on a quasi-conveyor belt. By the time we got up from a thank-you speech, a live abridged version of one of the compositions nominated in the best original song category followed, and then an award was presented again.

By the way, the American Academy of Film and Television Arts has already been accused of overextending the program, but in the case of this year’s gala, they apparently went overboard and did not give the audience time to process what they saw at all. There was still something to process!

For us Hungarians, the greatest joy was the victory of Zsuzsa Mihalek, who a Poor couples was one of its decorators and was nominated in the best visual design category. Although he could not be there in person at the gala, he did not accept the award. The last time we were proud was in 2022, when Zsuzsanna Sipos also won in this category, the Dune decorator.

Similarly, it was a great pleasure to watch the production of Ryan Gosling, who is a Barbie the Oscar-nominated song from the movie called I’m Just Kenperformed with Mark Ronson and Slash. The actor’s production was the highlight of the gala, almost blowing up the stage. Walking through the crowd of celebrities, he even got some to sing along, including Emma Stone, Margot Robbie and Greta Gerwig. It felt that this performance was saved for the end, as one of the biggest bangs of the evening, which really turned out to be a hit.

Al Pacino kicked up the schedule

He took a seat in the audience Anatomy of a fallMessi, who was mentioned only as a VIP guest on the social media pages of the American Film Academy. It was also a great success for John Cena, who shuffled onto the stage naked, who wanted to present an award naked, then while the candidates for the best costume category were presented, he was dressed in a pink women’s dress.

And absolutely no one expected that after the touching and honest speech of Emma Stone, who won among the best actresses, the gala would end with Al Pacino walking out in sports shoes, whistling during the program and without introducing the nominees for the best film category, announcing out of nowhere that “Oppenheimer seems to have won”.

If the resulting chaotic scenes weren’t unpleasant enough, after Jimmy Kimmel said goodbye, we got to watch Messi the dog take down Matt Damon’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame — part of a years-long banter between Kimmel and Damon.

The Oppenheimer in the end, he was able to convert seven of his 13 nominations into golden statues (you can read Index’s review of the film by clicking here), while the Poor coupleswere awarded four of the 11 nominations. These two films were the top winners at the 96th Academy Awards, and the winners of the other categories were as follows:

• best actor: Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer)
• best actress: Emma Stone (Poor Couples)
• Best Supporting Actor: Robert Downey Jr. (Oppenheimer)
• best supporting actress: Da’Vine Joy Randolph (Winter Break)
• best movie: Oppenheimer
• best director: Christopher Nolan (Oppenheimer)
• Best Adapted Screenplay: American literature (Cord Jefferson)
• Best Original Screenplay: Anatomy of a Fall (Arthur Harari, Justine Triet)
• best animated film: The Boy and the Gray Heron (Mijazaki Hajao)
• best cinematography: Hoyte van Hoytema (Oppenheimer)
• best costume: Holly Waddington (Poor Couples)
• best documentary: 20 days in Mariupol
• best short documentary: The Last Repair Shop
• best cut: Jennifer Lame (Oppenheimer)
• best international film: Interest protection area (Jonathan Glazer)
• best makeup and hair: Nadia Stacey, Mark Coulier, Josh Weston (Poor Couples)
• Best Original Score: Ludwig Göransson (Oppenheimer)
• with best original insert: What Was I Made For? (Billie Eilish and O’Connell’s testimony)
• best visual design: Zsuzsa Mihalek, Shona Heath, James Price (poor couples)
• best short film: The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar
• best animated short film: War Is Over
• best voice: Interest protection area
• best visual effects: Godzilla Minus One

(Cover photo: Al Pacino at the 96th Academy Awards at the Dolby Theater on March 10, 2024. Photo by Rich Polk/Variety/Getty Images)