Oscars viewers reckon Al Pacino ‘messed up biggest category of the night’

He looked at the card and said: ‘I see Oppenheimer.’

It took a few beats for the room to process what had been said, before director Christopher Nolan and his team flocked to the mic to accept the honour.

Collecting his directing trophy, Nolan thanked his wife and producer of the film, Emma Thomas, as well as lead Cillian Murphy, who previously nabbed a best actor gong.

However, it was Pacino’s name that ended up trending on social media, with X users questioning if he actually had any clue what was going on.

‘Did Al Pacino just mess up the biggest category of the evening???’, wrote MilsteadMovies.

LeonCar68345362 added that Pacino ‘dropped the ball’, while KristinChirico said: ‘Al Pacino looks like they just woke him up lmao’.

Obsessed with the whole thing, sreekyshooter added: ‘Al Pacino stumbled out of bed, walked onstage, opened an envelope, and said the name of the winner. This is the ideal award presenter. You may not like it, but this is what peak performance looks like.’

They weren’t the only one, as many other viewers reckoned it was the perfect ending to the ceremony.

‘I’m obsessed with the way Al Pacino announced Oppenheimer as Best Picture. couldn’t have been more chaotic or confusing lol’, wrote SpencerAlthouse.

User yc added that they had ‘no notes’, while kendallhosseini branded the segment ‘crazy’.

It was certainly Oppenheimer’s night, as the war flick swept the board and took home seven Oscars.

Collecting his directing trophy, Nolan thanked his wife and producer of the film, Emma Thomas, as well as Murphy.

Nolan said: ‘Thank you to those who have been there for me and believed in me my whole career.’

He added: ‘To the Academy, just to say movies are just a little bit over 100 years old, I mean, imagine being there 100 years into painting or theatre.

‘We don’t know where this incredible journey is going from here. But to know that you think that I’m a meaningful part of it means the world to me. Thank you very much.’

Irish actor Murphy, 47, kissed his wife, the artist Yvonne McGuinness, before heading to the stage for his own top prize, where he said making the film had ‘been the wildest, most creatively satisfying journey’.

‘I am a very proud Irishman standing here tonight,’ he added.

Acknowledging that ‘we are all living in Oppenheimer’s world now,’ the Peaky Blinders star added: ‘I would like to dedicate this to the peacemakers of the world.’

At the end of his speech, he spoke in Irish, saying ‘go raibh maith agat’ which means thank you.

Meanwhile, Robert Downey Jr picked up his first Oscar when he won best supporting actor for his role in the film as Lewis Strauss.

Downey Jr had been waiting for an Academy Award for even longer than Nolan, having received his first acting nomination in 1993 for Chaplin.

After thanking her family, she saved her final thanks for ‘my daughter, who is going to be three in three days and who turned our whole lives technicolour’.

Before exiting the stage, she said: ‘Don’t look at the back of my dress.’

Meanwhile, Da’Vine Joy Randolph was named best supporting actress for her role as a grieving cook in The Holdovers, much to the delight of film fans.

As far as snubs were concerned, viewers were stunned that Killers Of The Flower Moon, Martin Scorsese’s western about the murders of wealthy members of the Osage tribe in the 1920s, was completely shut out.