Academy accidentally tweets, then deletes Oscars predictions

The Academy’s official Twitter page has accidentally posted – and then quickly deleted – a bizarre mistake ahead of next week’s ceremony.

And the winner for best gaffe at the Oscars goes to … the Academy itself.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences unveiled a nifty tool for fans to tweet their predictions ahead of the award show ceremony at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, which airs in Australia on Monday morning.

However, cinephiles went wild when the Academy seemingly tweeted its own “predictions” this week to its 3.4 million followers before deleting the erroneous tweet.

not the academy tweeting their own "predictions" for the oscars... pic.twitter.com/y63acMGQvk

— alina (@loversinfilm) February 4, 2020

To show off its new “Oscars Prediction Experience” on Twitter, the Academy tweeted a photo entitled “My Oscar Predictions” and included picks for all the major categories.

According to the photo, which has since been deleted but retweeted by many, the Academy indicated Parasite for Best Picture, Sam Mendes for Best Director for his film 1917, Parasite for Best Original Screenplay and Jojo Rabbit for Adapted Screenplay.

A scene from South Korean black comedy Parasite.

In the acting categories, the predictions tweet selected Joker star Joaquin Phoenix for Best Actor, Judy star Renée Zellweger for Best Actress and in the supporting categories, Once Upon A Time … In Hollywood actor Brad Pitt and Marriage Story actress Laura Dern.

Of course, the blunder drew attention from fans who believed the predictions meant the Academy released Oscar winners early — and seemed to fall right in line with many critics’ opinions for predictions.

Joaquin Phoenix is nominated for his role in Joker. Picture: Roadshow Pictures/Warner Bros.

“Wonder if @TheAcademy will say something about this bot (?) that tweeted out Oscar predictions,” one journalist tweeted.

“Not the academy twitter intern releasing their Oscar prediction list …” a fan joked.

“The academy deleted their Oscar predictions tweet which is somehow funnier than them tweeting it in the first place,” another chimed in.

After deleting the tweet, the Academy issued an apology for the confusion, claiming it was just sharing examples of the new interactive experience generated from fans.

“We invited fans on Twitter to make and share your #Oscars predictions. A ton of you already have,” the statement read. “A brief issue on Twitter made some of yours look like they came from our account. They didn’t. This error is now resolved. And we’ll reveal our picks on Sunday.”

The blooper comes after the most infamous Oscars mix-up in 2017 when Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway accidentally announced the Academy Award winner for Best Picture as La La Land instead of Moonlight in a flub heard all over the world.

This article originally appeared in the NY Post and was reproduced with permission.