Think you know who will take home an Oscar this year? Make your #Oscars predictions and tune in Sunday, Feb. 9 to see how you did!
— The Academy (@TheAcademy) February 3, 2020
Source:
https://scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3048889/did-oscars-just-leak-its-winners-list-film-academys Entertainment
Did the Oscars just leak its winners’ list? Film academy’s apparent ‘predictions’ leave Twitter users confused
- When Academy for Motion Picture Arts and Sciences appeared to post ‘predictions’ of this year’s winning films, social media users were confused
- Some thought it had leaked the results in advance, but it turns out the post was about a predictions widget users can employ to post their own predictions
Park So-dam (left) and Choi Woo-shik in a still from Parasite. South Korean director Boon Jong-ho’s film is a contender for best picture and best international feature Oscars, among others.
Oscar watchers may have had flashbacks to 2017’s “envelope-gate” this week when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences appeared to post its official “predictions” for this year’s Oscars on Twitter, showing Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite winning best picture and Sam Mendes taking best director for 1917 .
Coming on Monday afternoon, a day before this year’s Oscars voting period ends on Tuesday, the widely shared tweet – which has since been deleted – quickly sparked confusion, with many wondering if the organisation had accidentally leaked the winners of Sunday’s show in advance or had its account hacked somehow.
“Wait, did you just spoil the whole thing?” one Twitter user asked. “A Social Media Manager is having a bad day,” wrote another.
In fact, the puzzling tweet – which tracked with what are widely considered the front-runners in a number of races – was connected to the launch of an automated social media widget called the Oscars Prediction Experience that allows users to create and share their own Oscar ballots in advance of the show on Sunday.
An Academy tweet about the service causing the confusion
The academy did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But in response to the bewilderment, the group shared a tweet from former awards pundit Kris Tapley, who wrote, “Everyone chill, it’s a predictions app!”