UPDATE: The Academy has posted the following tweet.
Strangely, the tweet “still” looks like it comes from their account. It appears the issue was with their app, but that the company behind it (that might, um, run twitter) made an error somehow tying the results with the Academy’s account. Even if the Academy won’t blame the tweet based company in question, the fact this app was launched before voting was over was a huge mistake. It simply makes no sense. Especially when users picks will be spread all over twitter.
Original Post: To paraphrase my favorite Whitney Houston meme, “But wow, what a moment.” At 4:34 PM PT, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ twitter account (@theacademy) randomly posted the following. There was no message. There was no explanation in the copy above it. Just the following.
Now, that might just be seen as a strange social media error if this was Thursday, Friday or this weekend before this Sunday’s Academy Awards telecast. But, at the time, there were still over 24 hours for AMPAS members to vote for the Oscars. Out of context, this seems bizarre and confusing for any member who hasn’t voted. And, if you are Universal and “1917” in a tight race for Oscar’s top prize you might be wondering what message The Academy is saying about who should win Best Picture (we’ll keep our personal views out of this). Needless to say, whatever the purpose of this was keeping this tweet live and not immediately deleting was…a choice.
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It turns out, this is an example of what happens when you go on The Academy’s new twitter app (we think).
We’ll let you test it out yourself. We’re not interested in giving any other Oscar consultants or nominees heart attacks in what has already been an insanely short and compact season.
That being said, whoever this person actually is has some intriguing choices. “For Sama” in Documentary Feature? That’s a major longshot considering the competition. Randy Newman in the Original Song category for “Toy Story 4”? Possible, but we think Elton John and Bernie Taupin have this one locked up. “Klaus” for Animated Feature? Clearly they think the BAFTAs have more sway than you might expect. But the rest? The rest are very, very plausible which is why the fact the tweet is still up at the time this story was posted might rile a good many AMPAS members.
The 92nd Academy Awards will air live on ABC this Sunday beginning at 5 PM PT, 8 PM ET.
