It was easy to miss, but the botched tribute did not go unnoticed last Sunday, when a picture of Jan Chapman, who worked on "The Babadook", among many other films, was shown on the screen next to the name of the Oscar-nominated Janet Patterson, who died in October due to cancer.
In the year that saw the death of stars like Gene Wilder, Carrie Fisher, Debbie Reynolds, Anton Yeltsin and Bill Paxton, the tribute was greatly anticipated by many as one of the most important parts of the ceremony.
A preventable mistake
Both from Australia and both called Jan, this was not the first time Chapman and Patterson were mixed up. In fact, according to Chapman, before the show, she actually asked Patterson's former agency to double check if the photo they had was the right one.
The attempt to avoid a possible mistake failed, as the wrong picture was shown anyway.
The two Jans had been friends and collaborators for a long time, and according to Chapman, she was devastated by the use of the wrong image on the botched tribute, and extremely disappointed that the error happened despite her warnings.
The causes behind the botched tribute
Patterson was famously reclusive, with pictures of her being rare, and in one of them she appears alongside Chapman during their time working on the 1993 movie "The Piano."
But this does not fully justify the mistake, as Patterson was a four-time Oscar nominee and Chapman is one of Australia's most famous producers, whose work includes Holy Smoke, Lantana, and The Last Days of Chez Nous.
It is more likely that the issue lies with the Academy Award's picture researcher failing to spot the error.
Not the only controversy
But the mix-up wasn't the only thing to draw negative attention during the Memoriam video played. After the Oscars' error, Patricia Arquette, an Academy Award winning actress, spoke up about her disappointment that Alexis Arquette, her sister, wasn't shown.
A transgender actress, Alexis Arquette died in September of cardiac arrest. Patricia went on to say that her sister had 70 movie credits and that the failure to include her in the tribute was a slight to the trans community, before concluding that trans children don't have enough heroes to look up to.
The Academy's silence
By Monday morning, Patterson's name and photo had already been removed from the Oscars website. However, the Academy has been too busy dealing with the fallout of the best picture fiasco to address the complaints about the botched tribute.