Australian Producer Jan Chapman Is Mistakenly Pronounced Dead By Oscars ‘In Memoriam’

While it certainly wasn’t the biggest blunder of the night – that has to go to giving the Best Picture Award to La La Land when it actually belonged to Moonlight – honoring someone’s death while they are still living is still quite a mistake.

During the Oscars’ ‘In Memoriam’ segment, in which the Academy celebrates members of the film industry who died the previous year, a photo of living Australian producer Jan Chapman was used for her friend and collaborator, Janet Patterson, who died in October 2016.

Patterson was an Australian costume and production designer who had previously worked with Chapman on The Piano – a film for which Patterson got an Oscar nomination for Best Costume Design. In addition to her Oscar nomination from The Piano, Patterson had four other Academy Award nominations.

“I was devastated by the use of my image in place of my great friend and long-time collaborator Janet Patterson. I had urged her agency to check any photograph which might be used and understand that they were told that the Academy had it covered,” Chapman told Variety. “Janet was a great beauty and four-time Oscar nominee and it is very disappointing that the error was not picked up. I am alive and well and an active producer.”

Chapman, one of Australia’s most prolific independent film producers, has worked on many successful films including The Babadook, Bright Star, and Holy Smoke.

The Academy has yet to comment on this mistake.