Many in the audience were left unimpressed by "The Hateful Eight" helmer's choice of racist word "ghetto".
"Do you realise Ennio Morricone as far as I'm concerned is my favourite composer. And when I say favourite composer I don't mean movie composer, that ghetto, I'm talking about Mozart, I'm talking about Beethoven, I'm talking about Schubert, that's who I'm talking about," Tarantino said.
It visibly upset many in the audience and Tarantino's "Django Unchained" star Jamie Foxx also pointed it out as he took to stage as a presenter.
Tarantino said that Morricone had "never won an award for any one individual movie at a US awards show."
The fans, however, fact checked him on Twitter that the musician has won two Golden Globes including one in 1987 for "The Mission" and another one in 2000 for "The Legend of 1900". He has never won an Academy Award for a specific movie, but he did earn an honorary Oscar in 2007.