The crimson carpet has been unfurled for the 96th annual Academy Awards, one of many film trade’s oldest and most acclaimed ceremonies.
It’s an evening of glitz, artistry and controversy, as a number of the greatest movies in the US and world wide compete for the golden statuettes generally known as Oscars.
Happening in Los Angeles, California, this 12 months’s Academy Awards ceremonies are set to pit field workplace rivals Barbie and Oppenheimer towards each other in a intently watched race for Greatest Image.
Whereas Oppenheimer is an early favorite for the win, different classes are tougher to foretell, with tight races within the two main actor classes, as an example. And with Israel’s conflict in Gaza raging right into a sixth month, protests and politics are anticipated to make an look on the annual award present, too.
Right here’s what it’s essential to find out about this 12 months’s Oscars.
How did the Academy Awards start?
Whereas the Oscars have turn into synonymous with glitz and glam, their origins have been comparatively humble.
It was Could 1929, and a crowd of black-tied celebrities crowded into the Roosevelt Resort in Hollywood for the very first Academy Awards ceremony. Tickets have been solely $5. Hollywood heartthrob Douglas Fairbanks hosted the occasion, which lasted a grand whole of quarter-hour — a far cry from right now’s three-plus-hour runtime.
It helped, in fact, that the winners had been introduced three months prior in a bulletin.
The Oscars have been born on the cusp of a seismic change in Hollywood: the appearance of sound movies. One of many movies nominated in that first ceremony was 1927’s The Jazz Singer, thought-about the primary “talkie” in cinema.
What organisation is behind the awards?
The “Academy” within the award identify refers back to the Academy of Movement Image Arts and Sciences, an organisation for filmmaking professionals that honours achievement within the trade.
Based in 1927, the Academy was composed of 36 authentic members, together with writers, administrators, producers and different trade insiders. The swashbuckling actor Douglas Fairbanks was amongst them. So too was silent-movie darling Mary Pickford — although, tellingly, she was considered one of solely three ladies among the many 36.
Questions of illustration throughout the Academy’s membership proceed to spur criticism, even to today.
One of many central figures within the early Academy was the top of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) studios, a strong determine named Louis B Mayer. A Russian-born movie producer, he feared how unions would possibly intervene along with his work — and he conceived of the Academy partially to deal with labour points with out union participation.
Why are the trophies referred to as ‘Oscars’?
The nickname for the enduring golden statuette, “Oscar”, grew to become broadly utilized in 1934.
The origins of the identify stay unclear, however one in style story credit the moniker to a future govt director of the Academy, Margaret Herrick. She reportedly noticed that the statuette resembled her uncle, Oscar, and the nickname shortly caught on.
What number of Oscar classes are there?
On the first Oscars ceremony in 1929, there have been solely 12 classes, plus two particular awards given. However that quantity tumbled to seven the very subsequent 12 months.
These authentic classes included mentions for Greatest Actor, Greatest Actress, Artwork Path and Excellent Image. The directing class was break up in two: one for comedy and the opposite for drama.
These days, there are 24 common classes, along with a number of particular classes that aren’t awarded yearly. However there’s just one Greatest Director class, not like in 1929.
How are the nominees picked?
To be eligible to be nominated, a movie should be proven at a business theatre in Los Angeles County throughout the calendar 12 months. Which means a whopping 321 characteristic movies have been eligible in 2023 throughout two dozen classes.
Members of the Academy take part in an preliminary vote to find out the nominees, primarily based on their particular trade discipline. Actors choose the appearing nominees, for instance.
OK, what concerning the winners? Who picks these?
As soon as the nominees are picked, all voting Academy members choose the winners. There are an estimated 10,500 members in whole, with almost 9,500 eligible to vote.
However advertising and marketing campaigns, notably from massive studios, are frequent follow forward of the awards ceremony to rally assist for a given movie or artist.
Critics have subsequently slammed the position cash performs within the choice course of. They’ve additionally pointed to the Academy’s membership as indicative of bigger range issues: A majority of members are white and male, resulting in questions concerning the winners they choose.
What are a number of the greatest movies at this 12 months’s Oscars?
There was no larger second within the leisure world final 12 months than the odd-couple double characteristic generally known as Barbenheimer. That was the moniker followers gave to Oppenheimer and Barbie, two blockbusters launched on the identical day in July.
Each have continued to take pleasure in sturdy momentum going into Oscars season: Oppenheimer with 13 nominations, Barbie with 8.
However Oppenheimer, a sweeping biopic of nuclear physicist J Robert Oppenheimer, is predicted to dominate classes like Greatest Image and Greatest Director, doubtlessly delivering a long-awaited win to director Christopher Nolan.
Barbie, in the meantime, was the highest-grossing movie of the 12 months, pulling in additional than $1.4b worldwide. However whereas it bought nods for classes like Greatest Image and Greatest Supporting Actor, it was broadly seen as snubbed within the Greatest Actress and Greatest Director slots.
Legendary director Martin Scorsese can be a frontrunner on this 12 months’s competitors with Killers of the Flower Moon, a movie primarily based on the real-life story of a killing spree that focused the Osage Nation within the Twenties.
Fellow auteur Yorgos Lanthimos is again within the working as effectively with Poor Issues, a feminist-inspired Frankenstein story with steampunk aesthetics. Poor Issues acquired 11 nominations, and Killers of the Flower Moon 10.
Which 10 movies are up for Greatest Image?
- The Holdovers
- American Fiction
- The Zone of Curiosity
- Barbie
- Oppenheimer
- Poor Issues
- Previous Lives
- Anatomy of a Fall
- Maestro
- Killers of the Flower Moon
Are there any history-makers this 12 months?
One of many stars of Killers of the Flower Moon, Lily Gladstone, is main the race for Greatest Actress, after selecting up trophies on the Golden Globes and the Display Actors Guild Awards.
A member of the Nez Perce and Blackfeet nations, Gladstone is the primary Native American to be nominated within the Greatest Actress class. A win would likewise be historic.
The movie additionally acquired historic nods for its music, which featured Indigenous artists. Osage Nation member Scott George acquired the primary Native American nomination for Greatest Tune, whereas the late composer Robbie Robertson, whose mom was Cayuga and Mohawk, is believed to be the primary Indigenous individual nominated for Greatest Authentic Rating. Robertson died in August 2023.
The social satire American Fiction additionally garnered a nominating first: By no means earlier than have two Black males from the identical movie acquired appearing nods. Stars Jeffrey Wright and Sterling Ok Brown are honoured within the Greatest Actor and Greatest Supporting Actor classes, respectively.
Colman Domingo, the star of the civil rights biopic Rustin, made historical past as effectively, changing into the primary Afro-Latino man to attain a Greatest Actor nod.
This 12 months additionally marks the primary time three woman-directed movies landed Greatest Image recognition. They embody Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall, Celine Tune’s Previous Lives and Greta Gerwig’s Barbie.
What was the largest snub?
Barbie might have been a narrative of feminist awakening for its titular doll, however the movie’s followers have criticised the Academy voters for exhibiting no such consciousness on their half.
The largest field workplace hit of the 12 months, Barbie was snubbed within the Greatest Director and Greatest Actress classes, regardless of earlier recognition in these domains on the Golden Globes.
Director Greta Gerwig and star Margot Robbie had each generated important buzz for his or her roles within the movie, too: Gerwig, as an example, grew to become the primary lady to direct a billion-dollar movie.
Robbie, nevertheless, may nonetheless obtain Oscar gold as a producer if Barbie wins Greatest Image — an extended shot, however not not possible.
However whereas the ladies on the helm of the movie bought comparatively little Oscar love, Barbie’s male lead, Ryan Gosling, earned a nod for Greatest Supporting Actor. He addressed the obvious snub in February with an announcement supporting Robbie and Gerwig.
“There is no Ken without Barbie,” he wrote. “And there is no Barbie movie without Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie, the two people most responsible for this history-making, globally-celebrated film.”
What protests are anticipated this 12 months?
As stars parade down the crimson carpet at this 12 months’s Oscars, protesters are anticipated to assemble on Los Angeles’s Sundown Boulevard to reveal towards Israel’s conflict in Gaza — and remind viewers of the devastation occurring concurrently in cities like Rafah.
The movie Oppenheimer has likewise prompted some backlash, notably with its depiction of the primary profitable atomic bomb take a look at in Los Alamos, New Mexico.
Some viewers have criticised the movie for failing to painting the long-term devastation Japan skilled on account of the bomb. Others hope the movie’s prominence on the Oscars will help shine a lightweight on the New Mexico residents who suffered radiation publicity on account of the checks, a lot of them Hispanic and Indigenous.
Tina Cordova, a most cancers survivor who grew up close to the take a look at website, informed the AFP information company she felt tales like hers have been largely ignored.
“They knew about us when they made the film,” she informed the information company. “They just chose to ignore us again.”
The Washington-based Nuclear Menace Initiative (NTI) additionally launched a marketing campaign within the days main as much as the Oscars ceremony, entitled “For Your Consideration: Make Nukes History”, leveraging the eye Oppenheimer acquired. It printed a letter within the Los Angeles Instances calling for nuclear disarmament, with signatures from actors like Jane Fonda, Michael Douglas, Emma Thompson and Lily Tomlin.
Who’s internet hosting?
The notoriously thankless job has once more gone to comic Jimmy Kimmel. It will likely be his fourth time internet hosting.
In an interview with the Related Press, Kimmel mentioned he didn’t plan to make use of overtly political materials, regardless of the US dealing with a heated election 12 months.
“It’s not really the focus of the Oscars. It doesn’t mean I won’t have a joke or two about it. But it’s not really my goal to invoke the name of he-who-shall-not-be-named at the Oscars,” Kimmel mentioned, in an obvious reference to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
When are this 12 months’s Oscars?
The Oscars might be held on Sunday, March 10, on the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. The ceremony is about to start at 7pm Japanese Time (22 GMT), an hour sooner than regular.
How can I watch?
The ceremony might be broadcast reside on the ABC community and on reside TV streaming platforms within the US.
The Academy additionally has worldwide listings right here.
