A big billboard signal that includes this years Oscar host Conan O’Brien towers over Hollywood blvd as staff put together for the 97th Academy Awards in Los Angeles, California, U.S., Feb. 25, 2025.
Mike Blake | Reuters
After a topsy-turvy Oscar season by which frontrunners had been consistently shuffled, previous tweets hobbled a prime contender and area was held for “Depraved,” the 97th Academy Awards get underway Sunday.
Sunday’s Academy Awards, on the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, will bring to a standstill one of the vital unpredictable Oscar races in current reminiscence.
The ceremony kicks off 7 p.m. EST and will probably be broadcast by ABC and streamed on Hulu. Conan O’Brien is internet hosting for the primary time. The official crimson carpet preshow on ABC and Hulu begins at 6:30 p.m. Unofficial E! crimson carpet protection begins at 4 p.m. EST and The Related Press will livestream arrivals starting at 3 p.m.
Gentle rain was within the forecast for Sunday morning in Los Angeles, which continues to be recovering from wildfires that devastated the Pacific Palisades and Altadena neighborhoods earlier this 12 months.
The fires affected many all through the movie trade and throughout the Academy of Movement Photos Arts and Sciences. Some even known as for the cancellation of Hollywood’s awards season. Whereas his Pacific Palisades home was spared, O’Brien has been residing out of a resort the final two months. Oscar producers have stated the present will have a good time the town’s resilience.
An Oscar statue is pictured on the crimson carpet of the 97th Annual Academy Awards on the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California on Feb. 28, 2025.
Angela Weiss | AFP | Getty Photos
Is there an Oscar favourite?
The lead nominee is Netflix’s “Emilia Pérez,” with 13 nominations, however that movie has seen its possibilities crater following uproar over years-old offensive tweets by its star, Karla Sofía Gascón, the primary brazenly trans actor nominated for greatest actress.
The favourite is Sean Baker’s “Anora,” a few intercourse employee who weds the son of a Russian oligarch. The Neon launch, the Cannes Palme d’Or winner, gained with the producers, administrators and writers guild. The one film with the identical resume to not win greatest image is “Brokeback Mountain.”
Its closest competitors is “Conclave,” the papal thriller starring Ralph Fiennes. It gained on the BAFTAs and the SAG Awards, wins that got here simply as Pope Francis was hospitalized for double pneumonia. Oscar voting concluded earlier than the pope fell unwell.
Additionally within the combine are “The Brutalist,” nominated for 10 awards, and the musical hit “Depraved,” additionally with 10 nominations. A number of of the early craft Oscars might be shared between “Depraved” and “Dune: Half Two.”
Will politics play a starring function?
For the primary time, an actor is nominated for taking part in the sitting U.S. president. Sebastian Stan is nominated for greatest actor for his efficiency as a younger Donald Trump in “The Apprentice,” as is his co-star, Jeremy Robust, for taking part in Roy Cohn. Trump has known as these concerned with the movie “human scum.”
The political tenor of this 12 months’s ceremony might be risky, with the Oscars coming weeks into the second Trump administration and falling two days after the president’s dramatic rupture with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the White Home.
Talking earlier this week, O’Brien stated he’ll attempt to strike a fragile stability.
“I can’t ignore the second we’re in,” he stated. “However I even have to recollect it is threading a needle. I even have to recollect what we’re right here to have a good time and infuse the present with positivity.”
Greatest Actor nominee Timothée Chalamet will probably be among the many recipients of the “Everyone Wins” present bag.
Valerie Macon | Afp | Getty Photos
Will Timothée Chalamet win his first Oscar?
Whereas the supporting performing classes function overwhelming favorites in Zoe Saldana (“Emilia Pérez”) and Kieran Culkin (“A Actual Ache”), each greatest actor and greatest actress are shut contests.
In greatest actress, Demi Moore (“The Substance”) is almost certainly to win, however Mikey Madison (“Anora”) or Fernanda Torres (“I am Nonetheless Right here”) might pull off the upset.
Adrien Brody is favored in greatest actor for his efficiency in “The Brutalist. However Timothée Chalamet stands a good likelihood of beating him, for his efficiency as Bob Dylan in “A Full Unknown.” The 29-year-old Chalamet, who gained on the Display screen Actors Guild, would grow to be the youngest greatest actor winner ever, edging Brody’s file, set in 2003 in his win for “The Pianist.”
Can the present carry a battered Hollywood?
This 12 months’s Oscars are unspooling after a turbulent 12 months for the movie trade. Ticket gross sales had been down 3% from the earlier 12 months and extra considerably from pre-pandemic occasions. The strikes of 2023 performed havoc with launch schedules in 2024. Many studios pulled again on manufacturing, leaving many out of labor. The fires, in January, solely added to the ache.
Final 12 months’s telecast, propelled by the dual blockbusters of “Oppenheimer” and “Barbie,” led the Oscars to a four-year viewership excessive, with 19.5 million viewers. This 12 months, with smaller impartial movies favored in probably the most outstanding awards, the academy will probably be examined to attract as massive of an viewers.
With a not notably starry array of greatest music nominees, the academy has achieved away with performances of authentic songs this 12 months. However there will probably be music, together with a efficiency by “Depraved” stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, and a tribute to the late Quincy Jones, with Queen Latifah.
Final 12 months’s performing winners — Emma Stone, Robert Downey Jr., Cillian Murphy, Da’Vine Pleasure Randolph — may even participate within the ceremony. Although the academy initially stated it could convey again the “fab 5” model of presenting the performing awards, with 5 earlier winners per class, organizers have reportedly deserted these plans.
The ceremony will probably be going down days following the demise of Gene Hackman. The 95-year-old two-time Oscar winner and his spouse, Betsy Arakawa, had been discovered lifeless Wednesday at their New Mexico dwelling.
