A big billboard signal that includes this years Oscar host Conan O’Brien towers over Hollywood blvd as employees 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 during which frontrunners have been consistently shuffled, previous tweets hobbled a high 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 probably the most unpredictable Oscar races in latest reminiscence.
The ceremony kicks off 7 p.m. EST and can 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 remains to be recovering from wildfires that devastated the Pacific Palisades and Altadena neighborhoods earlier this yr.
The fires affected many all through the movie trade and throughout the Academy of Movement Footage Arts and Sciences. Some even referred to as for the cancellation of Hollywood’s awards season. Whereas his Pacific Palisades home was spared, O’Brien has been dwelling out of a resort the final two months. Oscar producers have mentioned the present will have fun 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 probabilities crater following uproar over years-old offensive tweets by its star, Karla Sofía Gascón, the primary overtly trans actor nominated for finest 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, received with the producers, administrators and writers guild. The one film with the identical resume to not win finest image is “Brokeback Mountain.”
Its closest competitors is “Conclave,” the papal thriller starring Ralph Fiennes. It received 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 sick.
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 could possibly 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 finest actor for his efficiency as a younger Donald Trump in “The Apprentice,” as is his co-star, Jeremy Sturdy, for taking part in Roy Cohn. Trump has referred to as these concerned with the movie “human scum.”
The political tenor of this yr’s ceremony could possibly be unstable, 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 mentioned he’ll attempt to strike a fragile stability.
“I can not ignore the second we’re in,” he mentioned. “However I even have to recollect it is threading a needle. I even have to recollect what we’re right here to have fun and infuse the present with positivity.”
Greatest Actor nominee Timothée Chalamet can be among the many recipients of the “All people Wins” reward 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 finest actor and finest actress are shut contests.
In finest actress, Demi Moore (“The Substance”) is almost definitely to win, however Mikey Madison (“Anora”) or Fernanda Torres (“I am Nonetheless Right here”) may pull off the upset.
Adrien Brody is favored in finest 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 received on the Display screen Actors Guild, would turn into the youngest finest actor winner ever, edging Brody’s report, set in 2003 in his win for “The Pianist.”
Can the present elevate a battered Hollywood?
This yr’s Oscars are unspooling after a turbulent yr for the movie trade. Ticket gross sales have been down 3% from the earlier yr 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 yr’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 yr, with smaller impartial movies favored in essentially the most outstanding awards, the academy can be examined to attract as massive of an viewers.
With a not notably starry array of finest music nominees, the academy has finished away with performances of unique songs this yr. However there can 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 yr’s performing winners — Emma Stone, Robert Downey Jr., Cillian Murphy, Da’Vine Pleasure Randolph — will even participate within the ceremony. Although the academy initially mentioned it might 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 can be happening days following the demise of Gene Hackman. The 95-year-old two-time Oscar winner and his spouse, Betsy Arakawa, have been discovered lifeless Wednesday at their New Mexico dwelling.
