Here’s everything you need to know about this weekend’s Academy Awards, including where to watch, the nominees, presenters and predictions.
The crown jewel of the awards season — and possibly the long-awaited finale to a tumultuous year in Hollywood — the 90th Academy Awards are taking place this Sunday, and we’ve got all the info you need to prepare for the ceremony.
What time does the show start?
The network’s Emmy-winning “The Oscars: All Access” will feature red-carpet highlights, exclusive footage from backstage and live “look-ins” during the Oscars telecast that will stream live on the academy’s page on Facebook Watch, ABC’s Facebook page, Oscar.com and ABCNews.com, beginning at 3:30 p.m. (Pacific).
Also on social media, Oscars presenter and “Avengers: Infinity War” star Tom Holland will be taking over Instagram’s official Instagram stories, bringing glimpses of the star-studded affair to users throughout the evening. (Spidey-webbed fingers crossed that he goes live while he presents.)
Oscars producers Michael De Luca and Jennifer Todd invited the “Jimmy Kimmel Live” star back as this year’s host — despite the envelope drama, which he had nothing to do with but did a decent job of handling in its wake.
“This year, we’re going to plant the wrong envelope in a number of categories, just to keep people on their toes. And then we’ll be going into the crowd and pulling Oscars from people,” Kimmel joked in an interview with the Associated Press.
Given the political climate and watershed #MeToo and Time’s Up movements, the comic plans to set the right tone by making people laugh and honoring “the people who have been dreaming of this night for their whole lives.”
Who are the nominees?
’s sci-fi romance “The Shape of Water” leads the pack of nominees with 13 nominations and is trailed by ’s World War II epic “Dunkirk” and Martin McDonagh’s satirical crime drama “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” with eight and seven nominations, respectively.
The academy already made some historic choices with this year’s crop of nominees: “Get Out” director, writer and producer Jordan Peele became the first African American to earn those three nominations for a single film. It nominated its first female cinematographer, “Mudbound’s” Rachel Morrison, and “Lady Bird” director became only the fifth woman recognized in the directing category.
“The overall indecision in the best picture field has proved contagious. With this year’s best picture race being such a wide-open free-for-all, I’ve gone back and forth on my own prediction a couple of times,” he wrote in his column of final predictions.
However, given that Gary Oldman, Frances McDormand, Sam Rockwell and Allison Janney have swept all of the key precursor awards, the four major acting races appear to be locked down, Whipp said.
Rumor has it that Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway will return to present the best picture prize again despite last year’s envelope flub, but ABC and the academy have yet to confirm their appearance.
What does it all mean? And should you even care?
