What time are the Oscars? Here’s your Academy Awards primer
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 2018 Oscars will begin at 5 p.m. (Pacific) and will be broadcast live on ABC from the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.
The ceremony, televised in more than 225 countries and territories worldwide, will stream depending on your local cable provider, and ABC has planned additional coverage that will stream live, too.
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.)
Be sure to follow the Los Angeles Times and L.A. Times Entertainment on Instagram and Facebook for additional dispatches from the scene.
Back on television, red-carpet coverage rolls out at 3:30 p.m. (Pacific) on ABC and will be hosted by “Good Morning America’s” Michael Strahan, “The Goldbergs” star Wendi McLendon-Covey, “The View” cohost Sara Haines, Vanity Fair’s Krista Smith and IMDb’s Dave Karger.
ABC’s telecast will be the only one broadcasting live from the red carpet in the lead-up to the ceremony from 4 to 5 p.m. (Pacific).
Who is hosting?
Jimmy Kimmel is back and ready in case there’s another best picture snafu after last year’s “Moonlight”/“La La Land” mix-up.
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.
But that doesn’t mean Kimmel isn’t rooting for something similar to happen this year.
“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?
Guillermo Del Toro’s sci-fi romance “The Shape of Water” leads the pack of nominees with 13 nominations and is trailed by Christopher Nolan’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 Greta Gerwig became only the fifth woman recognized in the directing category.
Here are the nominees in the top categories ( and here’s the complete list):
Best picture
Lead actor
- Timothée Chalamet, "Call Me by Your Name"
- Denzel Washington, "Roman J. Israel, Esq."
- Daniel Day-Lewis, "Phantom Thread"
- Gary Oldman, "Darkest Hour"
- Daniel Kaluuya, "Get Out"
Lead actress
- Sally Hawkins, "The Shape of Water"
- Margot Robbie, "I, Tonya"
- Frances McDormand, "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri"
- Saoirse Ronan, "Lady Bird"
- Meryl Streep, "The Post"
Director
- Paul Thomas Anderson, "Phantom Thread"
- Jordan Peele, "Get Out"
- Guillermo Del Toro, "The Shape of Water"
- Christopher Nolan, "Dunkirk"
- Greta Gerwig, "Lady Bird"
Predictions! Get your predictions!
The Times’ resident awards expert, Glenn Whipp, is still sensing a lot of uncertainty in the best picture field.
“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.
Meanwhile, our film critics Kenneth Turan and Justin Chang shared their picks in the video above and you can cast your votes with our play-at-home ballot.
And just for fun, here’s a timeline of past winners.
Who’s presenting?
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.
As usual, the star-studded roster includes Oscar winners and past and present nominees, as well as a major player who helped orchestrate the downfall of a perennial Oscars fixture — disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein. (We’re looking at you, Ashley Judd.)
This year’s confirmed presenters are: Mahershala Ali, Emily Blunt, Chadwick Boseman, Sandra Bullock, Dave Chappelle, Viola Davis, Eugenio Derbez, Laura Dern, Ansel Elgort, Jane Fonda, Jodie Foster, Gal Gadot, Jennifer Garner, Greta Gerwig, Eiza González, Tiffany Haddish, Armie Hammer, Mark Hamill, Tom Holland, Oscar Isaac, Nicole Kidman, Matthew McConaughey, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Helen Mirren, Rita Moreno, Kumail Nanjiani, Lupita Nyong’o, Margot Robbie, Gina Rodriguez, Eva Marie Saint, Emma Stone, Wes Studi, Kelly Marie Tran, Daniela Vega, Christopher Walken and Zendaya.
Who’s performing?
The three-hour ceremony is peppered with musical numbers from this year’s crop of Oscar-nominated songs. Slated to perform are Mary J. Blige, Keala Settle, Sufjan Stevens, Common with Andra Day, Natalia LaFourcade, Miguel and Gael García Bernal.
Since it’s the 90th anniversary of the telecast, it’s likely that producers could throw in a couple of historical montages and surprise appearances to spice things up. Pizza deliveries and candy drops might feel a little dated by now but couldn’t hurt either.
What does it all mean? And should you even care?
Well, yes, or you wouldn’t have made it all the way down to this section. But if there’s in-fighting at your house about whether to watch the show, just know there’s a debate brewing at The Times about the ceremony’s relevance in this day and age.
No matter which side you take, here’s some fodder for why the Oscars still matter and why they don’t.
Want more?
For complete coverage of the 90th Academy Awards, go to www.latimes.com/oscars.
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