Jimmy Kimmel returns to host for the fourth time at the 96th Academy Awards today while A-list presenters will include Steven Spielberg, Sally Field, Jennifer Lawrence, Dwayne Johnson, Rita Moreno, Al Pacino, Zendaya and Michelle Pfeiffer.
The ceremony will have to create some surprises, as by this point certain categories are all but sewn up.
Christopher Nolan is all but assured of winning best director, while Da’Vine Joy Randolph has claimed pretty much every gong for supporting actress for her turn as a grieving mother in Alexander Payne’s “The Holdovers.”
The same goes for supporting actor Robert Downey Jr., playing Lewis Stauss, the stone in Cillian Murphy’s shoe in “Oppenheimer.”
Likewise, “The Zone of Interest,” Jonathan Glazer’s Holocaust film that carves its own path, appears a shoo-in for best international feature – it would be the first win from the UK, for a film spoken in German and shot in Poland.
“Anatomy’s” Sandra Hüller squares up against Emma Stone and Lily Gladstone in perhaps the most undecided of the big categories, best lead actress.
Could there be upsets? In best picture, not likely. Elsewhere, yes.
If Lily Gladstone falls short, “Killers of the Flower Moon” (10 nominations) could go home empty-handed. It’d be the second time in a row a masterwork from Martin Scorsese was overlooked, following 2019’s geriatric gangster epic “The Irishman,” which struck out despite also receiving 10 nominations.
The Oscars start at 11am today.
Source: CNN
