The 96th Academy Awards are here and we bet you've seen at least two of the films nominated for best picture: “Oppenheimer” and “Barbie” and, quite possibly, many more because this could be the best group. of films nominated since the Oscars expanded the category in 2009.
So there's a lot to celebrate, and The Times will be covering it all night long with our Oscars live blog. Join columnists Mary McNamara and Glenn Whipp as they watch the show, which will hopefully include some exciting moments, but, properly Exciting moments, like, for example, a historic first and not someone going up on stage and slapping a presenter. Writer Tracy Brown will also chime in from time to time, adding on-the-spot reporting from inside the Dolby Theatre.
Television broadcast on ABC has begun. Save it here to receive live updates.
List of nominees | Photos from the red carpet | Final predictions in the 23 categories | What should win at the Oscars?
Artists call for a ceasefire with red buttons | Protesters demonstrate in Hollywood
The pros and cons of casting for the Oscars | Comment: The Academy puts black women in a box
16:14 Kimmel calls out Greta Gerwig's absence from the director category: “You're all applauding and you're the ones who didn't vote for her.” Bold. —MM
16:13 “We’re already five minutes in… and I’m not kidding.” Kimmel acknowledges the late start. -G.W.
16:12 Jimmy Kimmel just proves my point by admitting that he hasn't eaten in three weeks during a very clever bit in the famous “you're beautiful” bus stop scene from “Barbie.” I feel vindicated. —MM
4:11 p.m. Well, one surprise is that it's just starting, a few minutes late, as protesters delayed people getting to the Dolby. Other than that…hmmm…Emma Stone maybe wins lead actress over Lily Gladstone? -G.W.
15:59 Hello from inside the Dolby Theater! The mysterious voice from above tells everyone to get to their seats as soon as possible. This is my first time at an awards ceremony and unsurprisingly I got lost on the way here, was led by two groups of protesters demanding a ceasefire in Gaza and was mistaken for staff and a guest uninvited. I saw several famous faces along the way, including “Past Lives” director Celine Song, Simu Liu from “Barbie” and previous winner Brendan Fraser. —Tracy Brown
15:59 Trivia Fact Check! Thanks Glenn. As you can imagine, that's one of my favorite scenes in any movie. I was hoping there would be a Christmas scene in “Barbie” because Christmas Barbie is always glorious. As we get closer to the actual show, do you think there will be any real surprises, other than I don't know my Oscar trivia? —MM
15:54 Maria… do you want the moon? Just say the word and I'll lasso him and knock him down. I'll give you the moon, Mary. Okay…maybe not the moon…but the title of another Christmas movie nominated for best picture… “It's a Wonderful Life.” -G.W.
3:50 p.m. A little more trivia: Giamatti is nominated for his role in “The Holdovers,” which I believe is the first Christmas movie to get a best picture nomination. —MM
15:49 That Paul Giamatti doubles his double-double makes me happy. He says this time he won't get out of the car, so look for his car pulling into the Sunset Boulevard drive-thru later tonight. -G.W.
Clara Wong, left, and Paul Giamatti, center, on the red carpet.
(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
15:48 Paul Giamatti says he'll go to In-N-Out after the Oscars just like he did after the Golden Globes, resulting in a viral moment. But does he know that the best way to eat French fries is to first dip them in a vanilla shake? Maybe not. (Warning: does not work with animal style). And now I'm hungry, which is logical: Even with Ozempic, the Oscars are a celebration of fasting in Hollywood, not to mention a very long show with very few snacks available. At least for those of us at home, there will be commercial breaks, which were definitely missing from the first SAG Awards broadcast on Netflix. —MM
15:39 Even with this being his fourth time hosting him, seeing Kimmel in a tuxedo is still a little surreal for me, and I know it is for him. To me, he's still “Jimmy the Sports Guy” on KROQ's Kevin and Bean morning radio show. What the hell is he doing on this stage being so posh? -G.W.
15:37 The extra precocity of all this makes me think of Maggie Smith's line in 1978's “California Suite”: “Why do they have these things so early? I mean, no woman can look good at 5 in the afternoon. Except, possibly, Tatum O’Neal.” (For the younger ones, O'Neal was a teenager at the time.) But they all look great on the red carpet. Including Jodie Foster, who was also a teen actress in 1978 and is now nominated for “Nyad,” in which she plays her first queer character. In fact, this year is the first time that two queer actors have been nominated for openly gay characters: Foster and Colman Domingo in “Rustin,” which is somewhat surprising.
And in case you're wondering, I've stocked up on trivia for this show, which I fear will be, if not boring, I'm definitely looking forward to the “I'm Just Ken” number, as well as the possibility that Gladstone deserved victory, then even more predictable than usual. (I guess Christopher Nolan has been busy clearing shelf space.) It's not that, after the year of Slap, I don't value predictability a little. And Jimmy Kimmel is back as host and he's always good, even when there's a crisis in the best picture announcement. Yes, in fact, predictability is not always a bad thing. – Maria McNamara
15:23 Good afternoon Maria! It feels strange that the ceremony begins with the sun still so high in the sky. The Oscars are too late on the calendar, but this year's ceremony is too early. I sound like Goldilocks. What will be my “perfect” moment tonight? Ryan Gosling in a bright pink suit singing “I'm Just Ken” in what songwriter Mark Ronson promises will be an “absolute banana show”? Does Lily Gladstone become the first Native American woman to win the Oscar for leading actress? Christopher Nolan smiling (?) when “Oppenheimer” wins best picture? He would give 100 dollars to hear this very correct Englishman exult and declare himself “King of the world” when that happens. But I'm not holding my breath. What do you hope to see tonight? —Glenn Whipp
3 p.m. If you're wondering how so many of the stars you'll see on today's broadcast manage to not fall in their sky-high stilettos, fear not: they've had practice.
Some of them, at least. Twenty-four hours before the Oscars, dozens of celebrities arrived at the Dolby Theater to rehearse their musical numbers and practice handing out gold statuettes. The Academy Awards are the only awards ceremony that actually requires presenters to attend a presentation before the live show. Some of them also take the opportunity to brush up on their wardrobe choices, including Kate McKinnon and America Ferrera, who wore strappy heels that were much dressier than the rest of their casual attire. Presumably, the “Barbie” co-stars wanted to try out her shoes to make sure they were reliable, even if it meant feeling uncomfortable at 9 a.m. on a Saturday.
Not everyone followed that path, not even Zendaya, who opted for loafers, and Steven Spielberg, who wore sneakers. The latter immediately walked to the front of the stage, took out his cell phone and took a photo of the audience, where signs on the seats with headshots indicated who would sit where in the crowd.
If the director shared that photo with someone, he passed on more private information than I can reveal here. Press who witnessed about an hour of rehearsal on Saturday were prohibited from revealing basically everything: the seating arrangements, who is presenting, what categories, what the script entails, what the stage looks like. During his practice round, Spielberg had a funny bit in which he named a deceased Hollywood luminary as the intended winner. But even naming who that person was would reveal too much about the category she is associated with.
For the record, Spielberg was scolded for not sticking to the script: Presenters are supposed to open an envelope and read the name of an actual potential winner, noting that it's “for rehearsal only.” When he went his own way, a stagehand politely asked him to use the name of an actual nominee.
“No,” the filmmaker responded, “that's bad luck.” —Amy Kaufman
