©Reuters. An Oscar statue is covered in plastic as preparations continue for the 96th Academy Awards in Los Angeles, California, U.S., March 9, 2024. REUTERS/Aude Guerrucci
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By Lisa Richwine
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Hollywood’s most prestigious figures gather on Sunday to celebrate the best screen performances at the annual Academy Awards, a ceremony that is expected to turn into a toast to the atomic bomb drama “Oppenheimer.”
Talk show host Jimmy Kimmel returns for the fourth time to present the film industry’s highest honors from the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles. The live broadcast on ABC begins at 4pm PDT (11pm GMT), an hour earlier than usual.
“Oppenheimer,” the three-hour drama directed by Christopher Nolan, leads the pack with 13 nominations. The film is the first to win the prestigious Best Film award, completing a string of other major awards this year.
“If the best picture isn’t ‘Oppenheimer,’ it will be one of the biggest upsets, if not the biggest upset, in Oscar history,” said Scott Feinberg, executive awards editor at The Hollywood Reporter.
After 2023 was marked by actor and writer strikes, the Oscars give Hollywood a chance to celebrate two global successes. “Oppenheimer” and the feminist adventure “Barbie,” another best picture nominee, took in a combined $2.4 billion in a summer box office battle dubbed “Barbenheimer.”
Oscar producers said they planned unannounced cameos and other surprises to entertain audiences at home.
“My greatest hope is that they go through a range of emotions with us, that they feel happiness and joy, that maybe we make them shed a tear,” executive producer Raj Kapoor said. “And then somehow they feel connected and inspired to live their dreams too.”
Supporting actor nominee Ryan Gosling will sing the ’80s-style rock anthem “I’m Just Ken” from “Barbie.” Members of the Osage Nation will perform the nominated “Wahzhazhe (A Song for My People)” from “Killers of the Flower Moon.”
Cillian Murphy, the Irish actor who played physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer as he led the race to build the first atomic bomb, is considered the favorite for best actor. Murphy’s main rival, according to awards experts, is “The Holdovers” star Paul Giamatti.
Best actress could go to Lily Gladstone of “Killers of the Flower Moon,” the true story of a murderous plot to seize lucrative Osage oil rights in 1920s Oklahoma. If she prevails, Gladstone would be the first Native American actress to win an acting Oscar.
Gladstone’s rivals include previous Oscar winner Emma Stone, nominated this year for playing a woman resurrected from the dead in the dark and quirky comedy “Poor Things.”
Supporting actors included “Oppenheimer” star Robert Downey Jr., who played the scientist’s professional nemesis, and Sterling K. Brown of “American Fiction.”
Da’Vine Joy Randolph, praised for her role as a grieving mother in “The Holdovers,” competes for best supporting actress against Danielle Brooks of “The Color Purple” and others.
“Barbie”, the film no. 1 last year with $1.4 billion in ticket sales worldwide, could be left out of the major awards. Billie Eilish’s “Barbie” ballad “What Was I Made For?” it will likely win the award for original song, Feinberg said, and could take home costume and production design awards.
For Nolan, the evening could bring his first directing Oscar, as well as the award for adapted screenplay. The director of the “Dark Knight” trilogy, “Inception” and other acclaimed films has never seen a film win best picture.
The ceremony could end with “the industry-wide coronation of Christopher Nolan,” Feinberg said. With “Oppenheimer”, he “made his best possible argument for why he is worthy of this recognition”.