Watching the Oscars doesn’t usually require an instruction manual.
But this year, to make sure you catch the goodness of Ryan Gosling performing “I’m Just Ken” — in what we can only hope will be a faux fur coat — there are two crucial steps you must take.
One: Be in your preferred watching position — popcorn popped, possibly in a “Dune” bucket, Snuggie on — an hour earlier on Sunday. In a break from the traditional 8 p.m. Eastern start, this year’s ceremony is scheduled to kick off at 7 p.m., an effort by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to stick to prime-time hours.
And two: When we say 7 p.m., we mean what-was-until-2-a.m.-on-Sunday 6 p.m., because — that’s right — daylight saving time is here once again. Don’t forget to set your clocks — if you still have clocks — forward an hour.
You may have heard that “Oppenheimer,” with a pack-leading 13 nominations, is a lock to win best picture. This is accurate. But even if we’re certain how the night will end, the getting there is the fun part. Here’s everything you need to know.
What time does the show start and where can I watch?
In a perk for those who like going to bed early, this year’s show begins at 7 p.m. Eastern, 4 p.m. Pacific, at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles. Sunday is also the start of daylight saving time, so remember to set your clocks an hour forward before you go to bed on Saturday night.
On TV, ABC is the official broadcaster. Online, you can watch the show live on the ABC app, which is free to download, or at abc.com, although you’ll need to sign in using the credentials from your cable provider. There are also a number of live TV streaming services that offer access to ABC, including Hulu + Live TV, YouTube TV, AT&T TV and FuboTV, which all require subscriptions.
Is there a red carpet?
Of course — and this year, it will, once more, actually be red. (Last year’s carpet, you may remember, was champagne-colored.)
An official 30-minute red carpet preshow hosted by Vanessa Hudgens and Julianne Hough will begin at 6:30 p.m. Eastern, 3:30 p.m. Pacific on ABC, which will lead straight into the live ceremony.
For the unofficial view, there’s the E! Oscars show. The host, Laverne Cox, and panelists will offer commentary as stars arrive beginning at 4 p.m. Eastern, 1 p.m. Pacific. Go to eonline.com for more details.
We’ll be keeping a special eye out for Colman Domingo, who is nominated for his performance as the civil rights leader Bayard Rustin in “Rustin.” His standout looks, like an impeccably tailored mustard-yellow suit and a textured gold coat at the Critics Choice Awards, have been highlights this awards season.
Who is hosting?
Jimmy Kimmel is back for a second consecutive year, his fourth time overall as host of the ceremony. That ties him with Whoopi Goldberg and Jack Lemmon, but puts him behind Johnny Carson (with five) and Billy Crystal (nine). And it’s still miles back from the record-holder, Bob Hope, at 19.
Who is presenting?
The “Field of Dreams” format is back! For the first time since the 2009 ceremony, five past winners in each acting category will introduce the five current nominees for each award, then announce the winner together.
The academy never reveals which presenters will be announcing which awards before the ceremony, but all four of last year’s acting winners — Brendan Fraser (best actor), Michelle Yeoh (actress), Ke Huy Quan (supporting actor) and Jamie Lee Curtis (supporting actress) — are in the presenter lineup.
Also set to take the Dolby stage on Sunday night: Mahershala Ali, Bad Bunny, Nicolas Cage, Chris Hemsworth, Dwayne Johnson, Michael Keaton, Jennifer Lawrence, Matthew McConaughey, Rita Moreno, Lupita Nyong’o, Octavia Spencer, Ramy Youssef and Zendaya.
Who will be performing?
All five of the best original song nominees will be represented: “I’m Just Ken” from “Barbie” (performed by Ryan Gosling and Mark Ronson); “The Fire Inside” from “Flamin’ Hot” (performed by Becky G); “It Never Went Away” from “American Symphony” (performed by Jon Batiste); “Wahzhazhe (A Song for My People)” from “Killers of the Flower Moon” (performed by Scott George and the Osage Singers); and “What Was I Made For” from “Barbie” (performed by Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell).
Who is nominated?
“Oppenheimer” leads the pack with 13 nominations, followed by “Poor Things,” Yorgos Lanthimos’ black comedy about the sexual awakening of a young Victorian woman, with 11, and the Martin Scorsese epic “Killers of the Flower Moon,” with 10. Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie,” the highest-grossing film of 2023, picked up eight.
In the acting races, Bradley Cooper (“Maestro”), Colman Domingo (“Rustin”), Paul Giamatti (“The Holdovers”), Cillian Murphy (“Oppenheimer”) and Jeffrey Wright (“American Fiction”) will square off for best actor. Annette Bening (“Nyad”), Lily Gladstone (“Killers of the Flower Moon”), Sandra Hüller (“Anatomy of a Fall”), Carey Mulligan (“Maestro”) and Emma Stone (“Poor Things”) will duke it out for best actress.
What should you watch for?
The toughest category to call is probably best actress, where the two front-runners are Gladstone, who plays an Osage woman married to a white man involved in a murderous conspiracy in “Killers of the Flower Moon,” and Stone, as a grown woman with the mind of a child in the “Frankenstein”-inspired “Poor Things.”
Gladstone won their most recent faceoff at the Screen Actors Guild Awards — to Stone’s apparent joy — and has also taken home honors from the Golden Globes, the National Board of Review and the New York Film Critics Circle. But Stone came out on top at the BAFTAs and the Critics Choice Awards (and won her own Globe in the musical or comedy category).
The best actor race once looked to be tilting in favor of the gregarious Giamatti, who plays a solitary and cantankerous New England boarding-school teacher saddled with babysitting duty over Christmas break in “The Holdovers.” But in recent weeks, Murphy, who plays the titular theoretical physicist in “Oppenheimer,” has emerged as the likely winner.
How political will the speeches be?
Awards season thus far has been decidedly quiet when it comes to political speeches. (“It’s too fraught,” a studio executive told The New York Times’ awards season columnist, Kyle Buchanan, last week. “People are worried about their careers.”). But outside the United States, a BAFTA winner used that platform to criticize Israel’s bombing and invasion of the Gaza Strip — which came after a Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7.
It seems unlikely that any political speeches will be delivered on Sunday, but it’s not out of the question that a star or two might make use of the biggest stage of the season — when there are no awards left to campaign for.
Will Taylor Swift be there?
Unlike the Golden Globes, which found a way to nominate Swift for her concert film “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour,” the Oscars did not invent a category to sneak her in.
Will the dog from “Anatomy of a Fall” be there?
Messi, the black-and-white Border collie who plays Snoop in “Anatomy of a Fall,” has become the breakout star of awards season. After appearances at a press day for the film and the academy nominees luncheon, where he wore a blue bow tie and snuggled with Eilish, he’s achieved Jenny-the-donkey levels of popularity.
The internet, of course, has loved following his escapades — he even won a Palm Dog at the Cannes Film Festival last spring. But there was one group of people who weren’t happy with his recent show-stealing appearance at the nominees luncheon: the companies behind nominated films not named “Anatomy of a Fall.”
After a number of them apparently complained to the academy that Messi’s appearance had given “Anatomy of a Fall” an unfair advantage during the Oscars voting window, a source connected to the film told The Hollywood Reporter that Messi would not return to Los Angeles for Sunday’s ceremony. (Representatives for the academy did not comment.)
Which is a shame, because the news comes at a time when we’ve learned a valuable piece of intel: Messi can skateboard.
The New York Times Services