Oscar hopefuls will find out whether they’ve made the cut when actors Rachel Sennott and Bowen Yang announce the nominees for the 97th Academy Awards.
While the announcement typically kicks off a barrage of award-show pageantry culminating in the Oscars themselves, this year’s programming will be muted because of the devastating fires across Southern California.
Here’s the latest:
The film academy began announcing nominees at 8:30 a.m. EST. Here’s a look at some of the early nominees:
The nominees for best supporting actor are: Yura Borisov, “Anora”; Kieran Culkin, “A Real Pain”; Edward Norton, “A Complete Unknown”; Guy Pearce, “The Brutalist”; Jeremy Strong, “The Apprentice.”
The nominees for Best Supporting Actress are: Monica Barbaro, “A Complete Unknown”; Felicity Jones, “The Brutalist”; Ariana Grande, “Wicked”; Isabella Rossellini, “Conclave”; Zoe Saldaña, “Emilia Pérez.”
The nominees for original screenplay are: “Anora”; “The Brutalist”; “A Real Pain”; “September 5”; “The Substance.”
President Donald Trump wants to make Hollywood “bigger, better and stronger” and has cast Mel Gibson, Jon Voight and Sylvester Stallone as stars of what he is calling his “Special Ambassadors to a great but very troubled place, Hollywood, California.”
Trump announced on his social media site last week that the three actors would be his eyes and ears to the moviemaking town.
“It will again be, like The United States of America itself, The Golden Age of Hollywood!” he wrote on Truth Social.
“I’m old enough to have touched some years of the Golden Age of Hollywood, and I’ve seen its slow deterioration since. Today, we are in pretty bad shape,” Voight said. “Very few films are made here now, but we are fortunate to have an incoming President, who wants to restore Hollywood to its former glory, and with his help, I feel we can get done.”
It’s unclear what exactly the three will be doing in this effort to bring productions back to the U.S.
▶ Read more about Trump’s envoys to Hollywood
Hollywood’s awards season all but came to a halt as the wildfires disrupted life and work in the Los Angeles area. There were near-daily updates from the Hollywood guilds and organizations that put on awards shows as the industry navigates the crisis and fallout.
But as of now, here’s the dates of major upcoming awards shows, from the Oscars to the Grammys.
1. Grammy Awards, Feb. 2
2. Critics Choice Award, Feb. 7
3. Producers and Directors Guild awards, Feb. 8
4. Writers Guild Awards, Feb. 15
5. BAFTAs, Feb. 16
6. Spirit Awards, Feb. 22
7. SAG Awards, Feb. 23
8. Academy Awards, March 2
▶ Read more about the award show date shuffle
The enormity of the destruction in Southern California quickly snuffed out all festivity in the movie industry’s high season of celebration.
The fires have struck at the very heart of a movie industry still trying to stabilize itself after years of pandemic, labor turmoil and technological upheaval. Not for the first time this decade, the Oscars are facing the question of: Should the show go on? And if it does, what do they mean now?
The Oscars remain as scheduled, but it’s certain that they will be transformed due to the wildfires, and that most of the red-carpet pomp that typically stretches between now and then will be curtailed if not altogether canceled. With so many left without a home by the fires, there’s scant appetite for the usual self-congratulatory parades of the season.
Focus has turned, instead, to what the Oscars might symbolize for a traumatized Los Angeles. The Oscars have never meant less, but, at the same time, they might be more important than ever as a beacon of perseverance for the reeling movie capital.
▶ Read more about how the fires have impacted award season
Hosted earlier this month, two wildly audacious films — Brady Corbet’s 215-minute postwar epic “The Brutalist” and Jacques Audiard’s Spanish language, genre-shifting musical “Emilia Perez” — won top honors at the 82nd Golden Globes.
“The Brutalist” was crowned best film, drama, putting one of 2024’s most ambitious films on course to be a major contender at the Academy Awards. The film, shot in VistaVision and released with an intermission, also won best director for Corbet and best actor for Adrien Brody. In his acceptance speech, Corbet spoke about filmmakers needing approval on the final cut.
“Emilia Pérez” won best film, comedy or musical, elevating the Oscar chances of Netflix’s top contender. It also won best supporting actress for Zoe Saldaña, best song (“El Mal”) and best non-English language film. Audiard, the French director, made way for Karla Sofía Gascón, the film’s transgender star who plays a Mexican drug lord who undergoes gender-affirming surgery, to speak on behalf of the film.
The marquee event and capper of Hollywood’s awards season will proceed as scheduled on March 2.
Los Angeles’ Dolby Theatre, where the show takes place, was briefly imperiled by the Sunset Fire, though the blaze was quickly extinguished. The film academy did delay the Scientific and Technical Awards from Feb. 18 (a rescheduled date has not been announced) and canceled altogether its annual nominees luncheon, an untelevised mainstay of the social calendar known for its mingling and “class photo.”
The Oscars will be broadcast live on ABC, hosted by Conan O’Brien.
Actors Bowen Yang and Rachel Sennott will host the announcement.
Along with being a cast member on “Saturday Night Live,” Yang held a supporting role in last year’s blockbuster “Wicked,” which is itself a nominee contender.
Sennott is the star and writer of 2023’s “Bottoms,” as well as the lead in 2020 indie-darling “Shiva Baby.”
The nominations will be announced at 8:30 a.m. ET.
The show will be available to stream on Oscars.com, Oscars.org, as well as on the Academy’s social media platforms. It will also stream on ABC, Hulu and Disney+.
