Oppenheimer sweeps awards with best picture and actor wins
With updates from Katie Razzall, Emma Saunders, Emma Vardy, Peter Bowes and Tom Brook in Los Angeles; and Helen Bushby and Yasmin Rufo in London.
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With updates from Katie Razzall, Emma Saunders, Emma Vardy, Peter Bowes and Tom Brook in Los Angeles; and Helen Bushby and Yasmin Rufo in London.
Live Reporting
Edited by Nadia Ragozhina
All times stated are UK
Swapping the chicken shop for the Oscars red carpet
Scarlett Harris
Fashion critic
The Oscars ambassadors - Amelia Dimoldenberg and Reece Feldman - have arrived on the red carpet!
Amelia Dimoldenberg is coming out of the chicken shop and looking just fine, in baby pink Gucci reminiscent of Gwyneth Paltrow’s 1999 Oscar-winning dress for Shakespeare in Love.
Last year Dimoldenberg made headlines for her flirty rapport with Andrew Garfield. This year she’s the official ambassador for the Academy Awards. Far from the chicken shop, indeed!
Influencer Reece Feldman, he of @aguywithamoviecamera on TikTok who has amassed over two million followers on the platform since joining in 2020, like so many of us, has arrived on the red carpet in elongating all black with those all important pockets. #jealous
Could Lily Gladstone make history tonight?
Helen Bushby
Culture reporter
Lily Gladstone is the first Native American woman to ever be nominated for best actress at the Oscars.
She isn't the first indigenous performer to be nominated for best actress - Whale Rider's Keisha Castle-Hughes and Roma's Yalitza Aparicio preceded her. But Gladstone is the first from the US, and if she wins, it will be a historic moment.
When she won the Golden Globe for her role, she memorably said: "It's circumstantial that I was the first one to win that in the category, but it doesn't belong to me.
"I'm standing on so many shoulders and I'm representing such a huge supportive community that's made it possible for me to do this.”
Not too long to wait until we find out.
Who are tonight’s favourites to win?
Helen Bushby
Culture reporter
Well, this is the all-important question before things kick off tonight. And as ever, it’s an imprecise science trying to predict the winners.
So don’t blame me if any of these are wrong… But Oppenheimer looks very likely to win best film, best director for Christopher Nolan, best actor for Cillian Murphy and best supporting actor for Robert Downey Jr.
It could also take awards including adapted screenplay, cinematography, score and editing.
Lily Gladstone looks pretty locked in to win best actress for Killers of the Flower Moon, while The Zone of Interest is the favourite for best international film.
Best documentary may go to Ukrainian documentary 20 Days in Mariupol, with best animated feature looking like it will go to Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.
What I’ll be looking for at this year’s Oscars
Katie Razzall
Culture editor
I’ll be looking for surprises - but I think they’ll be thin on the ground.
Of the big awards, Oppenheimer looks to have best director, best picture, best supporting actor and probably best actor in the bag.
If Paul Giamatti beat Cillian Murphy that would be a surprise - and a reward for an actor many believe should already have an Oscar.
Best actress is the interesting category. Will Academy voters have decided to give it to Poor Things’ Emma Stone or Killers of the Flower Moon’s Lily Gladstone? The first would be the “Hollywood favourite shows tour de force range” choice, the second would be the “making history” choice - Gladstone would be the first ever native American acting win.
I’ll also be watching out for how well The Zone of Interest does. The British film in German has five nominations and a real chance at the Oscar for best international film.
I’ll also be looking for show stealers. Will it be Ryan Gosling performing “I’m just Ken” or a tear-spouting, over the top acceptance speech?
As long as there’s nothing like a repeat of the Will Smith slap two years ago, the Academy will be happy.
Who was J Robert Oppenheimer?
Helen Bushby
Culture reporter
You have no doubt heard about this film, directed by Christopher Nolan and starring Cillian Murphy, many times during awards season.
Its title refers to J Robert Oppenheimer, the Manhattan Project scientist who had a leading role in developing the atomic bomb, that made him a "destroyer of worlds".
Commissioned by the US government in 1945, believing themselves in a nuclear race with the Nazis to create the bomb first, he was among scientists in Los Alamos, New Mexico, who detonated a test bomb codenamed Trinity.
Their invention was then used, controversially, to end the war - dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to devastating effect.
Ben Platts-Mills writes in BBC Future that while Oppenheimer was “an enigma”, he was also “the emotional and intellectual heart of the Manhattan Project: more than any other single person he had made the bomb a reality”.
Could Oppenheimer equal Titanic’s 11 Oscar wins?
Helen Bushby
Culture reporter
Awards juggernaut Oppenheimer looks set to dominate the Oscars, with an impressive 13 nominations, having already led awards season with some key wins.
Three films currently have the record for the most Oscar wins, with 11 - Titanic in 1998, Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King in 2004, or 1960’s Ben Hur.
Big hauls of nominations don’t necessarily mean armfuls of trophies though. In 1986, The Color Purple was up for 11 Oscars, and left empty-handed, while 2014’s American Hustle was up for 10 and also left with zero.
And cast your mind back to 2017, when LaLa Land was accidentally announced as best film winner instead of Moonlight. LaLa Land still took home six prizes, but that was after a whopping 14 nominations.
Oscars voters are often predictable, but they’re known for throwing in a few curveballs on the night.
Eleven wins for Oppenheimer may be a bit over-optimistic, but let’s get our popcorn out and see what happens.
What time does everything kick off?
We’ll be unwrapping all the Oscars excitement tonight. For the stars, that was probably weeks ago - with carefully-planned preparations going into their outfits, beauty, nutrition and fitness.
Stars will arrive on the red carpet shortly, from 13:00 local time (16:00 ET/20:00 GMT).
Then the ceremony will start at 16:00 local time (19:00 EST/23:00 GMT). It’s down to last for three hours, but it rarely finishes on time.
Afterwards, it’s the Vanity Fair afterparty which starts at midnight ET (04:00 GMT) - which is the place to be as all the stars head there. We’ll be doing our best to report from inside the party.
Lights, camera, action!
Emily McGarvey
Live editor
A warm welcome to our live coverage of Hollywood’s biggest night of the year - the 96th Academy Awards in Los Angeles, coming again this year from the Dolby Theatre.
We might not have our gowns on, but here in the office we’re settling in to watch a night of glamour and gongs - and looking out for any surprises along the way.
We have BBC reporters across Los Angeles covering the night, as well as film buffs in our offices in Washington DC and London.
Stay with us as we bring you live updates from the red carpet where stars will shortly begin to arrive.