All eyes will be on Hollywood tonight to see if Everything Everywhere All At Once can close out its incredible awards season by sweeping the Oscars.But it faces competition from All Quiet on the Western Front and The Banshees of Inisherin.
Austin Butler, Brendan Fraser, Cate Blanchett and Michelle Yeoh are the frontrunners in the acting categories.
The 2023 awards season has been one of the most unpredictable in recent years. Winners have changed at other major ceremonies, such as the SAG Awards, the Baftas and the Golden Globes, and there is a lack of consensus on who will triumph at the Oscars as a result.
How to watch the Oscars?
The ceremony begins at 5:00 PM PT / 8:00 PM ET on Sunday.
Prizes are scheduled to be distributed over three hours.
Who’s Presenting at the Oscars?
Last year’s winners (L-R) Ariana DeBose, Troy Kotsur and Jessica Chastain will host, but Will Smith will be absent.
Traditionally, the four acting winners from the previous year’s Oscars return to present the awards to their successors.
Other stars presenting categories this year include Harrison Ford, Nicole Kidman, Samuel L Jackson, Dwayne Johnson, Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver, John Travolta, Emily Blunt, Glenn Close, Jennifer Connelly and Florence Pugh.
Other presenters of the categories include Paul Dano, Andrew Garfield, Cara Delevingne, Kate Hudson, Michael B Jordan, Jonathan Majors, Mindy Kaling, Eva Longoria, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Andie MacDowell and Riz Ahmed.
They will be joined by Antonio Banderas, Elizabeth Banks, Hugh Grant, Salma Hayek Pinault, Melissa McCarthy, Halle Bailey, Janelle Monáe, Questlove, Elizabeth Olsen and Pedro Pascal.
Who are the favorites to win?
Excitingly, this year’s winners are the most difficult to predict for some time, due to changes to the many previous ceremonies.
The only award in the acting category that experts have confidence in is “Everything Everywhere All At Once” star Ke Huy Quan.
Brendan Fraser (The Whale) and Austin Butler (Elvis) have both won a slew of Best Actor awards at other major events and could each take home an Oscar.
In the actress category, with Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere Everything At Once) challenging early frontrunner Cate Blanchett (Tár).
Best Supporting Actress is arguably the most open of the acting categories – with a three-way race between Angela Bassett (Wakanda Forever), Kerry Condon (The Banshees of Inisherin) and Jamie Lee Curtis (Anything Everywhere, Everyone at once).
Who will perform?
Rihanna will take the Academy Awards stage exactly one month after her electrifying performance at the Super Bowl. She will perform Lift Me Up (from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever), which is nominated for Best Original Song.
The most likely winner in that category, however, is Naatu Naatu (from RRR) – which will be performed at the ceremony by Rahul Sipligunj and Kaala Bhairava.
David Byrne, Son Lux and Stephanie Hsu will perform This Is A Life (from Everywhere Everywhere All At Once), while Diane Warren and Sofia Carson will perform Applause (from Tell It Like a Woman).
However, Lady Gaga will not be performing, despite her song Hold My Hand (from Top Gun: Maverick) being the fifth nominee in the category. However, she is attending the ceremony, so fans are hoping that she will have a surprise performance.
Elsewhere, Lenny Kravitz will perform during the In Memoriam segment, which honors film figures who have died in the past year.
