The awards of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences celebrate their 95th edition next morning – starting at 02:00 Spanish time – with the still very vivid memory of the slap that Will Smith gave Chris Rock shortly before picking up his statuette for best actor for The Williams Method.
The embarrassing spectacle offered by the former Prince of Bel-Air for a joke about his wife Jada Pinkett’s alopecia cost him dearly: he was banned from the Oscars for ten years. To prevent unforeseen events of this magnitude from happening again, the organization has set up a “crisis team”. The director of the Academy, Bill Kramer, explained to Time magazine that “planning” has been based on creating a “series of structures and communication teams to meet as quickly as possible and act together, if something unexpected happens.”
In this regard, the president of the Hollywood Academy, Janet Yang, admits that the organization mismanaged the case of the attack on Rock. “What we experienced last year was unacceptable and our response was not up to par. It was a turning point to act with greater transparency and responsibility,” she said at the nominees’ luncheon for this year’s award.
After several editions registering audiences of less than 20 million viewers, the ceremony hopes to regain its hook with comedian Jimmy Kimmel, who returns as host for the third time. In the Oscar promo video he even gets into the shoes of Tom Cruise in a parody set on Top Gun: Maverick. “We are in good shape to offer an incredibly entertaining show,” Kramer has advanced.
Among the award presenters we will see Antonio Banderas, Harrison Ford, Halle Berry or John Travolta. And Rihanna and Lenny Kravitz will liven up the evening with their musical performances. After last year’s complaints, the gala will once again include eight of the 23 categories that were not broadcast live.
Another novelty this year is that the stars will parade through a carpet that will not be red but champagne. “People wonder if there will be violence this year, hopefully not, but I think the decision to make the carpet the color of champagne shows us how confident we are that there will be no bloodshed,” Kimmel joked.
The film All at once everywhere, with eleven nominations and a mostly Asian cast, starts with all the numbers to emerge victorious from the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles. This production from the independent studio A24 directed by Daniel Scheinert and Dan Kwan has starred in a meteoric rise in the awards season after its six Golden Globe nominations. Among others, it has monopolized the awards of the writers, producers, directors and actors union , a more than reliable thermometer to diagnose that this ambitious and brash action comedy about the multiverse, will have no rival.
In another era, Steven Spielberg would have had no problem winning the best director and best film awards for The Fabelmans, an autobiography that recounts the most important moments of his adolescence and his love for cinema. But times change. In recent years, new members have joined the Academy, which is more open to diversity and different stories. So, after the historic triumph of the South Korean Parasites in 2020, anything is possible.
The other eight films that aspire to the most important award are: Insiherin’s Banshee, All Quiet Front, Avatar: The Sense of Water, Elvis, TÁR, The Triangle of Sadness, Top Gun: Maverick and They Speak. The latter is the only one directed by a woman, Sarah Polley, who is nominated for the Oscar for best film.
The controversy is served again in terms of parity. If two years ago it was two women, Chloé Zhao and Jane Campion, who saw their work recognized as directors of Nomadland and The Power of the Dog, respectively, among the members now in this category, women are conspicuous by their absence.
In the field of best actor, the battle will be between Brendan Fraser –the protagonist of an emotional artistic resurrection that fascinates Hollywood so much– for his obese teacher from The Whale, and Austin Butler, who plays the King of Rock in Elvis. As best actress, the statuette will go either to the despotic conductor played by Cate Blanchett in TÁR or to the Chinese immigrant turned multiverse heroine of the Malaysian Michelle Yeoh in All at once and everywhere. Little will be able to do the magnificent Marilyn de Ana de Armas in Blonde. And the Oscar goes to…
