The 95th annual Academy Awards returns to the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood after a one-year hiatus on Sunday, with Jimmy Kimmel as the night’s host, marking his third time leading the evening.
“It’s so important to have a host who knows how to handle live television and a live audience,” Academy CEO Bill Kramer recently said of Kimmel’s appeal. “He’s funny, he’s respectful, his edges aren’t too sharp.”
All eyes will be on the late-night host, in the first ceremony since Will Smith infamously slapped Chris Rock onstage at last year’s awards show.
As for his approach to another possible slap, Kimmel told The Hollywood Reporter he’s ready: “If somebody comes up on the stage and slaps me? Well, I size them up, and, if I’m bigger than they are, I beat the shit out of them on television. And if it’s the Rock, I run.”
After last year’s controversial decision to pre-tape eight categories — documentary short, film editing, makeup/hairstyling, original score, production design, animated short, live-action short and sound — sparked backlash from the entertainment industry, all 23 categories will be presented live at the event this year.
Everything Everywhere All at Once, All Quiet on the Western Front, Avatar: The Way of Water, The Banshees of Inisherin, Elvis, The Fabelmans, Tár, Top Gun: Maverick, Triangle of Sadness and Women Talking will compete for the top prize of the night at the 95th Academy Awards on Sunday.
Here’s what to know about the 2023 Oscars.
How to Watch
The ceremony will be broadcast on ABC starting at 5 p.m. PT/8 p.m. ET and available to watch on ABC.com and the ABC app through viewers’ cable providers. The show will also be available to stream on Hulu Live TV, YouTubeTV, AT&T TV and FuboTV, many of which offer free trials.
For those who would like to watch the awards show but aren’t in the United States, the Oscars will be broadcast in more than 200 territories. THR has put together a handy guide, plus the Academy has an extensive list of local channels.
Vanessa Hudgens, Lilly Singh and Ashley Graham will host the official preshow, Countdown to the Oscars. This will mark Hudgens’ second consecutive year hosting the preshow, which airs at 3:30 p.m. PT/6:30 p.m. ET. The special will include interviews with Oscar nominees, performers and presenters.
E! Live From The Red Carpet will air from 2 p.m.-4 p.m. PT/5 p.m.-7 p.m. ET, followed by a fashion recap from 4 p.m.- 5 p.m. PT and E! After Party from 8:30 p.m.-10 p.m. PT/11:30 p.m.-1 a.m. ET.
ABC News will also host a preshow special called On the Red Carpet Live: Countdown to Oscars 95, which airs from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. PT/1-4 p.m. ET and will be available to stream on the ABC News Live website from 10:30 a.m. PT/1:30 p.m. ET until the official start of the show.
Who to Watch
In addition to Kimmel, several of Hollywood’s A-listers will present this year’s Oscars to the winners. Unlike past years, however, not every acting winner from the previous year will be onstage to hand out the best acting and supporting acting trophies. With Smith banned from the Oscars for 10 years after slapping Rock onstage last year and resigning from the Academy, the King Richard winner will not attend the 95th annual awards show. It has not been announced who will be presenting which awards to whom on Sunday.
This year’s presenters include Florence Pugh, Andrew Garfield, Halle Bailey, Antonio Banderas, Elizabeth Banks, Jessica Chastain, John Cho, Hugh Grant, Danai Gurira, Salma Hayek Pinault, Nicole Kidman, Sigourney Weaver, Riz Ahmed, Emily Blunt, Glenn Close, Jennifer Connelly, Ariana DeBose, Samuel L. Jackson, Dwayne Johnson, Michael B. Jordan, Troy Kotsur, Jonathan Majors, Melissa McCarthy, Janelle Monáe, Deepika Padukone, Questlove, Zoe Saldaña and Donnie Yen.
In addition, other presenters include Pedro Pascal, Kate Hudson, Harrison Ford, Halle Berry, Paul Dano, Cara Delevingne, Mindy Kaling, Eva Longoria, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Andie MacDowell, Elizabeth Olsen and John Travolta.
Most of the best original song nominations will be performed at the show this year. Rihanna will take the stage for a rendition of her first Oscar-nominated tune “Lift Me Up” from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Rahul Sipligunj and Kaala Bhairava will perform “Naatu Naatu” from RRR.
David Byrne, Stephanie Hsu and Son Lux will sing “This Is a Life” from Everything Everywhere All at Once, and Sofia Carson will take the stage to perform Diane Warren’s “Applause” from Tell It Like a Woman. Lenny Kravitz will perform the “In Memoriam” segment.
However, Lady Gaga will not perform her nominated song, “Hold My Hand” from Top Gun: Maverick, at the show. “We invited all five,” Oscars executive producer and showrunner Glenn Weiss said of this year’s nominees for best song. “We have great relationship with Lady Gaga, but she is in the middle of shooting a movie [Joker: Folie à Deux] It didn’t feel like she could get a performance to the caliber that she is used to, so she isn’t going to perform at the show.”
Nominations
A24’s Everything Everywhere All at Once leads all the nominees, with 11 nods, including best picture, best actress for Michelle Yeoh, best director for Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert and supporting acting noms for Ke Huy Quan, Jamie Lee Curtis and Stephanie Hsu.
All Quiet on the Western Front and The Banshees of Inisherin closely followed Everything Everywhere All at Once with nine nods apiece. Elvis picked up eight noms, The Fabelmans got seven, Tár and Top Gun: Maverick had six each and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever nabbed five.
Some of the acting categories featured expected names like Elvis‘ Austin Butler, The Whale‘s Brendan Fraser and Tár‘s Cate Blanchett, but a few nominees were a bit of a surprise. Blonde star Ana de Armas earned her first best actress Oscar nom (and the first for an actress of Cuban descent) for her role in Netflix’s polarizing Marilyn Monroe biopic. To Leslie star Andrea Riseborough’s questionable campaign — fueled by A-listers in the weeks before voting closer — resulted in her first nomination.
Riseborough’s unconventional campaign led to an internal review from the Academy after a widespread debate about the grassroots effort, in which several celebrities hosted events for the actress and raved about her performance in the film on social media and to their friends in the actors branch of the Academy. “We did discover social media and outreach campaigning tactics that caused concern,” CEO Bill Kramer said in a statement. “These tactics are being addressed with the responsible parties directly.”
The Oscar nominations this year saw a total of 16 people who were first-time nominees in the acting categories, including all five men up for best actor, four out of the five up for best supporting actor, three for best actress and four for best supporting actress.
History was made in several ways with the 2023 Academy Award nominees. Yeoh marked the first time a woman who identified as Asian was nominated for best actress — Merle Oberon was nominated for The Dark Angel (1936) but reportedly hid her ancestry and passed for white. Angela Bassett became the first actor to land an Oscar nomination for their role in a Marvel movie. Her second Oscar nod ever makes her the fourth Black woman to be nominated for multiple honors.
Steven Spielberg, Martin McDonagh, Todd Field, Catherine Martin and directing duo Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert were among those nominated in multiple categories, as were Ruben Östlund, Tony Kushner and Andy Nelson.
While many deserving films and talent were recognized with nods this year, there will always be projects and people who are snubbed. Among some of the Oscars’ biggest snubs were The Woman King star Viola Davis and director Gina Prince-Bythewood, Taylor Swift for her song “Carolina” from Where the Crawdads Sing and Till director Chinonye Chukwu and star Danielle Deadwyler.
Prince-Bythewood and Chukwu were two female directors who were overlooked for best director nods, along with Women Talking‘s Sarah Polley, She Said‘s Maria Schrader and Aftersun‘s Charlotte Wells.
Get Ready for Full Coverage
Stay up to date with all of The Hollywood Reporter‘s in-depth and extensive Academy Awards coverage on THR‘s Oscars 2023 page, leading up to, during and after Hollywood’s biggest night Sunday.
