The 2022 Oscars will take place on Sunday, March 27, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.
After not having a host since the 2018 ceremony, the Academy Awards has enlisted three emcees for this year’s ceremony: Regina Hall, Amy Schumer and Wanda Sykes.
Here’s what to expect from the 94th annual Academy Awards.
How to Watch
The Oscars is set to air live on ABC at 8 p.m. ET/ 5 p.m. PT on March 27. Viewers can stream the telecast on abc.com or ABC’s app with a cable login. There are also a handful of viewing options for those without a traditional cable subscription. The Oscars will also air in more than 200 territories around the globe.
After moving to a new location last year (Los Angeles’ Union Station), the Academy Awards will return home this year, with Sunday’s broadcast airing from the show’s longtime venue of the Dolby Theatre.
ABC will also air a red carpet preshow, starting at 6:30 p.m. ET/ 3:30 pm PT, hosted by Vanessa Hudgens, Terrence J and fashion designer Brandon Maxwell. Before that, E! will air its red carpet preshow, starting at 5 p.m. ET/ 2 p.m. PT, featuring Laverne Cox, E! style correspondent Zanna Roberts Rassi, celebrity stylist Brad Goreski, Queer Eye‘s Karamo and Naz Perez.
Who to Watch
The past three Oscars ceremonies have been entirely hostless (the last host of the Oscars was Jimmy Kimmel in 2018). This year, Hollywood’s biggest night will have three hosts: comedians and actresses Regina Hall, Amy Schumer and Wanda Sykes. Will Packer and Shayla Cowan are set to produce the show.
The theme of this year’s ceremony is “Movie Lovers Unite.”
Presenters announced for the 2022 Oscars are: Lady Gaga, Zoë Kravitz, Kevin Costner, Rosie Perez, Chris Rock, Yuh-Jung Youn, Ruth E. Carter, Sean “Diddy” Combs, Daniel Kaluuya, Lily James, Lupita Nyong’o, Tracee Ellis Ross, Mila Kunis, Naomi Scott, Uma Thurman, Tyler Perry, Jamie Lee Curtis, Halle Bailey, Jason Momoa, Josh Brolin, Samuel L. Jackson, Anthony Hopkins, Rami Malek, John Leguizamo, Simu Liu, John Travolta, Stephanie Beatriz, DJ Khaled, Jennifer Garner, H.E.R., Tiffany Haddish, Woody Harrelson, Tony Hawk, Bill Murray, Elliot Page, Kelly Slater, Shawn Mendes, Shaun White, Jacob Elordi, Jake Gyllenhaal, Jill Scott, J.K. Simmons, Serena Williams, Venus Williams, Wesley Snipes and West Side Story star Rachel Zegler, with Zegler announced as a presenter after she revealed on Instagram that she hadn’t been invited to this year’s Oscars.
Most of the tracks nominated for best original song will be performed during the ABC telecast. Beyoncé will perform her Oscar-nominated track from King Richard, “Be Alive.” Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas O’Connell will perform their nominated song “No Time To Die” live during the telecast. And “Somehow You Do,” from Four Good Days and written by 13-time Oscar nominee Diane Warren, will be sung by Reba McEntire, while Sebastián Yatra will deliver a live rendition of “Dos Oroguitas” from Encanto. The fifth best song nominee, Van Morrison, up for “Down to Joy” from Belfast, was invited to perform but is not attending the show, citing his touring schedule.
Nominees and guests at the Oscars will need to provide proof of vaccination against COVID-19, but the same rule does not apply to performers and presenters, who will simply need to present negative test results. After a number of individuals tested positive following the 2022 BAFTA Awards earlier this month, the Oscars updated their guidance to provide more clarity and flexibility around testing.
Though it was not submitted for a best song nomination, smash hit “We Don’t Talk About Bruno,” from Disney’s Encanto, will be performed live for the first time during the 2022 Oscars. Encanto cast members Adassa, Beatriz, Mauro Castillo, Carolina Gaitan and Diane Guerrero will perform the song with Becky G and Luis Fonsi.
The Oscars has also teased tributes to The Godfather film series and the James Bond franchise, in honor of their respective 50th and 60th anniversaries.
Nominations
Jane Campion’s Western The Power of the Dog leads the pack with 12 nominations. Denis Villeneuve’s Dune follows with 10 noms, though it was snubbed in the directing and acting categories.
West Side Story and Belfast each have seven nominations, and King Richard has six. All of the above titles are nominated for best picture along with CODA, Don’t Look Up, Drive My Car, Licorice Pizza and Nightmare Alley.
The best picture race currently looks to be a battle between Apple’s CODA and Netflix’s The Power of the Dog; the former has won the top prizes at the PGA, SAG and WGA Awards, while the latter won best film at the BAFTA Awards, with director Jane Campion snagging the top prize at the Directors Guild Awards. Should either film win, it would be the first best picture winner from a streaming service and the third best picture winner directed by a woman (following 2009’s The Hurt Locker and 2021’s Nomadland). The Power of the Dog helmer Jane Campion, who is the first woman to be nominated twice for best director, is considered the frontrunner for the directing Oscar.
In the acting races, Will Smith appears to be ahead in the competition for best actor for his role as Richard Williams, Venus and Serena Wiliams’ father in King Richard, while Troy Kotsur is poised to make history as the first deaf winner of best supporting actor for CODA. Ariana DeBose seems the likely victor in supporting actress, for playing Anita in West Side Story (the same role that won Rita Moreno an Oscar 60 years ago).
The best actress race is less predictable — it is the only acting category not to feature a performer from a best picture-nominated film. Jessica Chastain has emerged as the frontrunner for picking up numerous precursor awards for her eponymous role in The Eyes of Tammy Faye, and it would be the first win for the actress after earning nominations for 2012’s The Help and 2013’s The Hurt Locker. Kristen Stewart is also nominated in the category for playing Princess Diana in Spencer, which is also her first Oscar nod. Previous winners Olivia Colman, Penélope Cruz and Nicole Kidman are also nominated for their work in The Lost Daughter, Parallel Mothers and Being the Ricardos, respectively.
Check out the full list of nominees here.
What Else to Know
The Academy previously announced its decision to award eight categories — documentary short, film editing, makeup/hairstyling, original score, production design, animated short, live-action short and sound — ahead of the ABC telecast, with those awards presented in the Dolby Theatre starting at 4 p.m. PT. The presentation of those Oscars will be recorded and then edited into the live broadcast. This decision, a variation of an approach the Academy considered in 2018, was met with backlash from the film community and Academy members, some of whom have resigned or threatened to do so over the controversy.
But the Academy has stuck with its plan, with Oscars producer Will Packer in a Thursday press conference defending the move, saying in part, “We want to make sure that everybody has their moment on this show and is handled with the same reverence and elegance that you’ve come to expect with the Oscars. And so one of the misconceptions is that things are being taken off the show and that’s not the case. It’s not.”
The change comes after the 2021 Oscars, scaled down amid the COVID-19 pandemic, was the lowest-rated Academy Awards telecast ever.
Following a previous idea from the Academy to add a best popular film category into the official Oscars ceremony, this year, the Oscars will recognize a “fan favorite film,” chosen based on Twitter votes.
Twitter users were able to vote, through March 3, on their favorite films released in 2021, regardless of whether the movie was nominated for an Oscar, using the hashtag #OscarsFanFavorite.
The films on the leaderboard a few days before voting ended included the blockbuster hit Spider-Man: No Way Home, which received a single nomination for best visual effects despite a best picture campaign launched by Sony/Marvel, and films involving individuals with particularly passionate fans: Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead, the Camila Cabello-starring Cinderella and the Johnny Depp starrer Minamata.
In the Thursday press conference, Packer and hosts Hall and Sykes noted that there will be a moment to call out the ongoing invasion of Ukraine by Russian military forces. Packer also shared that the best picture category will once again be the final award of the night — last year’s ceremony ended with the best actor prize going to Hopkins, who did not appear during the show — and that the presenter of that award will not be announced prior to the event.
Complete Coverage
The Hollywood Reporter is all over this year’s show. THR‘s Oscars 2022 page is your source for news and analysis leading up to, during and after Sunday night’s event.
Source: HollyWood
