Last year’s winners to present acting awards at Oscars

LOS ANGELES

After devastating wildfires tore through Los Angeles, the 97th Academy Awards are going forward.

Like the Grammys and other awards shows this year, the ceremony will be transformed by the fires and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has pledged to help its members and the broader film community recover.

The Academy Awards will be held on March 2 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. The academy twice postponed the announcement of nominations but never pushed the date of the ceremony. Academy leaders have argued the show must go ahead, for their economic impact on Los Angeles and as a symbol of resilience.

Organizers have vowed this year’s awards will “celebrate the work that unites us as a global film community and acknowledge those who fought so bravely against the wildfires.”

Still, the fires have curtailed much of the usual frothiness of Hollywood's awards season. The film academy canceled its annual nominees luncheon.

For the first time, Conan O'Brien is hosting the Academy Awards. O'Brien, the late night host turned podcaster and occasional movie star, said upon the announcement: “America demanded it and now it’s happening: Taco Bell’s new Cheesy Chalupa Supreme. In other news, I’m hosting the Oscars."

The academy announced Wednesday that last year's acting winners — Emma Stone, Robert Downey Jr., Cillian Murphy, Da'Vine Joy Randolph Joy — will all return to the Oscar stage. Though the academy initially said it would bring back the “fab five" style of presenting the acting awards, with five previous winners per category, organizers has reportedly abandoned those plans for this year's ceremony.

The academy has announced that unlike previous years, the original song nominees will not be performed this time. That doesn't mean there won't be music, though. “Wicked,” one of the biggest box-office hits of 2024, could feasibly figure into the Oscar plans.

The 10 nominees for best picture are “Anora,” “The Brutalist,” “A Complete Unknown,” “Conclave,” “Dune: Part 2,” “Emilia Pérez,” “I’m Still Here,” “Nickel Boys,” “The Substance” and “Wicked.” 

Jacques Audiard's “Emilia Pérez," a narco-musical about a Mexican drug lord who undergoes gender affirming surgery, comes in with a leading 13 nominations. Its star, Karla Sofía Gascón, made history by becoming the first openly trans actor nominated for an Oscar.

But no nominee has had a rockier post-nominations Oscar campaign. After old offensive tweets by Gascón were uncovered, the actress issued an apology. The fallout, though, has badly damaged a movie that was already a divisive contender, and led Netflix to radically refocus its flagging campaign.