Cinephiles! Your big night is finally here! The 87th Academy Awards begins live at 7:30 p.m. today on ABC and runs for three hours.
The ceremony will be held at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood with Neil Patrick Harris as host. Fans at home will be in good company because the event will be televised in more than 225 countries worldwide.
Harris is an outstanding choice. In an interview with The New York Times, he admitted he was nervous, but added, "But it's much less pressure than being a nominee, having to go down a red carpet filled with prognosticators saying, 'I think it's your night! I can smell it!'"
The Oscars' huge audience is why ABC sold out all its ad space well in advance last fall. TV commercials went for an average of $2 million per 30-second spot. That's a 10 percent hike from last year's $1.8 million.
Will advertisers get a $2 million bang for their bucks? It looks promising. Hosted by Ellen DeGeneres, last year's Oscars was the most-watched entertainment telecast in a decade with 43 million viewers. Even the red carpet pre-show drew 27.6 million in its last half hour.
By way of ratings comparison, the Oscars out-delivered last year's Golden Globes by 22.1 million viewers, and the Grammy Awards by 14.5 million viewers. This year, the numbers could be even higher as two or three films duke it out for bragging rights.
Birdman and Grand Budapest Hotel tied for the most nominations with nine, while The Imitation Game pulled down eight.
But if you loved The Lego Movie, forget it. The pre-Oscar favorite managed a nomination for its tune "Everything Is Awesome," but it was inexplicably shut out of the Best Animated feature category.
Starstruck viewers take note: Oscars Opening Ceremony: Live From the Red Carpet kicks off at 6 p.m. The 90-minute special (hyperbolically labeled by ABC publicity as "the exclusive, majestic, highly anticipated lead-in to the live telecast"), will not only chat up arriving celebs and ask them, "Who are you wearing?" but will "highlight the incredible journey many of the nominees have taken to get to Hollywood's most prestigious night."
Good Morning America anchors Robin Roberts and Lara Spencer head the red carpet crew.
Some fans tune in just to watch their favorite stars present the awards. At press time, the scheduled presenters were Jennifer Aniston, Sienna Miller, David Oyelowo, Chris Pratt, Meryl Streep, Matthew McConaughey, Oprah Winfrey, Scarlett Johansson, Octavia Spencer, Kerry Washington and John Travolta.
Travolta? Yeah, he's back. Let's hope he doesn't have a tough name to pronounce. He needs redemption after last year when he introduced Frozen star Idina Menzel as "the wickedly talented, one and only Adele Dazeem."
And expect Selma's Oyelowo to get a standing ovation since he was shut out of the Best Actor nominations.
Harris is extremely talented and we can expect singing and dancing, but his primary function is to smoothly segue between awards. It's those "And the Oscar goes to ..." dramatic moments that make the show.
I know you might be holding your breath for the Sound Editing and Production Design winners, but here are the nominees for the major categories:
Best Picture: American Sniper; Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance); Boyhood; The Grand Budapest Hotel; The Imitation Game; Selma; The Theory of Everything; Whiplash.
Leading Actor: Steve Carell, Foxcatcher; Bradley Cooper, American Sniper; Benedict Cumberbatch, The Imitation Game; Michael Keaton, Birdman; Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything.
Leading Actress: Marion Cotillard, Two Days, One Night; Felicity Jones, The Theory of Everything; Julianne Moore, Still Alice; Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl; Reese Witherspoon, Wild.
Supporting Actor: Robert Duvall, The Judge; Ethan Hawke, Boyhood; Edward Norton, Birdman; Mark Ruffalo, Foxcatcher; J.K. Simmons, Whiplash.
Supporting Actress: Patricia Arquette, Boyhood; Laura Dern, Wild; Keira Knightley, The Imitation Game; Emma Stone, Birdman; Meryl Streep, Into the Woods.
Directing: Alejandro G. Inarritu, Birdman; Richard Linklater, Boyhood; Bennett Miller, Foxcatcher; Wes Anderson, The Grand Budapest Hotel; Morten Tyldum, The Imitation Game.
• Trivia: First-time nominees include Carell, Stone, Keaton and Redmayne. Meanwhile, this is Streep's 19th (!) nomination.
And what can be said about the marvelous Duvall? At 84, he is the oldest actor to get an Oscar nod.
Style on 02/22/2015