Champagne carpet and crisis team ready for Oscars celebration on Sunday

By Lisa Richwine

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Hollywood stars will walk a champagne-colored carpet at the Oscars on Sunday when organizers aim to keep the spotlight on “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” “Top Gun: Maverick” Other nominated films that brought audiences back to the cinemas.

A crisis response team will be available at the Dolby Theatre, Los Angeles in case of an unexpected twist. The group was established after Will Smith insulted Chris Rock on stage last season, ruining the film industry’s most prestigious ceremony.

This, the 95th Oscars is where the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences hopes for more than the slap to create a glitzy show that will attract younger viewers to boost TV ratings.

The show will start at 8 p.m. Eastern Time (2400 GMT Monday) and will be live broadcast on Walt Disney Co.’s ABC Network. Jimmy Kimmel, comedian, returns to host the show for the third consecutive year.

Producers stated that they will celebrate the moviegoing rebound over the past year. This is something some were afraid would never happen during the COVID-19 epidemic.

Many of 2022’s biggest hits at multiplexes landed in the best movie race, from “Top Gun” “Everything Everywhere” To “Elvis” “Avatar: The Way of Water.”

“Among our nominees are films that have not just hit the heart but also generated box office,” said producer Glenn Weiss. “We’re looking to really elevate that point.”

It is possible to draw more viewers by focusing on the big movies on the ballot rather than the lesser-known films nominated in recent decades.

The Academy Awards’ television audience was 16.6 millions viewers last year.

One novelty: QR codes that will flash on TV screens before commercial breaks, with links to short videos about the nominees. The organizers hope that viewers will share information about the nominees to make them more interested in their choices and keep them on-screen.

The organizers changed the look of the red carpet, which was used for the first time since 1961. They chose to use champagne instead. A dark tent will cover the entrance of the stars, giving them the illusion of nighttime glamour.

“Everything Everywhere All at Once,” An offbeat story about a Chinese American laundromat owner trying to complete her taxes wins best picture. In the weeks preceding the Oscars, this dimension-hopping kungfu adventure has won all the major Hollywood awards.

Star Michelle Yeoh meets Cate Blanchett for the best actress category. Cate Blanchett was a clever conductor of an orchestra in “Tar.” The best actor might be a toss up between “Elvis” Brendan Fraser and Austin Butler were the stars of the film, which featured a man who was severely obese. “The Whale.”

Ke Huy Quan is the leading support actor for Yeoh’s role as Yeoh’s unhappy husband “Everything Everywhere.” A 1984 film starring a child star “Indiana Jones” Quan, a movie actor, quit acting after two decades of work because he didn’t see much opportunity for Asian actors.

Angela Bassett, who plays Queen Ramonda as a superhero movie supporting actress, is the favourite. “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.”

The film academy’s roughly 10,000 members vote on the winners.

Rihanna, pop star and singer will be performing her nominated track among other musical acts. “Lift Me Up” Starting at “Wakanda Forever.”

All awards for film craftpeople will be given live. Some awards were announced prior to the broadcast last year to keep the program to three hours. This caused backlash from behind the scenes workers, but did not result in a shorter program. The telecast lasted three hours and forty minutes.

(Reporting and editing by Lisa Richwine; Editing done by Mary Milliken, Howard Goller).