The wait in Hollywood is over: The 98th Academy Awards<\/a> are underway.<\/p>\n Comedian Conan O\u2019Brien is back<\/a> for a second year to host the ceremony on Sunday, held at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. It\u2019s an Oscars race that seemed like a runaway for \u201cOne Battle After Another\u201d but may be a close call<\/a> after all, thanks to some late-season wins for \u201cSinners.\u201d Other films with several nominations<\/a> include \u201cSentimental Value,\u201d \u201cMarty Supreme,\u201d \u201cFrankenstein\u201d and \u201cHamnet.\u201d<\/p>\n A picture-perfect sunny afternoon greeted early arrivals<\/a> at the Dolby Theatre on Sunday.<\/p>\n The Latest at the Academy Awards:<\/p>\n Conan O\u2019Brien<\/a> is off and running at the Oscars.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m Conan O\u2019Brien and I\u2019m honored to be the last human host of the Academy Awards,\u201d O\u2019Brien said. \u201cYes! Yeah! Next year it\u2019s going to be a Waymo in a tux.\u201d<\/p>\n And the jokes kept coming.<\/p>\n \u201cLast year when I hosted Los Angeles was on fire,\u201d O\u2019Brien said. \u201cBut this year, everything\u2019s going great.\u201d<\/p>\n He also quipped that there\u2019s an alternate Oscars being hosted by Kid Rock, a nod to the hubbub over Bad Bunny\u2019s Super Bowl halftime show.<\/p>\n Conan O\u2019Brien\u2019s opening skit: He complains about wearing too much makeup as Aunt Gladys from \u201cWeapons,\u201d says he looks like \u201cBette Davis with lupus\u201d and it\u2019s all done to the soundtrack of \u201cSabotage\u201d from the Beastie Boys, all as he runs through various scenes of this year\u2019s nominated films.<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t believe I learned Norwegian for this,\u201d he says, via subtitles, at one point. He then got chased onto the stage by a horde of children.<\/p>\n The irreverent tone for the opening is now set.<\/p>\n Police arrested one protester on Sunday who was part of a group blocking traffic near the Oscars.<\/p>\n Protesters wearing shirts saying, \u201cStop child trafficking\u201d huddled in the middle of the road a few blocks from the Oscars. Some sat in the road while others marched and shouted, \u201cTurn the files into trials,\u201d in reference to the Jeffrey Epstein files, and, \u201cSave our children not the pedos.\u201d<\/p>\n Other protesters held signs related to the wars in Iran and Gaza.<\/p>\n After a few minutes, police broke up the blockade and ushered protesters to the sidewalks. A scrum of police forcibly removed one protester sitting in the middle of the road.<\/p>\n The Los Angeles Police Department said information on police response to Oscars-related incidents and arrest numbers were not yet available.<\/p>\n The director of \u201cSelma\u201d and \u201c13th\u201d had some advice for fellow industry professionals.<\/p>\n \u201cYou see the industry consolidating, companies are eating each other and becoming one big thing that are controlled by entities that may or may not believe in what you\u2019re making,\u201d DuVernay said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s so important to remain independent on your own money, make your own films, find your ways to get it to audiences.\u201d<\/p>\n Amy Madigan is here! Oscar buzz for the \u201cWeapons\u201d<\/a> star is bringing a defiant moment back into the spotlight.<\/p>\n Madigan and husband Ed Harris<\/a> refused to clap for \u201cOn the Waterfront\u201d director Elia Kazan when he received an honorary award at the 1999 Oscars.<\/p>\n In 1952, Kazan revealed the names of former colleagues, who participated in Communist Party activities with him, to the House Un-American Activities Committee. It was a controversial move during the Red Scare when Hollywood figures were getting blacklisted<\/a>, ending the careers of hundreds.<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, there was no way we were going to do that. No way,\u201d Madigan recently told the New York Times.<\/p>\n Kate Hudson, Demi Moore, Charithra Chandran and Wunmi Mosaku all have a little something in common at the Oscars: They\u2019re wearing green.<\/p>\n Different shades, sure, but on the red carpet, it sure seemed to be green that was stealing the show. An early trend, for certain.<\/p>\n Not long after Moscow invaded Ukraine in 2022, schools in Russia were told to hold lessons and events that would promote the Kremlin\u2019s war narrative and boost patriotism.<\/p>\n In the mining town of Karabash, some 1,400 kilometers (870 miles) east of Moscow, teacher Pavel Talankin was making government-mandated videos of those lessons in his school. But he also was secretly working with American filmmaker David Borenstein on what would become the documentary \u201cMr. Nobody Against Putin,\u201d nominated for best documentary.<\/p>\n In multiple interviews after the film\u2019s release in early 2025, Talankin said he kept filming for over two years in Karabash School No. 1, coordinating with Borenstein. He left Russia in 2024 for safety reasons, carrying copies of his footage on hard drives.<\/p>\n The documentary follows Talankin, his students and other teachers as they navigate Russia\u2019s wartime ideology, imposed as part of the school curriculum. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2025 and won the BAFTA award for best documentary this year.<\/p>\n He will be onstage tonight performing \u201cI Lied to You,\u201d which is up for best original song.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s what we want to do, that\u2019s what music is supposed to do, we\u2019re supposed to move people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The Oscars will be saying farewell to a lot of cinema titans, and taking more time to do so.<\/p>\n Among them are Robert Duvall, Robert Redford, Diane Keaton and Rob Reiner.<\/p>\n Other talents who died in the last year include Brigitte Bardot, Val Kilmer, Michael Madsen, Terence Stamp, Diane Ladd, Sally Kirkland, Tom Stoppard and Malcolm-Jamal Warner.<\/p>\n Already this year, the film world has lost Catherine O\u2019Hara, Robert Carradine, Eric Dane, James Van Der Beek and Bud Cort.<\/p>\n Among the foreign talents who died were Joan Plowright, Claudia Cardinale, Dharmendra, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Mohammad Bakri, B\u00e9la Tarr and Jimmy Cliff.<\/p>\n Given the large number of bold-faced names, producers have decided the In Memoriam segment will be longer than usual.<\/p>\n Assembling the segment involves deciding who gets placed in what order, choosing music and the graphic design of the names and titles, as well as where pauses are built in for the select giants of the film world.<\/p>\n It\u2019s up to the academy to decide who is included, which often leads to outcries about who gets excluded.<\/p>\n Maggie O\u2019Farrell, who wrote the book that was adapted into Chlo\u00e9 Zhao\u2019s best picture nominee, said she knew the movie wouldn\u2019t be a \u201cconventional, antiseptic kind of costume drama.\u201d One scene in particular read differently from her novel: Will\u2019s proposal.<\/p>\n \u201cThey make it really funny, which I never expected it to be,\u201d O\u2019Farrell said.<\/p>\n For the first time in Oscars history, a statuette will be handed out not only to the stars but also to the person who casts them.<\/p>\n The inaugural casting Oscar<\/a> doesn\u2019t recognize the performance of the actors, unlike the Actor Awards\u2019 best cast prize, which \u201cSinners\u201d won<\/a> earlier this month, and other comparable accolades. This award, by contrast, recognizes the behind-the-scenes creative process and collaboration by a casting director with the filmmakers to select the actors for their roles and craft a cohesive ensemble.<\/p>\n The nominees are Nina Gold (\u201cHamnet\u201d), Jennifer Venditti (\u201cMarty Supreme\u201d), Cassandra Kulukundis (\u201cOne Battle After Another\u201d), Gabriel Domingues (\u201cThe Secret Agent\u201d) and Francine Maisler (\u201cSinners\u201d). Each of the five films they worked on are also up for best picture.<\/p>\n The directors of the nominated Iranian documentary \u201cCutting Through Rocks\u201d plan to be at the Oscars ceremony, but the woman at the center of their film won\u2019t make it as they\u2019d hoped.<\/p>\n The film, shot over many years in Iran<\/a> by directors Mohammadreza Eyni<\/a> and Sara Khaki, tells the story of Sara Shahverdi, who fought to loosen the grip of the patriarchy as the first woman to be elected to the council of her village.<\/p>\n \u201cDue to the U.S. travel ban, along with the many ongoing circumstances in Iran, Sara Shahverdi is not able to be present at the Oscars, the directors said in an Instagram post<\/a>. \u201cWe truly hoped to be together after eight years of working on this film side by side, but unfortunately, that won\u2019t be possible.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cCutting Through Rocks,\u201d which premiered at last year\u2019s Sundance Film Festival, is nominated for best documentary feature.<\/p>\n The Oscars red carpet sports an naturalistic, Japan-inspired motif this year, with Japanese maple trees lining the path to the Dolby Theatre and wood slat panels adding texture to some of the walls.<\/p>\n The carpet itself is \u201cred rock,\u201d according to Academy representatives, with shades of earthy brown making it darker than the traditional bright red.<\/p>\n If everyone is looking a little shinier today, it\u2019s because it is already quite toasty on the red carpet, which is only going to get more crowded.<\/p>\n Production people say that after two days of blazing heat during rehearsals, they were promised it would be freezing.<\/p>\n Ryan Coogler<\/a> understands what tonight could mean for Oscar history. He\u2019s just not dwelling on it.<\/p>\n Instead, on Thursday, the Oscar-nominated filmmaker was looking forward to spending one more night with his \u201cSinners\u201d<\/a> collaborators who helped bring the film to life.<\/p>\n Coogler could become the first Black filmmaker to win best director in the Academy Awards\u2019<\/a> nearly century-long history. While speaking before the eighth annual Macro Pre-Oscars party in Los Angeles, he said he\u2019s trying to stay present as the ceremony approaches.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m just trying to enjoy the days as they come, stay present in the moment,\u201d Coogler told The Associated Press. \u201cWhen Sunday comes, man, I\u2019m pull up and enjoy celebrating all the movies that\u2019s being celebrated here, including our own.\u201d<\/p>\n \u25b6 Read more from the interview with the \u201cSinners\u201d director<\/a><\/p>\n The Iranian dissident filmmaker<\/a>, whose film \u201cIt Was Just an Accident\u201d<\/a> was inspired by his time as a political prisoner, is facing a yearlong prison sentence<\/a> and two-year travel ban for the film.<\/p>\n Yet Jafar Panahi still plans to return home.<\/p>\n \u201cI know where I live and under what government,\u201d he told AP<\/a> through a translator before the war broke out, something he\u2019s reiterated to news outlets since. \u201cI also know that such works of art come with a price that I have to pay.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI also have the experience of living in prison with people who are completely anonymous and unknown, and when they can go through massive pain and no one will hear about it. But as soon as something is wrong with me, the entire world knows.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cICE OUT\u201d and \u201cBE GOOD\u201d pins have become one of this awards season\u2019s most visible accessories.<\/p>\n Mark Ruffalo, Jean Smart and Ariana Grande were among the Hollywood stars donning the protest apparel at January\u2019s Golden Globes. But organizers actually took inspiration from AIDS activists of the 1980s and 90s.<\/p>\n Maremoto Executive Director Jess Morales Rocketto says they followed the example of groups like ACT UP, whose red ribbons appeared at the televised 1991 Tony Awards as a sign of solidarity.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is supposed to intervene in a place that would otherwise be 100% about the commerce of brand deals and movie promotions,\u201d she said of the white buttons protesting the Trump administration\u2019s immigration enforcement.<\/p>\n Performances are often the most memorable parts of the Academy Awards. If you disagree it is probably because you skipped the 2024 Oscars when Ryan Gosling\u2019s performance of \u201cI\u2019m Just Ken\u201d<\/a> stole the show. This year, viewers can expect some similarly entertaining moments. EJAE, Audrey Nuna and Rei Ami, the voices behind the fictional girl group HUNTR\/X, will perform the massive \u201cGolden\u201d from the animated blockbuster \u201cKPop Demon Hunters.\u201d According to the Academy, the performance will feature \u201ca fusion of traditional Korean instrumentalists and dance\u201d as well.<\/p>\n That\u2019s not all: Miles Caton and Raphael Saadiq will bring their \u201cSinners\u201d hit \u201cI Lied To You\u201d to the Oscars stage \u2014 and will be joined by Misty Copeland, Eric Gales, Buddy Guy, Brittany Howard, Christone \u201cKingfish\u201d Ingram, Jayme Lawson, Li Jun Li, Bobby Rush, Shaboozey and Alice Smith for the bluesy number.<\/p>\n Josh Groban and the Los Angeles Master Chorale are also scheduled to appear.<\/p>\n Best actor:<\/p>\n Best supporting actor:<\/p>\n Best actress:<\/p>\n 6. Rose Byrne<\/a> in \u201cIf I Had Legs I\u2019d Kick You\u201d<\/p>\n 7. Renate Reinsve in \u201cSentimental Value\u201d<\/p>\n<\/ul>\n Best supporting actress:<\/p>\n \u201cSinners\u201d is already in uncharted Oscar waters.<\/p>\n It has 16 Oscar nominations, two more than any other film in history. \u201cTitanic,\u201d \u201cLa La Land\u201d and \u201cAll About Eve\u201d all had 14.<\/p>\n \u201cTitanic\u201d won 11 Oscars, while \u201cLa La Land\u201d and \u201cAll about Eve\u201d each won six.<\/p>\n So, it\u2019s reasonable to expect a somewhat sizable haul for \u201cSinners.\u201d Then again, \u201cThe Turning Point\u201d and \u201cThe Color Purple\u201d probably felt the same way in their Oscar years. They both went 0-for-11 on Oscar night.<\/p>\n \u201cSinners\u201d grabbed 16 of a possible 17 Oscar nominations this year. The one it didn\u2019t get: best actress.<\/p>\n The record for Oscar wins is 11: \u201cBen-Hur\u201d (out of 12 nominations), \u201cTitanic\u201d (out of 14 nominations) and \u201cThe Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King\u201d (which went a perfect 11-0, sweeping wins in every category that it was up for).<\/p>\n Lynette Howell Taylor<\/a> has seen the Oscars<\/a> from a few different vantage points: As a nominee, in 2019 for \u201cA Star is Born,\u201d as a producer of the broadcast in 2020, as a member of the film academy\u2019s board of governors and, for the last three years, as awards chair. It\u2019s made her first year as the president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences feel like a natural transition. And one thing she is certain of is that every Oscars is unique.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery year is different,\u201d Taylor said in a recent interview alongside film Academy CEO Bill Kramer<\/a>. \u201cEvery season is different. Every set of movies is different. And so, the show is always different every year.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s a tricky thing to both honor the people in the room while also making an entertaining show for a home audience. But behind the scenes, from returning host Conan O\u2019Brien<\/a> to the producers and Emmy-winning production design team, is a group of people who know how to dazzle a global audience.<\/p>\n \u25b6 Read more from the interview<\/a><\/p>\nConan\u2019s off and running with the jokes<\/h2>\n
And we\u2019re off, with help from the Beastie Boys and Aunt Conan<\/h2>\n
Police scrum removes protester blocking Oscars traffic<\/h2>\n
Ava DuVernay says independence is key for creativity<\/h2>\n
Amy Madigan\u2019s famous defiance in 1999<\/h2>\n
The first winner of the night: Green, on the red carpet<\/h2>\n
A film about a Russian school teaching wartime ideology is nominated for best documentary<\/h2>\n
Raphael Saadiq hopes \u2018Sinners\u2019 song will move audience<\/h2>\n
Oscars\u2019 In Memoriam segment will be extended<\/h2>\n
A surprise moment of humor in \u2018Hamnet\u2019<\/h2>\n
What will the new casting Oscar be rewarding?<\/h2>\n
\u2018Cutting Through Rocks\u2019 subject stays in Iran<\/h2>\n
A Japan-inspired motif on the carpet<\/h2>\n
The red carpet is heating up (literally)<\/h2>\n
Ryan Coogler isn\u2019t dwelling on potential history<\/h2>\n
Despite looming prison sentence, nominee Jafar Panahi plans to return to Iran<\/h2>\n
How AIDS activists inspired immigration organizers\u2019 red carpet symbolism<\/h2>\n
Who is performing?<\/h2>\n
These 11 actors earned their first nominations<\/h2>\n
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\u2018Sinners\u2019 already has an Oscar record for nominations. But what does that mean?<\/h2>\n
How academy leaders are approaching the Oscars<\/h2>\n
Who\u2019s hosting the Oscars?<\/h2>\n