While a lack of diversity is clear through the nominations, the film academy has made strides to inject diversity into the Oscar telecast in the form of presenters.
Advertisement
The event takes place at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. Easily fighting off the likes Bryon Cranston (Trumbo), Matt Damon (The Martian), Michael Fassbender (Steve Jobs), and Eddie Redmayne (The Danish Girl) without breaking a sweat is none other than five-time nominee Leonardo DiCaprio for his work in The Revenant.
The 88th Academy Awards will be broadcast later today at 5:30 p.m. Pacific. That same year he was nominated for Best Supporting actor at the Golden Globes, but lost at both ceremonies.
Reign, the keynote speaker on Saturday at “The #BlackTwitter Conference” at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, is credited with launching the hashtag in January after last year’s nominees best actor nominees were published.
Adele is backing Leonardo DiCaprio to triumph at tonight’s (28.02.16) Oscars.
Next on the list is Best Actress, and much like DiCaprio, the front-runner this year is Brie Larson for her performance in Room.
Open Road Films’ “Spotlight”, which traces the journalism probe of sex abuse in the Boston Catholic Church, is also in the mix, along with Paramount’s Wall Street misdeeds comedy “The Big Short”, pundits say.
Spotlight actress Rachel McAdams and Jennifer Jason Leigh are also in the running.
But controversy over the “whitewashing” of nominations – there are no ethnic minority nominees in the main acting categories for the second year running – threatens to steal the limelight.
The Grammy-winning singer won a Golden Globe for the track alongside his writing partner Jimmy Napes.
Lady Gaga is scheduled to perform “Til It Happens to You”, and she will be introduced by Vice President Joe Biden as part of a presentation aimed at combating sexual violence. Walt Disney was nominated 59 times. The film’s nod for best picture is Spielberg’s ninth in that category, the most for any individual producer.
Last week, Harvey Weinstein discouraged a boycott, reassuring those concerned that host Chris Rock would “annihilate” Hollywood in his opening monologue at the ceremony.
Advertisement
Rock has refrained from weighing in on the controversy on social media but took to Twitter on Friday to post a cryptic image of a television with no signal, alongside the message: “See you Sunday…”
