Oscars’ top prize up for grabs as unease hangs over Hollywood

Hollywood rolls out the red carpet for Sunday’s Oscars, the film industry’s highest honors, with an unusually open best-picture race that pits vampire hit “Sinners,” the leader in nominations, against the darkly comic thriller “One Battle After Another.”

Security for the ceremony at the Dolby Theatre will be tight. Organizers said they were working closely with the FBI and Los Angeles police after a federal warning of a possible Iranian threat against California, though authorities have cited no specific or credible danger to the Academy Awards.

Hosted by Conan O’Brien for a second year, the festivities will feature a wide-open contest led by “Sinners” with 16 nominations — a record number in the nearly 100-year-old history of the Oscars — as Hollywood grapples with geopolitical tensions, industry consolidation and anxiety over artificial intelligence.

The show, starting at 7 p.m. ET (midnight GMT), will be televised live on Walt Disney’s DIS.N ABC and streamed on Hulu. Performers will include the real-life singers of HUNTR/X, the fictional band in animated film nominee “KPop Demon Hunters.”

The glitzy celebration, Hollywood’s most over-the-top gala of the year, will take place as the U.S. wages war on Iran. O’Brien said he planned to touch on current events but his primary mission was to make people laugh and feel at ease.

“My job is to hit this very, very thin line, I think, between entertaining people and also acknowledging some of the realities,” he told a press conference on Wednesday. “All I can say is I’ll use my best judgment.”

The ceremony masks the unease in the film business over where movies are being made as studios chase tax incentives and lower costs elsewhere in the U.S. and overseas, weakening Hollywood’s grip on production.

Warner Bros. WBD.O, the studio behind “One Battle” and “Sinners,” is in the process of being sold to Paramount Skydance PSKY.O in a deal that will narrow the ranks of major film distributors. A media watchdog group, Free Press, circulated a roving billboard around Hollywood over the weekend airing its opposition to the merger.

Workers in front of and behind the camera are worried artificial intelligence will limit job opportunities and stifle creativity and risk-taking.

A POTENTIAL FOR SURPRISES

This year’s awards contest holds an unusually high potential for surprises. The race for best actor is an especially unpredictable one, pitting Timothée Chalamet against Leonardo DiCaprio and Michael B. Jordan.

Chalamet had been considered a frontrunner for his acclaimed performance as a ping-pong hustler in “Marty Supreme,” but his prospects seemed to dim over an awards-season campaign featuring a streetwear line and a giant blimp and remarks dismissing ballet and opera.

“One Battle After Another,” starring DiCaprio as a one-time political radical now parenting a teenager, was seen as the frontrunner for best picture after stacking up trophy after trophy at recent ceremonies.

But “Sinners,” a celebration of blues music and Black culture in the Segregation-era U.S. South starring Jordan, made a late surge with a win this month at the Actor Awards.

Jessie Buckley is considered a lock for best actress for her portrayal of Agnes Hathaway, the wife of William Shakespeare, as the couple navigate the death of their 11-year-old son in “Hamnet.”

Awards experts say the rest of the top categories are up for grabs.

Winners of the gold Oscar statuettes are chosen by the roughly 10,000 actors, producers, directors and ‍film craftspeople who make up the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

The Academy took steps this year to try to ensure voters have actually watched the movies they are voting on. The online balloting system for the first time tracks whether a voter has streamed each movie. Voters, however, can check a box to say they watched the movie elsewhere outside the Academy website.