IF YOU’RE PLANNING to watch tonight’s Oscars live, you probably deserve an award yourself. It starts at 1.30am Irish-time and will go on for at least three hours.
If you last until the end of the final camera-hogging speech, you’re a hardcore entertainment junkie. Well done.
But we like to cater for all sorts here (especially entertainment junkies), so here’s our guide to what you can expect from tonight’s show.
Where can I watch it? Sky Movies are broadcasting the show live. So if you’re a subscriber that should be pretty straightforward.
If you’re not? Well, it’s broadcast in about 200 countries, I’m sure somebody somewhere will be doing something involving an ethernet cable that will help you out.
The Host
After Ellen broke Twitter with last year’s most A-list selfie of all time, there’s a new host in charge of tonight’s show. Neil Patrick-Harris is taking the golden reigns for the first time.
Tonight might be a step up for NPH, but he’s no awards rookie having previously hosted the Emmy and Tony awards.
He will set record of sorts tonight though, being the first Oscar host to have shown his penis in a film that year. NPH played the creepy ex-lover of Rosemund Pike in the Gone Girl. She’s up for best actress for that performance.
Expect some song and dance from the host.
Presenters
The list of tonight’s presenters is about as long as Boyhood’s production schedule, but there are some notables you should be looking out for.
Academy favourite John Travolta is back to make up for butchering Idina Menzel’s name when introducing ‘Let It Go’ last year.
Other slightly different presenters that maybe catch the eye include Oprah Winfrey (producer and star of Selma), Jennifer Aniston and Eddie Murphy.
There is of course a rake of more predictable presenters like Benedict Cumberbatch, Meryl Streep and even Dakota Johnson (alas, 50 Shades was released too late to be considered).
The full list is here on Entertainment Weekly if you want a gander.
We also have some Irish representation in the presenting stakes tonight:
Performers
As ever, the five nominated songs will be performed on the night.
This evening that means ‘Everything is Awesome’ from The Lego Movie, Glory from Selma, Grateful from Beyond the Lights, I’m Not Gonna Miss You from Glen Campbell…I’ll Be Me and Lost Stars Begin Again.
As mentioned above, NPH is quite the song and dance man and he announced in a tweet that that the two writers of the world conquering ‘Let It Go’ have joined the Oscars “creative fray”.
So maybe expect some kind of Disney-esque performance from the host.
Much of the hype though could be about another Oscar débutante. She’ell be on stage at some point and may dominate proceedings on the red carpet at the very least.
The blonde one.
What about the actual films?
The business of the night will see 24 awards handed out with Birdman and The Grand Budapest Hotel each in the running for nine of them.
The Imitation Game is just one behind the two frontrunners with Boyhood up is six categories.
We won’t go through all the nominations again, they’re here in any case, but a really short round up of some of the main hints over the last five weeks might be useful.
Boyhood put in a strong showing at the Baftas. Winning best film, best director for Richard Linklater and and best supporting actress for Patricia Arquette. The last of the three there is a shoo-in for the Oscar if you listen to the Los Angeles media.
On the other hand, Birdman was the stand out performer in both the acting and directing guild awards recently. They’re both US-based and industry local so there’s a fairly leaden nudge there.
Eddie Redmayne in the The Theory of Everything and Julianne Moore in Still Alice each won the top acting awards in both the Baftas and Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Did I hear there’s an Irish film up for an Oscar tonight?
You did, there’s two actually. Belfast short Boogaloo and Graham won the Bafta for best British short film a fortnight ago and its up for an Academy Award tonight.
The movie is about two young Belfast boys who are given two young chickens to raise. It’s in a tough category but it’s a bit of charmer so don’t rule it out.
The second Irish hopeful is Song of the Sea. An animated film directed by Tomm Moore featuring famous voices like Lisa Hannigan, Brendan Gleeson and Pat Shortt.
It’s the second Oscar nomination for the Kilkenny-based animators. And it’s gorgeous, so fingers crossed.
By the numbers
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