What to know before the highly anticipated 97th “Oscars” this Sunday

The highly anticipated 97th Oscars airs live this Sunday at 6pm central on ABC, and can be streamed on Hulu and YouTubeTV. This night recognizes all of the hard work that has been put into cinematography in the past year. Some of the top and most prestigious awards are Best Picture, Directing, Cinematography, Costumes, and Sound. Actors all over the globe hope one day to win an Oscar for Best Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor, or Supporting Actress.

If you have never watched the Oscars and are considering watching this year, it is important to know how much detail goes into the process. There are 23 categories that recognize every aspect that goes into a film. Two accountants are responsible for keeping the Oscar results a secret until they are announced on stage. This means that nobody involved knows the results, not even the director, host, or the guest opening the envelope with the winner written inside. When the winner is announced, not only does the camera crew have to be ready to catch the announced film, but the live orchestra has only a few seconds before they play a song from the film. There is then a limited 45 second acceptance speech, where the camera crew must be ready to show anyone mentioned in the speech– director, co-star, spouse, sibling, etc.

Some of the films that are expected to win in specific categories are Anora, Conclave, Wicked, The Brutallst, Dune: Part 2, and The Substance. Films Wicked and Emilia Pérez are both nominated for Best Picture, which marks the first time since 1968 that two musicals have been nominated in the category. There is a lot of drama surrounding Emilia Pérez’s nomination. There are many other nominations that Emilia Pérez has, such as Best International Feature Film, Director, Original Score, Makeup and Hairstyling, Cinematography, and more, totaling up to 10 nominations, which is the same amount as Wicked. I asked McMurry students about the film and over 55% did not know about the negative drama associated with the film and the Oscars. One of the largest issues people have with the film is that a non-Mexican Actress was cast to play a character that is a Mexican trans woman. An article from Glaad.org stated, “Emilia Pérez is a step backward for trans representation.” One peer of mine stated that, “There is not a single good song in Emilia Pérez. One song, in my opinion, makes a complete mockery of trans people.” This song she is referring to recently was all over social media and received a lot of backlash for the lyrics and quality of the song.

Watching the Oscars and filling out our own ballots is a tradition my parents and I started a couple of years ago. We all fill out the play-along ballot and make a bet on who will get the most winners correct. I am personally super excited for this year’s Oscars and cannot wait to hear the acceptance speeches, which is one of my favorite parts. Here is this year’s play-along ballot if you would like to guess the winners before Sunday night!