Oscars to balance celebration and sexual harassment in the most tumultuous industry awards year ever

OSCARS host Jimmy Kimmel has promised not to get political - but viewers should expect the #MeToo movement to take centre stage.

THE 90th Academy Awards, hosted again by Jimmy Kimmel, will be the crescendo of one of Hollywood’s most tumultuous awards seasons ever.

It is one that saw cascading allegations of sexual harassment topple movie moguls, up-end Oscar campaigns and launch new movements to improve gender equality throughout the industry.

Jimmy Kimmel says he wants to keep people laughing and let winners set the agenda for the Oscars ceremony. Picture: Richard Shotwell/AP

No Golden Globes-style fashion protest is planned by organisers of Time’s Up, the initiative begun by several hundred prominent women in entertainment to combat sexual harassment. Their goals go beyond red carpets, organisers said in the lead-up to the Oscars.

But the #MeToo movement is sure to have a prominent place in the ceremony.

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Rachel Morrison is the first woman ever nominated for Best Cinematography. Picture: AP

Greta Gerwig is the fifth female ever to be nominated for Best Director. Picture: MPIFS/Capital Pictures

Greta Gerwig, the writer-director of Lady Bird, is just the fifth woman ever nominated for best director. Rachel Morrison (cinematographer for Mudbound) is the first woman nominated for best cinematography.

Ashley Judd, the first big-name actress to go on the record with allegations of sexual misconduct against Harvey Weinstein, is among the scheduled presenters.

Before he was tossed out of the film academy after a storm of sexual harassment and sexual abuse allegations, Weinstein — through his independent American film studio The Weinstein Company — dominated awards season for the last two decades. By one study’s findings, Weinstein was thanked more often than God in acceptance speeches.

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Ashley Judd at rehearsals for the 90th Academy Awards in Los Angeles. Picture: Charles Sykes/Invision

Like Seth Meyers at the Golden Globes, Jimmy Kimmel will have a challenge balancing a night of celebration of largely independent films with a Hollywood still reeling with shame and regret over “open secret” behaviour that for years went unpunished in a male-dominated industry. In an attempt to address the new cultural climate, the Academy unveiled its first code of conduct in December.

It’s been an unusually lengthy — and often unpredictable — awards season, with the Academy Awards coming a week later this year because of the Olympics.

Frances McDormand is a favourite for the Best Actress award. Picture: Tommaso Boddi

While the night’s acting categories are widely expected to go to Frances McDormand (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri), Gary Oldman (Darkest Hour), Allison Janney (I, Tonya) and Sam Rockwell (Three Billboards), the lengthy season hasn’t produced a clear best-picture favourite.

Guillermo del Toro’s monster fable The Shape of Water leads with 13 nominations, but many favour Martin McDonagh’s darkly comic revenge drama Three Billboards as the frontrunner despite the film’s divisiveness among critics. And still, many aren’t counting out Jordan Peele’s horror sensation Get Out or Christopher Nolan’s World War II epic Dunkirk, which is expected to dominate the technical categories.

The field is made up largely of modest independent film successes except for the box-office phenomenon Get Out and Dunkirk (each have grossed around US$255 million).

Chadwick Boseman from “Black Panther” will be a presenter at the Oscars. Picture: IPA/MEGA

Chadwick Boseman, the star of Black Panther, which has already grossed about US$500 million, will be a presenter.

Multiple reports say that Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway will be returning to again present the award for Best Picture, a year after they incorrectly announced La La Land as the winner instead of Moonlight, because PwC accountants handed them the wrong envelopes.

A lot can go wrong on Oscar night.

Even if all the right envelopes end up in the right hands.

Stage elements move all around, screens lower from the ceiling, and microphones pop up from the floor.

Sandra Bullock appears during rehearsals for the 90th Academy Awards in Los Angeles. Picture: Charles Sykes/Invision

That pop-up mike immediately caused Sandra Bullock to panic during rehearsals Saturday afternoon, as she imagined it catching her gown and “suddenly the dress is just rising up.”

The Oscar winner, casually glam in a cropped pink sweater and high-waisted trousers, was among a parade of stars who came through the Dolby Theatre to run through their lines and practice walking on the Oscar stage before Sunday’s big show.

Originally published as Oscars to balance celebration and sexual harassment in the most tumultuous industry awards year ever