95th Oscars News – Host Jimmy Kimmel Rolls Out The Champagne Carpet, Oscar Week Panel At The Academy Museum And Play Along At Home With Our Academy Awards Ballot

By Movie Geeks | March 10, 2023

Contributed by Gary Salem and Michelle Hannett

It’s all glitz and glamour as the granddaddy of all awards shows, The Oscars, gets ready to hit the worldwide stage this Sunday and WAMG is glad you’re back!

In 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the 93rd Awards eligibility period was extended into early 2021 and the awards presentation was moved from its original date of February 28, 2021 to April 25, making it the latest date on record for a televised broadcast of the Academy Awards.

Host Jimmy Kimmel was on hand for the carpet rollout for the 95th Oscars on Wednesday, March 8, 2023. The 95th Oscars will be held on Sunday, March 12, 2023, at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood and will be televised live on ABC at 8 p.m. EDT/5 p.m. PDT.

https://aframe.oscars.org/news/post/everything-to-know-about-the-95th-oscars

Instead of the traditional red, AMPAS went with an elegant champagne tone – the first time since 1961 that the carpet at the Oscars isn’t red. Kimmel said, “I think we can go with a champagne carpet instead of a red carpet because of how confident we are that no blood will be shed.” ABC has telecast the show since 1976 and is under contract through 2028.

The decision to change the color came from creative consultants Lisa Love, a longtime Vogue contributor, and Raúl Àvila, the creative director for the glamourous Met Gala in New York.

This year the carpet will be covered, in part to protect the stars and cameras from the weather, but also to help turn the arrivals into an evening event. For Love, there has always been a disconnect between the elegant black tie dress code and the fact that it’s mid-afternoon when people arrive to be photographed in the daylight. With a covered carpet, they could change that.

“We turned a day event into night,” Love told The Associated Press. “It’s evening, even though it’s still 3:00.”

The Oscars red carpet dates back to 1961, the 33rd Academy Awards held at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, when Billy Wilder’s “The Apartment” won best picture, Burt Lancaster and Elizabeth Taylor won the lead acting prizes, and there was still a “juvenile award,” which went to Hayley Mills for “Pollyanna.” It was the first televised ceremony, broadcast on ABC and hosted by Bob Hope. The general public wouldn’t see the red carpet in all its glory on television until 1966, when the Oscars were first broadcast in color.

WAMG went behind the scenes as The Academy got ready for Hollywood’s biggest night. We’ll be in the pressroom once again to bring you coverage of the winners as they arrive backstage with their statuettes.

Halle Berry, Paul Dano, Cara Delevingne, Harrison Ford, Kate Hudson, Mindy Kaling, Eva Longoria, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Andie MacDowell, Elizabeth Olsen, Pedro Pascal and John Travolta round out the slate of presenters at the 95th Oscars®, executive producers and showrunners Glenn Weiss and Ricky Kirshner and executive producer Molly McNearney announced.

Previously announced Oscars presenters include Riz Ahmed, Halle Bailey, Antonio Banderas, Elizabeth Banks, Emily Blunt, Jessica Chastain, John Cho, Glenn Close, Jennifer Connelly, Ariana DeBose, Andrew Garfield, Hugh Grant, Danai Gurira, Salma Hayek Pinault, Samuel L. Jackson, Dwayne Johnson, Michael B. Jordan, Nicole Kidman, Troy Kotsur, Jonathan Majors, Melissa McCarthy, Janelle Monáe, Deepika Padukone, Florence Pugh, Questlove, Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver and Donnie Yen.

You can catch up on all the Oscar week panels with Academy Award–nominated filmmakers in the lead-up to the 95th Oscars over on YouTube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJ8RjvesnvDPgz64Gm0hv5XQbmKuPv9Jx

Join the Academy Museum on Sunday, March 12, from 3pm to 10pm, for a one-of-a-kind evening celebrating the 95th Academy Awards. Come dressed in your best Hollywood glam looks! The event includes access to the David Geffen Theater to watch the Oscars live stream on ABC, gallery admission, food by Wolfgang Puck Catering, hosted bar, a commemorative gift, red carpet photography, access to fun photo booths, a 15% discount at the Academy Museum Store. Get your tickets here: https://www.academymuseum.org/en/programs/detail/oscars-night-2023

Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s indie sci-fi hit “Everything Everywhere All at Once” leads the field as the favorite to win Best Picture and has 11 nominations. Second is director Martin McDonagh’s Irish comedy “The Banshees of Inisherin,” with nine nods, a total matched by Netflix’s WWI film “All Quiet on the Western Front.”

The Oscar-nominated song “Naatu Naatu” from “RRR” will be performed at the 95th Oscars. Singers Rahul Sipligunj and Kaala Bhairava will make their Oscars debut performing the song. Oscar®-winning multi-hyphenate David Byrne, Oscar-nominated actor Stephanie Hsu and music trio Son Lux will perform the Oscar-nominated song “This Is A Life” from “Everything Everywhere All at Once”. Actress and singer Sofia Carson, accompanied by songwriter Diane Warren, will perform the Oscar®-nominated song “Applause” from “Tell It like a Woman”. “Applause,” with music and lyric by Warren, is nominated for Original Song. It is Warren’s 14th Oscar nomination. She received an Honorary Award at the Academy’s Governors Awards in November 2022. Music superstar Rihanna will perform the Oscar®-nominated song “Lift Me Up” from “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”. “Lift Me Up,” with music by Tems, Rihanna, Ryan Coogler and Ludwig Goransson and lyric by Tems and Ryan Coogler, is nominated for Original Song.  It is Rihanna’s first Oscar nomination.

Oscars executive producer and showrunner Glenn Weiss slashed Lady Gaga fans’ hopes when he confirmed Wednesday that the Oscar- and Grammy-winning entertainer, who is nominated this year for her “Top Gun: Maverick” power ballad “Hold My Hand,” will not take the stage to sing the song. The LA Times says, “In a Zoom call with entertainment journalists Wednesday, Weiss explained that the artists who perform this year’s Oscar-nominated original songs were invited to perform, but Lady Gaga couldn’t make it work.”

Grammy®-winning musician Lenny Kravitz will deliver the “In Memoriam” performance at the 95th Oscars®.

A writer, producer and multi-instrumentalist, Kravitz has transcended genre throughout a three-decade-plus musical career. He has recorded eleven studio albums that have sold 40 million copies worldwide and won four consecutive Grammy Awards. Kravitz appeared in such films as “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire,” “Lee Daniels’ The Butler,” “The Hunger Games” and “Precious.”

Following the broadcast tribute, more than 200 filmmakers, artists and executives will be memorialized in an extended photo gallery on A.frame, the Academy’s digital magazine.

The broadcast can be streamed with a subscription to Hulu Live TV, YouTubeTV, AT&T TV and Fubo TV. Some of these services offer brief free trials. You can also stream the show on ABC.com and on the ABC app by authenticating your provider. https://www.oscars.org/how-to-watch/

Print out WAMG’s ballot for your Oscar Party!

Check out the nominees luncheon.