A few days before the Oscar gala, the red carpet for Hollywood’s biggest show has traditionally been rolled out. Dozens of camera teams and photographers watched the “roll out”. The carpet area is usually a heavily trafficked section of Hollywood Boulevard, which is now temporarily becoming a promenade. Almost 100 meters long and a good ten meters wide, the carpet covers the street.
On Sunday the stars and Oscar guests walk along to the entrance of the Dolby Theater where the trophies will be presented for the 94th time. Until then, dozens of helpers will install the famous catwalk, trim edges and weld seams so that nobody stumbles. “The carpet must lie flat and be pulled taut, with no wrinkles or bumps,” says longtime Oscar carpet publisher Rudy Morales.
Also this year, a transparent plastic roof will be stretched over the road section as a possible rain protection, at current summer temperatures of 30 degrees.
In the previous year, the award ceremony was significantly smaller due to the corona pandemic, and the red carpet was also kept to a minimum. Back then, the scene was a historic train station building in Los Angeles with only a few hundred guests.
A huge line-up of stars is now expected, as more than 2,500 spectators can be seated in the Dolby Theater with corona seating. The academy has announced three dozen celebrity presenters in recent weeks to help hand out the trophies on the show, including Anthony Hopkins, Bill Murray, Uma Thurman, Lady Gaga, Mila Kunis and John Travolta.
Another nine talents were added on Wednesday. Tennis greats Serena and Venus Williams, “West Side Story” star Rachel Zegler and colleagues such as Josh Brolin, Jake Gyllenhaal and Jason Momoa will also be on stage. The 94th Academy Awards are hosted by actresses Amy Schumer, Regina Hall and Wanda Sykes.
Last but not least, among the top favorites for the trophies is Jane Campion’s portrait of a western man, “The Power of the Dog”, which leads the field with twelve nominations. However, if the betting shops are to be believed, coming-of-age story “CODA,” about a hearing teenager in a deaf family, is catching up in the race for the best picture trophy. “The Power of the Dog” recently won the British Academy Film Awards, while “CODA” was successful at the Producers Guild Awards and the Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Jane Campion, who is the first woman to run for a second time in the directing division, should also make the running, according to betting shops, while Will Smith remains the favorite for the male leads with his role as the tennis father of Venus and Serena Williams in ‘King Richard’. is. As for the actresses, however, there is still no clear favorite to be identified, even if Jessica Chastain is currently leading the field in her role in “The Eyes of Tammy Faye”. And in the foreign Oscar, which has to do without an Austrian candidate this year, the Japanese contribution “Drive My Car” is in the lead.
(S E R V I C E – www.oscars.org/)