Oscars 2025: Hollywood’s big night
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Roll out the red carpet. It's almost time for the 97th Academy Awards. This year's ceremony comes in the wake of wildfires that have ravaged L.A., the heart of the movie industry. On this weekend episode of Reuters World News, our journalists take you through how Tinseltown is responding to a shifting political climate...

as well as who could be the big winners or losers. And we'll get a behind-the-scenes peek at what it's really like to cover Hollywood's biggest night. I'm your host, Sharon Reich-Garson, in New York. Save on Cox Internet when you add Cox Mobile and get fiber-powered internet at home and unbeatable 5G reliability on the go. So whether you're playing a game at home... Yes, cool! ...or attending one live...

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Joining us, Lisa Richwine, our entertainment reporter, Don Chmielewski, our entertainment business reporter, and senior photographer Mike Blake. Hey, guys. Thanks for talking today. Thanks for having us. Yeah. Hey, thanks for having us. Thanks for having us. There's so much to talk about. Let's start with Best Picture.

Conclave just snagged the SAG Award for Best Ensemble. Lisa, could that be a signal that it'll win Best Picture this year? It definitely could be a signal. SAG is the Screen Actors Guild, and the actors make the biggest group of voters for the Academy Awards. So when you look at what they're picking for SAG, it's a good sign of what that group might be voting for for the Oscars. It's not always predictive, but it's a good sign. This year, there

There have been a lot of surprises. There's been no clear frontrunner. Conclave seems to have the edge right now, but Anora also did really well at the awards from the Producers Guild, which also is pretty good at picking the Best Picture winner, won some awards from directors. So I think it's between Conclave and Anora right now, but it's been such a weird year that I really feel like anything could happen. Now, Dawn, I'm wondering about the timing. We all know the Pope is seriously ill, and that's on a lot of people's minds.

could that have impacted voting?

Yeah, it does seem like a chillingly coincidental timing that a movie about the selection of the next pope is happening, even as the pope is ill. Although, for the best picture, the voting closed on February 18th. So those votes have already been cast long before the real-life drama has played out. And I will say, I agree with Lisa's observations that this has been an incredibly close race. There hasn't been a clear frontrunner all year, but the SAG Award has predicted the best picture winner for the last three years.

You'll recall it selected Oppenheimer and everything everywhere all at once and also Coda. So for the last three years, at least, it's been accurate in predicting best picture. Okay. Now, Mike, as a photographer, how do you approach covering a red carpet at such a big event? This year I'm roaming. When I roam, I'm just trying to figure out who's who because they come at you from all directions, honestly. Usually I get to see most of the pictures before and sometimes

I've only seen one picture this year because we were so busy with the fire. I've only seen Conclave, so I know everyone who's in that movie. That will help me out a lot. So if Conclave wins, it seems like it would be a really significant upset. Is that right? I mean, many of the films seem like pretty strong contenders, and they've had big campaigns around them, too. I would say what's interesting is the most popular movie of the year, Wicked, is

seems to be out of contention for Best Picture. And Lisa and I have spoken about this quite a bit. It has been more than two decades since a musical actually won Best Picture. The last time that happened was in 2003 when Chicago won Best Picture. I would point out, again, this has been an unusual year, that there was another frontrunner at one point. It was Amelia Perez from Netflix.

which has the most nominations of any film going into the Oscars, and was seen as the leader until there was a controversy with the lead actress. There were some tweets of hers from several years ago that were offensive to many marginalized groups, and that really tanked a lot of the affection for that movie in the voting, unfortunately. People may still admire that movie, but they may not feel they want to honor it with an Oscar award.

Yeah, I agree with Lisa there. Netflix built its entire campaign around Carla Sofia Gascon, the first trans performer to be nominated as Best Actress. And she gave a really strong performance in the film. But shortly thereafter, social media began surfacing some comments that she made about George Floyd and the aftermath of his murder, and also about Muslims in Spain.

and other comments that she made that were largely indefensible. And it really appears to have tanked not only her chances, but those for the film. Now, you mentioned Carla Sofia Gascon being nominated for Best Actress. And that's a really interesting race, right? Demi Moore is nominated for The Substance. And it's a horror film, which traditionally just isn't Oscar-fair.

but she won the SAG and the Golden Globe. And then there's Mikey Madison. She's young, but she's nominated for a Nora. So tell me, how are things shaping up in the race for Best Actress? I think Demi is the frontrunner. She won the SAG award. She gave a really moving speech at the Golden Globes about how she felt she had been dismissed as a popcorn actress who wasn't taken seriously, who didn't deserve awards recognition. And

People have really rallied around her. She's 62 now. She started acting in her teens. And I think people have really responded to that story and, you know, and the performance that she put in, which also talks about, you know, how society views aging women. You've

You've also got a Brazilian actress, Fernanda Torres, who is in for I'm Still Here, which is a movie in Portuguese. Her mother was nominated for Best Actress back in the 90s, did not win. So if Fernanda could win, she would be the first Brazilian actress to win Best Actress.

Mikey Madison, yeah, gave a really strong performance in Anora. I mean, she's 25 years old. A lot of times the Academy doesn't want to award people who are younger, but she gave a really expansive performance that people were wowed by. I mean, she's pretty unknown.

So that is a really interesting race. And I, you know, I think nobody would argue with it with any of those. And Cynthia Erivo for Wicked is in there as well. The star of, as we said, the popular musical from last year. So that field. But Demi's been been cleaning up. So I think that people look at her as the expected winner.

Okay, another tight race that we could see a surprise in, right? Best actor. Yeah. It's kind of been viewed as Adrienne Brody's award to lose. Lisa, is that right? Yes, but the SAG Awards changed that. Timothee Chalamet won for playing Bob Dylan at the SAG Awards. He is 29, and also there has been some chatter that, oh, he's too young, you know, should we really give him an Oscar now? But the SAG voters did. He spent five and a half years working on that role, and...

And he talked about how he, at the SAGs, how he really wants to be considered one of the great actors of all time and poured himself into that. And he could be the surprise winner. Well, it's hard to know, too, whether Adrian Brody's performance has been overshadowed by this whispering campaign about the use of AI in that film to perfect the delivery of Hungarian in the movie. Adrian Brody certainly gives a really wrenching performance as this sort of tortured character.

immigrant and the ordeals he experiences, you know, anti-Semitism and some pretty horrific abuse in America. But it's hard to know whether this sort of raw, authentic performance was somehow undercut by the use of AI in the film.

Absolutely. Lisa, you talked about Timothee Chalamet, and he really has been everywhere. I saw him, you know, showing up at like a lookalike contest. You know, he's really sort of making the rounds. So is this endearing quality that we're seeing? Does this seem genuine or does this seem like a campaign?

I mean, it's a fine line to walk, right? Like, you know, and I guess it's in the eye of the beholder or in this case, you know, the eye of the voter. Do they find it charming or is it too much? You're trying too hard. He hosted Saturday Night Live. He was on ESPN one day doing football picks. He has been everywhere and really charmed people. So, you know, it's going to be up to the thousands of voters in the academy to decide whether he's gone too far. I mean, in addition to those

very public things that everybody sees. You know, he goes to a bunch of film festivals that are also the precursors to the Oscars, where he interacts more directly with the people who are the voters. And, you know, the voters are producers and cinematographers and actors and directors. I mean, people all throughout the industry. And those are the ones that he really needs to charm. I mean, you know, his campaign is also to, you know, get people in the public to go see the movie.

But as far as winning the Oscar voters, yeah, you know, it's for the voters to decide. But, you know, I know that there are some years when people think, oh, yeah, that person just it's a little much. So, yeah, it's a fine line to walk. I'm going to jump in here really quick with a little antidote about Timothy. Yeah, yeah, Mike, of course. First time I ever met him was on the red carpet of the Oscars.

And I didn't know who he was. He came up to me for me to take his picture. And I'm like, sure, I'll take your picture. And usually with the men, we tend just to do headshots or waist up stuff. They're not really fashionable. I can't even remember what he was wearing, something funky, though. And he posed and then I took his picture. I put the camera down and he goes, no, no, no. You have to take everything from the shoes to the whole full frame picture. And I'm like, OK, sure. So I pull up another camera with a different lens on it.

And I take his picture and he's like, okay, gives me the thumbs up and he walks away. And I'm like, I don't, who is this guy? You know, but that was him. He was, he was, that guy is on, he's on it. Right. He knows he's going somewhere and he knows where he wants to go. There's no question. And that was maybe, um,

How important are these campaigns still for studios?

And it definitely helps. Just like in politics, it's, you know, it's who you respond to a lot of times. It's not just, you know, the performance on the screen. Also, you know, from a business perspective, these Academy Awards can make a huge difference for nominated films, particularly for independent film. You remember a few years back, The Shape of Water was a bit of an oddball of a movie, sort of sea monsters in a romantic format.

aren't a natural go-to for movies. It was a bit of challenging fare. That movie drew more than half of its box office post-nomination. So an Oscar nomination really can make the difference for a film that is distributed theatrically. And for a streamer like Netflix, an Oscar nomination can also confer prestige.

That can translate to its ability to attract top tier directors and performers, you know, who might do it for the opportunity to do a big, ambitious project that maybe another studio couldn't afford to do. And Netflix would like the prestige of ultimately being able to win a Best Picture award. You know, Dawn, you used the word whispering campaign earlier. So has the mudslinging during this year's campaign been worse than usual?

You know, there have been whispering campaigns in years past. And this year, it wasn't so much a whispering campaign as it was social media doing what it does best. Internet sleuths are terrific at using the Internet to go find out more about the people who are in the news. And in this case, Carl Sophia Gascon revealed a lot about herself that perhaps even Netflix didn't know when it acquired this movie.

We've seen the conversation around diversity and better representation being front and center right now in the U.S. Do you expect that to play any role in this year's show? I think some of the winners may very well address it. I mean, Hollywood is known for wanting to speak up about politics, and some people roll their eyes at that and they don't want to hear it. But, you know, a lot of the stars feel like they have a platform and they want to speak up.

So it depends on who the winners are, but I would think it's going to come up at some point. The host, Conan O'Brien, you know, he might throw in some jokes about it as a way of bringing it up. It's his first time hosting, and the Trump administration has frequently been a target of jokes by Oscar hosts in the past. Look, the Trump administration and the new chairman of the FCC, Brendan Carr, has targeted broadcasters for jokes.

perceived bias. And it is now conducting an investigation of Comcast and its diversity and inclusion practices. It is investigating CBS for its interview of Kamala Harris. And it is entirely possible that the network broadcast of this will be held to a higher level of scrutiny. Broadcasters may well be feeling pressured. Now, Mike, you were recently

heavily involved in leading our cover to the wildfires in L.A. I know all three of you were part of that. Lisa, maybe could you talk a little bit about what you've seen as far as the impact of the wildfires on the awards and also on the industry as a whole? So the film industry in Los Angeles was shrinking before the fires. Production was moving to other states, other countries.

that had tax incentives to make the production cheaper. There is a real worry that a lot of the crew who live here are going to say, well, why should I rebuild here if there's not going to be any work here? They might leave. A bunch of the skilled crew might leave Los Angeles.

Now, there are advocates who are trying to capitalize on this because there is so much goodwill toward Los Angeles right now and the recovery. And they have started a Stay in L.A. campaign. They say the best way to help L.A. recover from the fires is to do more production here, get people back to work. You might see it come up at the Oscars on Sunday because, you know, the big name actors live here and a lot of the crew members live here and they want to be home and work here. The movie industry is a tough industry because you talk to people. No one's got...

a staff job anywhere. Everyone's a freelancer pretty much. So they don't have a steady stream of income. It's been tough on this city, I'll tell you that. It's really hard for these people. They went through COVID, they went through the strike, and now they have the fire. Yeah, hopefully they do something really sweet at this award show because they've

Someone should shout out. And one thing I would add on that is, I mean, there were some calls that, oh, Hollywood should cancel all the award shows and donate the money to fire relief. But then other people said, no, you know what? Those shows employ a lot of people. A United Talent Agency has decided to scrap its pre-Oscar party and use the money that it would have spent to benefit fire relief. Every year, there's an organization called Everyone Wins, gives out

these opulent gift baskets to every nominee. Among the items included in this year's gift basket is $1 million worth of personalized disaster recovery services from a company called Bright Harbor. So that appears to be a nod to the realities here in Hollywood. ♪

And a ceremony, a celebration like this, obviously has a lot of logistics involved. So, Mike, I want to ask you a little bit about that. How many photographers do we have actually covering this event?

For Reuters, photographically wise, we have one person shooting the show. That's usually from the projection room. It's like a very long lens, 600 millimeters. I've shot the show many times. It's super stressful. I believe this year I'm just roaming the red carpet, which is a little bit easier. Then we have a photographer in the back photo room. And then on the red carpet, the arrivals are usually this. We call it step and repeat. It's a fashion picture shoot.

everyone cares about who wore what to wear, basically. And for me, it's more about who's chatting with who on the red carpet, who did they run into. And a lot of it's really interesting because you'll see people that haven't seen each other for years and they're working in different countries all the time and they may have worked on a movie three years ago. That movie may be up for an award this year, depending on the timeline and production. And they probably haven't seen each other since they made the movie. So there's a lot of

camaraderie and there's a you get a real sense of community

roaming the red carpet and seeing all these people just happy to see each other. Now, Mike, you've been covering this longer than any of us. So from a coverage standpoint, how have things changed over the years? It's changed with technology as technology has moved ahead. I mean, the first Oscars I did was, I think, in the 90s. I didn't even shoot it. I was working in the darkroom developing color film, making color prints. Now, when a

photographer takes a picture, the editor sees it instantly, chooses the best frame, props it, the metadata is added to it, and then it goes out to the wire. And all of that literally is 30 seconds or a minute at the most.

So things have changed. So Mike, when you're roaming that carpet, what are you looking for? Yeah, I'm just trying to figure out who's who because they come at you from all directions, honestly. Talk to me about prep. What do you do to get ready for a big show like this? Looking at who's nominated and what they look like. That's basically my prep because there's little things you remember about preps.

the actors and they stay in your mind. But the newer actors, if I haven't seen the movie, I basically have to look up and remember what they look like. Do you guys think about what you're going to be wearing or your hair or any of that stuff that we all associate with the Oscars? As journalists, we actually receive a directive from the Academy dictating our attire. We're actually required to wear gowns and or tuxes. And if we are anywhere near the red carpet, we're

were actually told to wear either black or dark blue. So there's not a whole lot of creative license, if you will. Yeah, and I always think it's kind of a ridiculous scene backstage, which is actually a hotel next door to the Dolby Theater. We're not even in the same building. There's like 200 journalists in this room. We all are hunched over laptops. There's wires going everywhere, yet we're in these glamorous ball gowns. Yeah.

So it is not really glamorous. It's kind of absurd. And I wish I had a picture, but they also don't allow any pictures in that room. The greatest irony is there's a whole deli counter vibe to it. Each journalist is given a paddle with a number and we are called upon. We hold our paddles aloft and we are randomly called upon to to ask our questions if we're lucky.

Well, I won't be at the Dolby Theater like you guys, but I will be watching. I'm getting ready to pop the Prosecco, the popcorn, maybe some Raisinets. And thank you all for sharing your insights and your thoughts.

I can't wait to see the coverage, to see who wins the big night. Yeah, thanks for having us. It was fun. Thanks for having us. Don't forget to order Wolfgang Puck pizza so you can be, you know, feel like you're there with us. If only they had it in New Jersey.

Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. I don't know if you knew this, but anyone can get the same premium wireless for $15 a month plan that I've been enjoying. It's not just for celebrities. So do like I did and have one of your assistant's assistants switch you to Mint Mobile today. I'm

I'm told it's super easy to do at mintmobile.com slash switch. A big thank you to Lisa, Mike, Dawn, and everybody who's covering the Oscars.

The Reuters World News team includes Kim Finnell, Gail Issa, David Spencer, Jonah Green, Christopher Waljasper, and myself, Sharon Reich-Garson. Our senior producers are Tara Oaks and Carmel Crimmins. Our executive producer is Lila Dekretzer. Sound design and music composition is by Josh Sommer. We'll be back on Monday with our daily headline show.

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