Are the 96th Academy Awards little more than a coronation for Oppenheimer, or will a surprise movie drop a metaphorical bomb by taking Best Picture this year? That is precisely what many of us will be tuning in to find out when the 2024 Oscars air live on ABC on Sunday, March 10th, at the new (and earlier) time of 4 PM PDT / 7 PM EDT.
How to watch the ceremony
If you want to watch along live, you can tune in over-the-air to your local ABC station with your cable subscription or an antenna. You can also watch on ABC.com or the ABC app, but you will need a cable login. There are also several live TV streaming services that carry ABC, including YouTube TV, Hulu Live TV, DirecTV Stream, and Fubo.
Oscars 2024 nominations
There are 23 categories being voted on by members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences at the 96th Academy Awards, all of which you can peruse on the Oscars 2024 website. Unsurprisingly, Oppenheimer leads the way with 13 nominations, putting it in contention for Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and more.
While Oppenheimer is the odds-on favorite to win the award, the other Best Picture contenders include American Fiction, Anatomy of a Fall, Barbie, The Holdovers, Killers of the Flower Moon, Maestro, Past Lives, Poor Things, and The Zone of Interest.
Controversially, Barbie was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay despite not being adapted from any previous work. The Academy also ruffled feathers by failing to nominate Greta Gerwig for directing one of the most celebrated and successful movies of 2023. At the very least, there isn’t much doubt the blockbuster will win for Best Original Song.
Host, presenters, and performers
Once again, Jimmy Kimmel will host the Oscars this year — his fourth time since 2017.
He will be joined on stage by a parade of presenters, including Mahershala Ali, Nicolas Cage, Jamie Lee Curtis, Brendan Fraser, Jessica Lange, Matthew McConaughey, Lupita Nyong’o, Al Pacino, Michelle Pfeiffer, Ke Huy Quan, Sam Rockwell, Michelle Yeoh and Zendaya.
Even if you don’t care about awards, it might be worth tuning in for the performances alone this year. Ryan Gosling will indeed take the stage to perform “I’m Just Ken” with Mark Ronson after being asked about the possibility nonstop for the past seven months.
You’ll also get a chance to see Becky G perform “The Fire Inside” from Flamin’ Hot, Jon Batiste perform “It Never Went Away” from American Symphony, Scott George and the Osage Singers perform “Wahzhazhe (A Song For My People)” from Killers of the Flower Moon, and Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell perform “What Was I Made For?,” also from Barbie.