LOS ANGELES (AP) – The 89th Academy Awards should be a very schizophrenic affair: equal parts pomp and politics.
The only thing expected to take the stage more often than the frothy front-runner “La La Land” at Sunday’s ceremony is protest (and probably some punchlines) over the policies of President Donald Trump. For largely liberal Hollywood, his election has proven a rallying cause-celebre throughout an awards season that has otherwise been a parade of honors for Damien Chazelle’s celebrated musical.
Just how political things are going to get at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles may be the biggest question of Sunday night’s show, to be broadcast by ABC beginning at 8:30 p.m. EST, with red carpet coverage starting earlier. The current forecast for Sunday is only a slight chance of rain, though the inside of the Dolby Theatre is expected to be far stormier.
Even the usually glitzy lead-up to Sunday’s show has taken on the form of a gathering tempest. On Friday, the United Talent Agency, forgoing its usual Oscar party, instead held a rally over immigration. “We will not tolerate chaos and ineptitude and war-mongering,” Jodie Foster told attendees.
More strikingly, the six directors of the foreign film nominees on Friday released a joint statement condemning “the climate of fanaticism and nationalism we see today in the U.S. and in so many other countries, in parts of the population and, most unfortunately of all, among leading politicians.”