In something of a surprise, the Academy announced late this afternoon that the annual nominations announcement will no longer be announced live at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.
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Traditionally, the Academy has recruited one or two notable former nominees or up and coming stars to reveal the nominees alongside the sitting Academy president. Hundreds of members of the global entertainment press corps along with every contending publicist in town sits in the theater as the nominations are revealed. Last year John Krasinski, Guillermo Del Toro and Ang Lee participated in the event.
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The Academy will still announce the nominees on Tuesday, Jan. 24 beginning at 5:18 AM PT, 8:18 AM ET, but it will be done digitally and without a live audience. Oscar-winning and nominated members such as Jennifer Hudson, Brie Larson, Emmanuel Lubezki, Jason Reitman and Ken Watanabe will join Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs in revealing the nominations although it’s unclear if they will be up early like everyone else or digitally record each potential nominee beforehand.
According to Deadline, these participants will include “wit and wisdom” about their own Academy experiences in the hope to “tell their own story.” Whatever that means. It feels like the Academy may have overthought this a bit, but we’ll hold out for the best that it’s more fun and less awkward than it sounds.
Viewers will be able to watch the nominations live on Oscars.com, Oscars.org, broadcast and cable news outlets. It’s unclear whether the Academy will stream the nominations on Facebook live, but we’d suggest they do.
