The Oscars are the best night of the year for seeing all your favourite stars on the red carpet. But if youâre not even sure who this yearâs contenders are, weâre here to answer all your questions (in the time it takes you to pop your popcorn)!
Our favourite category is always the Best Video Poker Online OscarâŠwhich we think will go to Gaming Club for their amazing poker selection. Wait a minuteâŠthatâs not an Oscars category! But youâll still feel like a big winner when youâre raking in your gold at Gaming Club.
When are the Oscars in 2020?
You still have a bit of time to get ready for the OscarsâŠbut theyâre coming up soon. You can watch the 92nd Academy Awards on February 9th. The event will be held in the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, where all the biggest stars will be in attendance.
Whoâs hosting?
In 2019, the Academy Awards were a bit differentâŠbecause there was no host! Theyâll be keeping that up this year, with each award having its own presenter, but no central host. The 2019 format was a success with viewers, so itâs likely this will be the new normal for the awards.
What are the special performances?
The Oscars arenât just about watching people accept awardsâthe performances are great, too! This year weâll see Elton John perform a song from Rocketman, a bio musical about him that came out in 2019. Weâll also hear Idina Menzel perform a song from Frozen II, which was nominated for the Best Original Song category. Thereâs also music from Harriet, Breakthrough, and Toy Story 4.
Who got nominated?
Itâs unlikely that youâve seen all the nominated films, since not all of them are big box office hits. But, the Oscars is a great way to build up your to-watch list with the winning films! Itâs no surprise that Joker got the most nominations, with an impressive 11 for pretty much all aspects of the movie: Best Cinematography, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Actor, and more. Three other films received 10 nominations apiece: The Irishman, 1917, and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
What are the biggest categories?
The Oscars donât just have categories for films, directors, and actors, but also for the behind-the-scenes work like makeup and costumes, music, sound and video editing, and screenwriting. The most popular categories, though, are usually Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor and Actress.
Best Picture is always a huge honor to win, and this year the competition is stiff with nine amazing nominated films. Best Actor and Best Actress each have five nominees, with big names like Leonardo DiCaprio, Joaquin Phoenix, Scarlett Johansson, and Charlize Theron.
The Best Director category is a boysâ club yet again, with five male nominees including famed directors like Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino. Tarantino himself once said that âdirecting is a young manâs gameâ and the nominees are almost always men.
Directing isnât the only game thatâs a bit of a boysâ clubâpoker is also far more popular among men, though the number of female players is rising. A worldwide poll from Poker Players Research found that 24.3% of men play poker for money while only 16.7% of women do. So, girls, get out there and show the boys whoâs boss at the poker table! Maybe start by playing video poker online.
As far as the Oscars, it isnât that women arenât playing the game, theyâre just not recognized as often. Only 5 women have ever received a Best Director nomination. The Oscars have frequently been criticized for the lack of diversity on the panel that decides the awardsâwhich is overwhelmingly made up of white men.
What are the records to beat?
Itâs possible that Joker could break some records this year. Only three films have won 11 Oscars: Ben-Hur (1959), Titanic (1997), and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003). Return of the King also had the largest sweep, for winning awards in every category it had a nomination for (11 categories). But, there have also been two films in Oscar history who had 11 nominations and no awards: The Turning Point (1977) and The Color Purple (1985). We doubt this will be the case for Joker.
