Will Smith slapped Chris Rock on the Oscars final yr. (Image courtesy: AFP)

New Delhi:

The Oscars happen Sunday, with two huge questions on everybody’s lips: Will anybody get slapped? And can a wacky sci-fi that includes scorching canine fingers and butt plugs actually win finest image?

While the reply to the primary query is probably going no — Academy chiefs have a “crisis team” in place after Will Smith’s misadventures final yr — the overwhelming response to the latter appears to be sure.

Everything Everywhere All at Once, which follows a Chinese immigrant laundromat proprietor locked in battle with an inter-dimensional supervillain who occurs to even be her personal daughter, couldn’t be additional out of your typical Oscar winner.

In a plot nearly too weird to explain, Michelle Yeoh’s heroine Evelyn should harness the facility of her alter egos dwelling in parallel universes, which function scorching canine as human fingers, speaking rocks and intercourse toys used as weapons and trophies.

But the movie has dominated almost each award present in Hollywood, with its charismatic, predominantly Asian stars — supported by the ever-popular Jamie Lee Curtis — changing into the feel-good story of the season.

“It’s a group of very likeable people behind the movie who it’s impossible to not be happy for,” Hollywood Reporter awards columnist Scott Feinberg informed AFP.

Having received high honours from Hollywood’s administrators, producers, actors and writers guilds, the movie — a bona fide, word-of-mouth, $100 million-grossing viewers hit too — is anticipated to dominate Oscars evening.

But not like in different classes, the film might hit a stumbling block for finest image — the night’s high prize — as a result of particular “preferential” voting system, through which members rank movies from finest to worst.

The system punishes divisive movies, and Feinberg stated “many” voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences “just don’t get” the madcap attraction of “Everything Everywhere.”

If any rival can profit, it’s seemingly All Quiet on the Western Front, Netflix’s German-language World War I film that dominated Britain’s BAFTAs.

Another potential beneficiary is Top Gun: Maverick, the long-awaited sequel from Tom Cruise — no much less a determine than Steven Spielberg not too long ago stated the actor and his movie “might have saved the entire theatrical industry” from the pandemic.

– Toss-ups –

If one of the best image has a transparent favorite, the appearing races are extremely tight.

“I can’t remember a year, at least in the time I’ve been doing it, where three of the four acting categories were true toss-ups,” stated Feinberg.

In finest actress, Cate Blanchett had lengthy been a favorite to win a 3rd Oscar for Tar, however Everything Everywhere love might propel Yeoh to a historic first win by an Asian lady within the class.

Best actor is a three-horse race between Austin Butler Elvis, Brendan Fraser The Whale and Colin Farrell The Banshees of Inisherin. And supporting actress possibly even nearer.

Angela Bassett, the primary Marvel superhero actor ever nominated with Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, is up towards Curtis and Banshees star Kerry Condon. One class does look like locked.

Ke Huy Quan, the previous baby star of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and The Goonies, has received each finest supporting actor prize going and appears near-certain to finish a comeback story for the ages. – ‘The Slap’ –

Hanging over the ceremony is the specter of The Slap — the stunning second ultimately yr’s Oscars when Smith assaulted Chris Rock on stage for cracking a joke about his spouse.

At a press convention this week, Oscars government producer Molly McNearney stated: “We’re going to acknowledge it, and then we’re going to move on.”

For Feinberg, “The Academy has made it very clear that they don’t find it funny and they would rather it not be discussed. But I guess you can’t pretend it didn’t happen.”

Organizers had been criticized final yr for permitting Smith to stay on the present after the assault, and even acquire his finest actor award.He was later banned from Oscars occasions for a decade, that means he can’t current one of the best actress statuette this yr, as is conventional.

A “crisis team” has been arrange for the primary time, to right away reply to any sudden developments. Asked by AFP how this is able to work ought to one thing untoward occur, producer Glenn Weiss stated “every major event I’ve worked on in the last 20 years has some kind of security.”

“We’ve done the Democratic Convention, we’ve done the inauguration for multiple presidents. We put on the entertainment — the Secret Service takes care of the other side.”

The focus of his group, and host Jimmy Kimmel, is strictly “to keep it entertaining and hopefully keep you guys watching,” he stated.

– Blockbusters –

Whether folks will maintain watching is arguably the largest query of all.

Partly due to “The Slap,” final yr’s scores improved from document lows, however remained nicely beneath their late Nineteen Nineties peak, as curiosity in awards exhibits wanes and doomsayers proceed to foretell the demise of theatergoing.

This yr, organizers hope nominations for broadly watched blockbusters like Top Gun: Maverick and Avatar: The Way of Water will deliver viewers again.

“If the public cares about the movies, they care about the Oscars, relatively more,” stated Feinberg.

The yr Titanic received 11 Oscars together with finest image, in 1998, recorded the best ever scores, with 57 million tuning in. “That world is gone,” stated Feinberg. “But if it doesn’t go up from last year, then the Academy has a big problem.”