Red Carpet Watch | The Academy Awards, Santa Barbara Style 

I’m still waiting for my invitation to walk the red carpet, but despite the oversight, I’m a sucker for all of the Academy Awards hoopla leading up to the big event on Sunday. As I wrote in last week’s ON Culture newsletter, I’ve watched every broadcast since I was a little girl and am looking forward to this year’s Barbie-themed watch party at a friend’s house, despite the fact this year’s Oscar ceremony falls on one of my least favorite days of the year — when the clocks spring ahead and we lose an hour of sleep! 

I think this is the first year that the awards have fallen on the first day of Daylight Savings Time, and while it’s not quite the first time that a woman has been nominated for Best Director, as I write this on International Women’s Day it would still benefit us all to recognize that when French director Justine Triet’s name is announced as a nominee on Sunday, she shares the spotlight as only the eighth woman EVER nominated as Best Director. The others include: Lina Wertmüller for Seven Beauties in 1975; followed by Jane Campion, who was nominated for The Piano in 1993 and won in 2021 for The Power of the Dog; Sophia Coppola for Lost in Translation in 2003; Kathryn Bigelow, who won for The Hurt Locker in 2009; Greta Gerwig for Lady Bird in 2017; Emerald Fennell, who was nominated in 2021 for Promising Young Woman; and Chloé Zhao, who won for Nomadland in 2021. 

That being said, I think I’m rooting for Triet’s fellow SBIFF Director of the Year Martin Scorsese, who was so interesting and sharp at SBIFF and at age 81, becomes the oldest nominated director in history (for Killers of the Flower Moon, a film I also found more compelling and much less problematic than Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, which is predicted to win for both Best Director and Best Picture nonetheless). According to the website BonusInsider.com, the safest Oscar bet of all is in the Supporting Actress category, where Da’Vine Joy Randolph achieved an astonishing 92.29 percent prediction as the likely winner. Feted last month at the SBIFF Virtuosos Awards, and given how funny and charming and so very different she was than the character she played in The Holdovers, I’m looking forward to having the whole world meet the absolutely divine Da’Vine that we did at the Arlington Theatre.  

Another highlight of the show is that all five of the nominated songs are going to be performed by the original artists, including Ryan Gosling singing the nominated male anthem “I’m Just Ken,” which is just one of two songs in the running from Barbie (the other is Billie Eilish’s, which she will perform). According to Deadline’s Pete Hammond (a longtime SBIFF interviewer), “I have heard from a very good source that he will be backed by 65 male dancers, which will make it one of the biggest Best Song numbers ever performed on the Oscars. The producers didn’t directly confirm that information, but they certainly didn’t deny it.”

Some other fun things to look forward to include the possibility of composer John Williams, at age 92, breaking his own record as the oldest nominee to ever compete (his 2024 nom is for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and in 2023 he was nominated for his work in The Fablemans). Both films, incidentally, were directed by Steven Spielberg, who at one point considered directing the film that ultimately became Bradley Cooper’s 2024 Best Picture–nominated Maestro.

Other notable facts: Lily Gladstone, who graced the Arlington Theatre in fine feathered form at the SBIFF Virtuosos Awards last month, is the first Native American to be nominated for lead actress, for Killers of the Flower Moon, a film that also garnered the second Native American nomination in history — for Scott George and his Osage Tribal Ensemble for best song (they also appeared at the Arlington and will perform on Sunday too).

Additional potential records that could be broken on March 10: Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer) could become the first Irish-born actor to win Best Actor, while Justine Triet (Anatomy of a Fall) could become the first French woman to win in the Original Screenplay and Director categories. Lastly, Robert De Niro (Killers of the Flower Moon) or Jodie Foster (Nyad) could join an elite group of seven actors with more than three Oscar wins for acting, according to USBets.com.

Oppenheimer (13 nominations) could potentially break the record for the most Oscar wins in one night, while Poor Things (11 nominations) has a chance of equaling the record, which is currently jointly held by Ben-Hur, Titanic, and Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King — with 11 Oscar wins each.

In addition to what I think is one of the strongest crops of Best Picture nominees in memory, the award presenter list is particularly star-studded this year. Joining the first wave of presenters announced — Mahershala Ali, Bad Bunny, Nicolas Cage, Jamie Lee Curtis, Brendan Fraser, Chris Hemsworth, Dwayne Johnson, Michael Keaton, Regina King, Jessica Lange, Jennifer Lawrence, Matthew McConaughey, Kate McKinnon, Rita Moreno, John Mulaney, Lupita Nyong’o, Catherine O’Hara, Al Pacino, Michelle Pfeiffer, Ke Huy Quan, Sam Rockwell, Octavia Spencer, Michelle Yeoh, Ramy Youssef, and Zendaya — another slew of big names was added this week. They include: Emily Blunt, Cynthia Erivo, America Ferrera, Sally Field, Ryan Gosling, Ariana Grande, Ben Kingsley, Melissa McCarthy, Issa Rae, Tim Robbins, Steven Spielberg, Mary Steenburgen, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlize Theron, Christoph Waltz and Forest Whitaker presenting at the 96th Oscars.

What will they be wearing? I can’t wait to see! (And in case you’re curious, I’ll be wearing pink at our Barbie watch party on Sunday, but when the red carpet calls, I’ll definitely be wearing red.)

Where to Watch

Looking for a big screen to watch the Academy Awards broadcast on March 10? The Arlington Theatre is hosting a FREE watch party as well as a special pre-show ticketed event, where $20 gets you a red carpet pre-show party, priority seating for the big event, free popcorn, a free cocktail, and a raffle ticket for a chance to win prizes. Tickets are available at the Arlington Theatre box office. See ArlingtonTheatreSB.com for more info.

Councilmember Oscar Gutierrez is also hosting a public Oscar Party at Soul Bites from 4-8 p.m., a campaign fundraiser which includes a viewing party, food, and music by none other than DJ Darla Bea. Click here for info. 

The Santa Barbara Symphony is also getting in on the Academy Award action, performing live at the Granada on March 16-17 as clips from Oscar-winning films like Gone with the Wind, An American in Paris, and The Wizard of Oz project on the big screen and internationally renowned Maestro Constantine Kitsopoulos guest conducts. The wonderful Leslie Zemeckis was recently added as the host for the evening. Click here for more info.