Oscars 2018, as it happened: George Osborne joins Kendall Jenner and Matt Smith at the afterparties

 

Oscars 2018: Best looks from the after-parties, in pictures
Oscars 2018: Best looks from the after-parties, in pictures

Gary Oldman has been named best actor at this year’s Oscars, writes Harriet Alexander, using his acceptance speech to praise Winston Churchill on a night of great victory for British talent.

Oldman, 59, was the red-hot favourite to win the award for Darkest Hour, and, at the 90th Academy Awards, paid tribute to his mother back home in south London.

"I would like to thank my mother, who is older than the Oscar,” he said. “She is 99 years young next birthday, and watching on her sofa. I say thank you for your love and support. Put your kettle on - I'm bringing Oscar home."

On a night of few surprises – to the certain relief of the producers, after last year’s debacle with the wrong best picture - Frances McDormand was named best actress, and delivered the most memorable acceptance speech of the night.

Placing her golden statuette on the ground, she made all the women nominated in any category stand up, rousing them with the words: “Meryl, if you do it, everybody else will, c'mon.”

She concluded with two words: “inclusion rider” – an appeal for contracts to guarantee gender and racial diversity.

Guillermo del Toro with his Best Picture and Best Director Oscars - Credit: AFP
Guillermo del Toro with his Best Picture and Best Director Oscars Credit: AFP

Host Jimmy Kimmel dealt with Hollywood’s harassment scandals head on, immediately - using his opening monologue to poke fun at Harvey Weinstein and remark wryly that the Oscar was “the most beloved and respected man in Hollywood.”

“And there’s a very good reason why,” he continued. “Just look at him. Keeps his hands where you can see them. Never says a rude word and most importantly, no penis at all. He is literally a statue of limitations.”

And it did feel like an awards ceremony pushing for change, and breaking boundaries. Jordan Peele became the first African American to win the screenwriting category, and James Ivory became the oldest ever award winner, at the age of 89, for his adapted screenplay of Call Me By Your Name. There was the first transgender presenter, Chilean actress Daniela Vega, and also – on his 14th nomination – victory for Briton Roger Deakins, who won best cinematography with Blade Runner: 2049.

Oscars 2018 | The best from The Telegraph
Oscars 2018 | The best from The Telegraph

Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway returned to mock themselves, returning to present the best picture award a second time, after the disaster – which was not their fault – last year.

“Nice to see you again,” said Beatty, to wild applause.

But the four hour show belonged to Oldman, who, along with Allison Janney and Sam Rockwell, in the best supporting categories, and Guillermo del Toro with The Shape of Water, completed the most predictable night in recent memory.

The favourite for so long, Oldman appeared relieved as he stood before the press backstage, hands in his pockets. What does he think Churchill would say to today's crop of world leaders? "He would give them a good talking to, wouldn’t he?” he said, to laughter.

His 99-year-old mother, on her sofa in London, would surely have been proud.

You can watch highlights of the 2018 Oscars at 8pm, Monday March 5, with a NOW TV Cinema pass . These are usually £9.99 for a month, but if you're a new customer you can  watch it for free with a two week free trial

 

Oscars 2018: Highlights from the show, in pictures
Oscars 2018: Highlights from the show, in pictures

10:19AM

The evening ends with the queue for an Uber

It’s now 2am in LA, and the Vanity Fair party is over - people have moved on to Madonna or Beyoncé’s places.

So there is a mad queue for an Uber. Matt Smith is stil here, laughing about Maradona. Gary Oldman and his wife called it a night a while ago, as did Daniel Kaluuya and the Black Panther cast - who were out in force and always prowl in a pack.

It’s gridlock to get out of here. But everyone is pretty happy. That Oscar is door opening gold.

8:58AM

Frances McDormand is eating a celebratory burger

As witnessed by Harriet Alexander:

It’s easy to spot Kobe Bryant here at the Vanity Fair party – not only is he constantly surrounded by people wanting photos with him and his Oscar, but he’s also significantly taller than anyone else.

Frances McDormand has just arrived – her husband, Joel Cohen, was here earlier, clasping her Oscar. She just marched towards the In-N-Out burger stand – I don’t blame her.

And Gary Oldman, the man of the moment, has also just arrived. He is, as you’d expect, beaming – and highly in demand for selfies.

Elsewhere the revellers are making the most of it. Adrien Brody, looking chic in a black shirt and jacket, is leaning over a table, deep in conversation with another man. He’s still the youngest ever best actor winner, with The Piano, aged 29. Timothee Chalamet, 22, failed to unseat him.

Chalamet is here too – he’s just arrived, having changed out of his white tux.

The night is yet young!

8:30AM

In LA, the night is still in full swing.

Harriet Alexander writes:

Kenall Jenner
Kenall Jenner

It’s just turned midnight, and the Vanity Fair party is rocking.

Supermodels are mingling with movie stars, film execs and movers and shakers.

Kendall Jenner – in an incredibly tight short black dress, with huge sleeves – and a slinky Jourdan Dunn are in hysterics with Tiffany Haddish.

Sam Taylor-Johnson and her husband Aaron are grooving at the bar. Is that Rihanna, shimmying in a gold sequinned number? It sure looks like her.

Outside on the patio, Matt Smith, of The Crown fame, is being mocked by his friends for wearing a navy trench coat. Jon Hamm, dapper as ever, shakes his hand – the snappy suit makes it seem even funnier.

James Cordon is holding court, while Willem Dafoe moseys around picking at handfuls of peanuts. Joel Cohen, the film director husband of best actress Frances McDormand, is deep in conversation clutching his wife’s Oscar.

Even George Osborne is here – his first Oscars, he says. And he’s having a mighty fine time – first it was Elton’s viewing party (where Elton sang); after this it’s to Madonna’s, and then even an invitation to Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s soirée at Chateau Marmont.

“If I’m still awake.” 

I think he might manage it.

5:24AM

Well, this is quite funny

You can't blame him for wanting to make sure... 

 

5:19AM

So what's an inclusion rider?

 "I have two words to leave with you tonight: inclusion rider," said Best Actress winner Frances McDormand at the end of her rousing acceptance speech tonight - and the room roared its approval. Across the world, however, viewers were a bit more confused. What on earth was an inclusion rider?

We had absolutely no idea - but luckily we did have our US correspondent Harriet Alexander:

At a glance | What is an inclusion rider?
At a glance | What is an inclusion rider?

 

4:59AM

Guillermo Del Toro's The Shape of Water wins Best Picture

A marginal curveball brought the night to a close, with the second favourite, Guillermo Del Toro’s The Shape of Water, pipping Three Billboards to the big win -- after Warren Beatty carefully checked the envelope. It wasn’t the euphoric upset Get Out or Lady Bird would have been, in one of the most tightly fought Best Picture races in a great many years. Beyond that, it stacked up as a night of few surprises, unless you count the relative infrequency of soapbox-climbing from presenters or winners - besides Frances McDormand’s rallying cry.

But The Shape of Water does vaguely fit in with the narrative of inclusiveness, female empowerment and sympathy for the outsider the Academy was hoping to push. It’s a politically unobjectionable choice, at least, and almost no one could begrudge Del Toro, a firm favourite in the industry, for getting to join his compatriots Alfonso Cuaron and Alejandro Gonzalez Inaritu in the winners’ club.

4:58AM

No shocks in the big acting categories - but at least we got that electric speech

Gary and Frances. They looked unbeatable in those roles, and indeed were. Not one shock in the acting races, which has to count as narratively underwhelming. But at least McDormand’s speech brought the night alive, when she brought every female nominee to their feet, hyperventilating.

4:39AM

Frances McDormand wins Best Actress for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri​

The Academy Award for Best Actress has been claimed by Frances McDormand, for her role in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri​.

"I'm hyperventilating a little bit. If I fall over pick me up cause I've got some things to say," she said.

"I want to thank Martin McDonagh. Look what you did. We are a bunch of hooligans and anarchists but we do clean up nice.

Frances McDormand
Frances McDormand accepts the award for Best Actress for her performance in hree Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

"If I may be so honoured to have all the female nominees stand with me in this room tonight. The film makers the producers the directors, the writers, the cinematographers, the songwriters, the designers," she said.

"Look around, because we all have stories to tell. I have two words to leave with you tonight: Inclusion rider."

 

 

4:31AM

Gary Oldman wins Best Actor for Darkest Hour​

Actor Gary Oldman accepts his Best Actor Academy Award for Darkest Hour
Actor Gary Oldman accepts his Best Actor Academy Award for Darkest Hour

Gary Oldman has won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance as Winston Churchill in the Second World War drama Darkest Hour.

“My deepest thanks to the academy for this glorious prize,” Oldman said.

“I’d like to salute Winston Churchill who has been marvellous company on what has been an incredible journey.”

Profile | Gary Oldman
Profile | Gary Oldman

 

4:24AM

Roger Deakins on his long-awaited win

Harriet Alexander writes:

Roger Deakins, 68, is certainly one of the night’s most deserving winners – taking home the Oscar on his 14th nomination.

He won the award for best cinematography with Blade Runner: 2049.

After picking up the award, he told the press backstage: “The idea of following up that original film was a little scary, to say the least.”

He said he didn’t particularly enjoy being on stage to collect the award, but was thankful for the recognition it signified for his colleagues.

“A big part of me was saying: ‘please, no!’ I find it very hard,” he said.

Roger Deakins
Roger Deakins

“But I work with a lot of the same people on my crew for many years, and it’s recognition for them. I’d have liked to have mentioned every one of them.”

His 2018 nod was the 14th in a career that has spanned over 40 years, many classics—including Shawshank Redemption, The Big Lebowski, Fargo, and True Grit.

“I really love my job. I have been doing it a long time as you can see,” Deakins said, upon accepting his award. “One of the reasons I really love it is because of the people I work with in front of and behind the camera.” 

But he is not the longest “bridesmaid”.

Last February, Kevin O’Connell broke the longest streak for Oscar nominations without a win when the sound mixer won for Hacksaw Ridge, which was his 21st nomination.

4:19AM

Guillermo Del Toro wins Best Director for The Shape of Water

The film, nominated for 13 awards in total, including Best Picture, previously won its first Oscar of the night for Best Production Design and its second for Best Original Score.

Emma Stone previously introduced the nominees as "four men and Greta Gerwig", drawing attention to the fact that only one of this year's nominated directors is a woman - and to the fact that Gerwig is only the fifth woman to ever be nominated.

That said, while it'd have been nice to see a triumph for Gerwig and Lady Bird, it's impossible to begrudge the phenomenally talented Del Toro his win.

Guillermo Del Toro wins Best Director for The Shape of Water - Credit: Getty
Guillermo Del Toro wins Best Director for The Shape of Water Credit: Getty

"I am an immigrant, like many of you... and I think the greatest thing our industry does is to erase the lines in the sand, we should continue doing that when the world tells us to make them deeper," he said during a moving, emotional speech. 

4:12AM

An appropriately tear-jerking In Memoriam section

With an elegiac electric guitar, Eddie Vedder took us through the In Memoriam to the twangs of Tom Petty's Room at the Top, his voice dripping with sorrow. Tributes to Harry Dean Stanton and Roger Moore, among others. No, you're crying. 

4:10AM

Coco's Remember Me wins Best Original Song

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Sufjan woz robbed. Mystery of Love all the way, for us. 

4:04AM

The Shape of Water wins its second Oscar of the night, for Best Original Score

Alexandre Desplat wins Best Original Score for his pretty, vaairy French compositions on The Shape of Water, adding a companion Oscar to the one he already took for The Grand Budapest Hotel. We’d have preferred a Jonny Greenwood scoop for his much more astringent Phantom Thread work.

3:52AM

Blade Runner 2049 wins Best Cinematography

Fourteen nominations, and fiiiiiinally Roger Deakins, one of the great cinematographers of all time, has taken a trophy home, for Blade Runner 2049. It’s hard to grumble about him getting his due. History, in terms of a female winner joining the club, has yet to be made, though Rachel Morrison (Mudbound) is astonishingly the only person in 90 years to be in with a shot.

Roger Deakins with his long-awaited Oscar
Roger Deakins with his long-awaited Oscar

 

3:41AM

Get Out wins Best Original Screenplay

Terrific choice of Jordan Peele's Get Out for Original Screenplay, one of the hardest-fought categories of the night. But certainly the most original choice, and the bravest piece of writing. Could the film even push this through to a Best Picture victory? It’s far from impossible.

Jordan Peele accepts the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for Get Out
Jordan Peele accepts the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for Get Out

"This means so much to me,” said Peele. “I stopped writing this 20 times because I thought it was impossible.”

He later took to Twitter to voice his disbelief.

 

3:36AM

James Ivory wins Best Adapted Screenplay for Call Me By Your Name

At 89 years old,  Ivory is the oldest-ever winner ever of a competitive Oscar - and it's a richly-deserved win.

"My rule number one for a screenwriter who adapts a novel is to thank the author of the novel," said Ivory, thanking Andre Aciman, who wrote the book that Call Me By Your Name is based on.

He described Call Me By Your Name as "a story familiar to most of us, whether straight, gay or somewhere in between. We've all gone through our first love, and come out the other side mostly intact."

James Ivory with his Academy award - and his Timothee Chalamet shirt - Credit: Invision
James Ivory with his Academy award - and his Timothee Chalamet shirt Credit: Invision

 

3:26AM

Kobe Bryant in the press room

Harriet Alexander reports that the press room has just turned into a sea of waving numbers, as everyone raises their cards to try and be called on to ask Kobe Bryant a question. Bryant has just won the Oscar for best animated short:

Kobe Bryant has just bounced into the room, beaming.

"I feel better than winning the championship," he said. 

He speaks about how, when he first went into film, he was greeted with scepticism.

"To do this, I feel a sense of validation. This is crazy, man," he said.

Bryant’s short, “Dear Basketball,” is based on the poem he wrote in 2015 when he announced his retirement from the Los Angeles Lakers. The poem is set to hand-drawn animation by Glen Keane and a score by John Williams. 

Keane laughed at Bryant's joy, adding: "And after you don’t have to sit in a tub of ice."

Asked what was next, Bryant replied: “More! More! After John Williams scored the film, he said: ‘you know, that was way too short. You have to give me more.’ And I was like: ohhhh-kay!”

He added: “The hardest thing for athletes, when you start over, is get rid of the ego. You have to start again. And my advice to athletes is that when you find the thing you love to do, keep doing it. I love getting up in the morning.

“All of it gets me out my comfort zone. My daughter gave me the best piece of advice. My 11-year-old, she said dad, you always tell us to go after our dreams. So do it. Man up."

 

3:21AM

Heaven Is a Traffic Jam on the 405 wins Best Documentary Short, and The Silent Child wins Best Live Action Short Film

Our critic Tim is not impressed:

"The live-action shorts were not very thrilling. The Silent Child is better than some -- well-shot and well-acted, even if it ultimately felt like a button-pushing informercial about the treatment of deaf children. Still, at least they didn’t give it to DeKalb Elementary, a thoroughly phony school-shooting drama. And Tiffany Haddish and Maya Rudolph had fun presenting - and representing - without taking any of it too seriously."

Accepting the award, British actress Rachel Shenton (who plays Mitzee in Hollyoaks) said: "I made a promise to our six-year-old lead actress that I’d sign this speech, but my hands are shaking a little bit so I apologise."

"Our movie is about a deaf child being born into a world of silence. It’s not exaggerated or sensationalised for the movie, this is happening. Children all over the world face communication barriers."

She signed her speech.

3:17AM

Kobe Bryant's problematic past: critics bring up past sexual assault 

Basketball star Bryant accepted an Oscar earlier tonight for his role as the writer of animated short Dear Basketball, a film which tracks the story of his sporting career via a self-penned poem. But, in a night marked by celebration of the recent Me Too and Time's Up movements, some are querying whether his nomination was an appropriate one.

In 2013, Bryant was accused of sexual assault by a 19-year-old woman. She later decided not to testify in court, but Bryant released the following statement, which acknowledged that the woman had not consented to sexual activity: "Although I truly believe this encounter between us was consensual, I recognise now that she did not and does not view this incident the same way I did. After months of reviewing discovery, listening to her attorney, and even her testimony in person, I now understand how she feels that she did not consent to this encounter."

 

3:00AM

Halftime report 

Beyond the Icarus win in Best Documentary, no surprises have been thrown up whatsoever yet. Dunkirk is doing nicely with technical wins, just as everyone expected. Sam Rockwell and Allison Janney completed their home runs to every acting award going. And there haven’t even been any remotely political acceptance speeches to spike the punch. The ceremony is sagging badly under the weight of predictability.

2:59AM

Dunkirk wins its third Academy Award of the night for Best Film Editing

Nolan's searing recreation of the famous Second World War retreat probably won't be going home with any of tonight's big awards - but at least the impeccably well-crafted film is doing well in the technical category.

2:56AM

Blade Runner 2049 wins Best Visual Effects

It's the first award of the night for the stylish (if very belated) sci-fi sequel.

2:51AM

Sufjan Stevens brings the sunshine - but will he also bring home the Oscar?

Sufjan Stevens has just brought the sunshine with a wonderful, if truncated, rendition of his Mystery of Love. Such a joyous song, tinged with so much yearning and melancholy. Would love him to win the Oscar tonight (the song was written for the equally brilliant Call Me By Your Name).

Sufjan Stevens performs Mystery of Love from Call Me by Your Name - Credit: Reuters
Sufjan Stevens performs Mystery of Love from Call Me by Your Name Credit: Reuters

 

2:45AM

Coco wins Best Animated Feature

It's a well-deserved win for the delightful Pixar Animation - but this one felt like a bit of a shoo-in. (It was up against The Boss Baby after all.) Again, it feel as if there have been very few true surprises tonight.

2:41AM

Dear Basketball wins Best Animated Short

And Tim is not very happy at all. 

"The Kobe Bryant animated short, Dear Basketball, is insufferable autohagiography and has duly won, beating the genuinely brilliant Garden Party. This was a very bad choice indeed. Garden Party should have won."

2:31AM

Allison Janney wins Best Supporting Actress for I, Tonya

"I did it all by myself," she joked - before launching into the usual round of thank yous.

There have been almost no surprises so far, except Icarus for Best Documentary.

Allison Janney accepts her Best Supporting Actress Oscar
Allison Janney accepts her Best Supporting Actress Oscar

 

2:29AM

Best Supporting Actress is up next...

Here's our critic Tim's verdict on the nominees:

Will win: Allison Janney, one of the industry’s most popular character actresses, nominated for the first time for her gorgon-mother role in I, Tonya.

Should win: Laurie Metcalf, another of the industry’s most popular character actresses, nominated for the first time for her worrywort-mother role in Lady Bird.

Where’s? Holly Hunter, brilliantly funny and exasperated, should have joined them as Zoe Kazan’s ma in The Big Sick.

2:27AM

A Fantastic Woman wins Best Foreign Language Film

Chile’s A Fantastic Woman has beaten out the Palme d’or winner (The Square) and Andrei Zvyagintsev’s Loveless to Best Foreign Film. Daniela Vega, its trans leading lady, is due to present another prize in a minute...

2:20AM

Sam Rockwell in the press room: 'Three Billboards is a dark fairytale'

Harriet Alexander is now in the press room, which the Oscar winners are ushered into when they come off stage clutching their statuettes.

She writes:

The winner of the first award, for best supporting actor - Sam Rockwell - has just come into the room to face the press.

He dedicated his win to Philip Seymour Hoffman, who died in February 2014, and who Rockwell says was a mentor. 

"Philip Seymour Hoffman was a good friend, and a huge inspiration to me," he said.

He also spoke about the approach to Three Billboards from Martin McDonagh, the Irish director.

Sam Rockwell, winner of the award for Best Supporting Actor
Sam Rockwell, winner of the award for Best Supporting Actor

He said: "Martin says that you couldn’t set this in Ireland or England. But actually I think you could set this in any working class town all over the world. But I think there is something very timely about this."

And he was asked about the ending, where - spoiler alert - Frances McDormand's character Mildred and Rockwell's character Dixon drive into the sunset, on a mission.

"The whole thing is, they have a lot of work to do – Mildred and Dixon. They are not redeemed at the end of the movie. Maybe some therapy. 

"It’s a movie, it’s a dark fairytale or sorts. In real life they probably would have gone to prison, both our characters."

2:18AM

Jennifer Lawrence stops at nothing to get to Meryl Streep 

 

2:14AM

The Shape of Water win its first award of the night for Best Production Design 

The award for Best Production Design, presented by Lupita Nyong’o and Kumail Nunjiani, goes to Shape of Water. “Keep dreaming up your monsters," Paul Denham Austerberry said, thanking director Guillermo Del Toro from the stage.

The fishy romance was nominated for a total of 13 awards, including Best Picture - but this is its first win tonight.

2:05AM

The Oscar for Best Sound Editing goes to Dunkirk - and the Oscar for Best Sound Mixing goes to Dunkirk too

Ever wondered what the exact difference between the two categories is?

The Sound Editing category awards the way in which all the sounds heard in the film (whether captured on set or added in as effects) are recorded and used.

Sound Mixing, in contrast, looks at how elements such as music are blended in with the film's diegetic soundtrack (eg with all the noises that audiences would naturally expect to hear in a scene).

Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk
Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk

 

1:44AM

Icarus wins Best Documentary Feature

The film, which looks at the scandalous world of doping in international competitive sports, and which exposed a massive Russian doping scandal, was directed by Brian Fogel and Dan Cogan and released on Netflix last year - and you can read more about the shocking story behind it here.

1:39AM

Here's our verdict on that opening monologue

JIMMY KIMMEL
JIMMY KIMMEL

Tim Robey writes:

A tough task for Jimmy Kimmel this year, to broach two big elephants and juggle them elegantly, which he did rather well: the shambles of last year’s Best Picture result, and the ongoing spectre of the #MeToo movement. Referring to the Oscar statue as genital-free was a nice way in, and pitching The Shape of Water’s woman-fish romance as the natural upshot of male terribleness was a neat payoff. But what made Kimmel’s intro play so well was his relaxed delivery -- he never seemed flustered or overwhelmed by the job in front of him, didn’t overdo any phoney self-recrimination, addressed the issues head-on, and neatly weaved between straight-talking and satire. As a bonus, there was the promise of a jet-ski for the night’s shortest speech, revealed at the back of the stage with "Helen Mirren not included". Solid job.

Helen Mirren
Helen Mirren

Here are some of his gags:

Kimmel joked that the Oscar statuette was "everyone's favourite man in Hollywood".

"Keeps his hands where you can see them. No penis at all. He’s literally a statue of limitations," he said.

He poked fun at Hollywood's attitude towards women, saying: "We made a movie called what women want – and it starred Mel Gibson."

And he quickly referenced the Weinstein scandal, mentioning how Weinstein was kicked out of the Academy in October - only the second person ever to be disgraced in such a way.

"There were a lot of great nominees and Harvey deserved it the most," he said.

 

1:35AM

Phantom Thread wins Best Costume Design

We were expecting this, given that the film itself is about costume - and the designs we saw on-screen were upheld and executed as meticulously as Daniel Day Lewis's portrayal of Reynolds Woodcock. A well-deserved win. Mark Bridges thanked director Paul Thomas Anderson and "my brilliant crew in London who worked tirelessly to make brilliant dresses and get them on camera".

1:31AM

Darkest Hour wins Best Makeup and Hairstyling

Harriet Alexander writes:

The team was led by Japanese makeup specialist Kazuhiro Tsuji, who was actually coaxed out of “retirement” from film for the production. After working for 25 years as a special effects makeup artist in Hollywood, he shifted focus in 2012, dedicating himself full time to fine art sculpture. But director Joe Wright convinced him to come back.

Alongside Tsuji were two Britons – Lucy Sibbick, and David Malinowski.

Malinowski, 39, studied in Stamford before specialising in television and video in Birmingham.

Before the award, he told me he landed the job when Oldman texted him, after they had worked together on The Hitman’s Bodyguard.

Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour
Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour

“Gary really went out on a limb for me, and said he wanted me on the film.

“I got a text about a year, 18 months ago saying: ‘Hi, it’s Gary, how do you fancy doing Churchill?’

“He’s just been brilliant to work with, and in all of his acceptance speeches has recognised us. He realised that if the makeup wasn’t as good, the film wouldn’t be as good.  And of course, if he wasn’t as good, we wouldn’t be here.

“It gives those in our industry confidence, to know that there really are nice actors out there, who do support us, and do name us. It’s genuine and straight from the heart.”

He said all his friends would be watching in the pub in Aston Clinton, near Aylesbury.

“They’re all rooting for me. My friends Justine and Jerry were due to go on holiday to South Africa, but they even changed their flights so they could be in the village and watch.”

The Oscar for best make-up has gone to the team behind Darkest Hour, who masterminded the incredible transformation of Gary Oldman into Winston Churchill.

Excitement was also stirred up online after it seemed that Tsuji had found time to thank his cats during his acceptance speech - but did he say "my cats" or "Mike Katz"?

Either way, more winners should thank their cats.

We should all thank our cats.

 

1:21AM

Sam Rockwell wins Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

"You guys rock!" said Rockwell of his fellow nominees. He also thanked "everybody involved in Three Billboards and everyone who's ever looked at a billboard".

1:15AM

Best Supporting Actor is about to be announced...

Here's Tim's verdict on the nominees:

Will win: Sam Rockwell, winner of every precursor award going for his unreconstructed hick cop, Deputy Dixon, in Best Picture favourite Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.

Should win: Willem Dafoe, for his beautifully subtle turn as a a long-suffering motel manager in The Florida Project, a film which otherwise fell behind in the competitive scuffle (this is its lone nomination).

Where’s? Michael Stuhlbarg, flat-out wonderful as Timothée Chalamet’s sage, watchful father in Call Me By Your Name. It’s heartbreaking he missed out.

1:03AM

IT'S TIME!

All eyes will be on the Best Picture envelope in the closing minutes of tonight’s ceremony, after the spectacular snafu last year when Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway were given the wrong winner to read out. But all ears will be on the acceptance speeches throughout the night, and on Jimmy Kimmel’s performance at the podium. It’s likely to be the most politicised Oscars in memory, because of the shockwaves that have gone through Hollywood after high-profile harassment and assault charges against Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey and a host of others. These issues are certain to be addressed by female winners and presenters on stage: expect it to be a night when #TimesUp finds extremely forceful voice, with the likes of Annabella Sciorra, Salma Hayek and Ashley Judd – all among Weinstein’s accusers – scheduled to present awards.

1:02AM

"Guillermo, guapo!"

Harriet Alexander writes:

Guillermo del Toro, the Mexican director, has just been surprised with the giant screen over the red carpet switching to a live feed from his hometown of Guadalajara. His friends are gathered there to watch the ceremony, and are bouncing around with excitement.

"Guillermo, guapo!" yells one, to del Toro's evident delight.

The 53-year-old director is nominated for best director for The Shape of Water - the film has 13 nominations, more than any other.

If he wins for his fantasy drama, it will be the fourth time a Mexican has taken home the prize in the last five years, after Alfonso Cuarón won in 2014 and Alejandro González Iñárritu in 2015 and 2016.

Asked what he wants audiences to take away from the film, he replied: "I want people to enjoy it. You can emphasise with the other point of view, rather than choosing fear and hatred.

And, asked what advice he had for young filmmakers, he replied: "A lot of patience. And don't eat Twinkies. They kill me!"

1:00AM

Britain's big hope has landed

Harriet Alexander writes:

Gary Oldman is the red-hot favourite to take home the award for best actor, for his portrayal of Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour.

On Friday night he told me he was philosophical about his chances, saying with a wry smile: "Sunday will be, what Sunday will be."

In less than three hours he will know.

He was asked about the incredible make up - the team behind that is also nominated for an Oscar - and whether he even recognised himself.

"Occasionally," he replied. "A little twinkle, here and there, in the eyes.

"It’s a very special experience being so disguised."

Gary Oldman at the Oscars - Credit: Getty
Gary Oldman at the Oscars Credit: Getty

Oldman, 59, was accompanied by his fifth wife, Gisele Schmidt, an art curator. He actually asked her to marry him in costume, inside the War Rooms. 

He said:

"We had discussed it, and we were on the set, and I got the urge. I asked her to marry me, she said yes, and then the producer said we have to go and there we were."

The pair then laugh about a video she shot of Oldman, in costume, dancing to James Brown.

It's well worth your time...

 

12:45AM

The big Timothee Chalamet controversy

It's the question on everyone's lips - and, via Twitter, everyone's fingertips. Just how do you pronounce "Timothee"? "Do I call him by my name?" says Telegraph film critic Tim (actually Timothy) Robey.

The answer, alas, is " definitely not". Timothee could never be a plain old Timothy.  But while some are opting for a soft "Tim-oh-thay", others are arguing that the correct French pronunciation should in fact be "Tim-oh-tay".

 Turn out, they're right - but lovely Timothee doesn't like correcting people.

 Timothee Chalamet
Timothee Chalamet

“The real pronunciation is Timo-tay, but I can’t ask people to call me that,” he revealed in an interview last month. “It just seems really pretentious.”

“My dad is from France, so it’s a French spelling, but it seems like too much of an obligation to ask people to call me that.”

12:45AM

Margot Robbie wears Chanel 

Fashion editor Caroline Leaper's verdict on Margot Robbie's gown:

Robbie
Robbie

The verdict on tonight’s gown? Simple, yet effective; a new chapter to watch unfold in Robbie's corresponding red carpet fashion career - and a sign that a great stylist is the best investment a star can make.

Robbie is up for Best Actress for I, Tonya. 

12:39AM

Elio, Oliver, Oliver, Elio

Armie
Armie

Timothee Chalamet and Armie Hammer, co-stars in Luca Guadagnino's Call Me By Your Name,  an incomparably lovely period romance. Chalamet is up for Best Actor; should he win, he'll become the youngest ever person to win in that category. Fun fact: the youngest Best Actor winner is currently Adrien Brody (aged 29) for The Pianist. 

Our own Tim says:

"Taking the world by storm with his sexual awakening in Call Me By Your Name, Timothée Chalamet is nothing less than a credit to Timkind, perhaps the best Tim to get an acting nomination since Tim Roth (Rob Roy, 1995) or maybe even Timothy Hutton (Ordinary People, 1980). If anyone was capable of beating Gary Oldman in that category, it’s probably him."

12:31AM

Eritrea represented

Harriet Alexander writes:

Comedian and actress Tiffany Haddish has arrived in an incredible embroidered black cape, headdress and strapless dress, from Eritrea. Apparently it’s called a “zuria”.

Haddish 
Haddish

She explained:

"My father is from Eritrea, and he passed away last year, and he said that if ever I make it here I have to honour my people. So here I am!

"It’s amazing. This is like, historic."

12:30AM

Daniel Kaluuya arrives at the Oscars

Kaluuya
Kaluuya

Get Out’s British star, Daniel Kaluuya, has got to be the coolest nominee this year, having starred in the kind of genre picture – a horror-thriller – which yields acting nominations only once in a blue moon. He was just too good, too subtle, too compelling in negotiating every one of the script’s confrontations differently. He’d be a thrilling surprise as a Best Actor winner, but it looks like that award is Gary Oldman’s, all the way.

12:27AM

Whoopi Goldberg: her dress has pockets

Harriet Alexander writes:

Whoopi Goldberg, 62, has just rocked up in a stunning blue floral strapless dress – causing audible gasps. It’s a great, super funky dress.

Goldberg, who won an Oscar in 1991 for her role in Ghost, was asked about whether it was still surreal, despite her being an industry veteran.

She said: “It is a little nutty. But then I walk around and see all the newbies, and it’s just grand for them.”

Whoopi Goldberg and her dress (with pockets) - Credit: FilmMagic
Whoopi Goldberg and her dress (with pockets) Credit: FilmMagic

She said her dress was made by Christian Siriano, the 32-year-old American designer.

“He said I want you to be comfortable. It has pockets.”

She then lifted up her dress, to show off her Timberland-style boots.

12:22AM

Ah look - it's not just Rita Moreno recycling an old look...

 

 

12:13AM

"Wakanda forever!"

The star of Black Panther is prowling the red carpet, reports Harriet Alexander.

She writes:

Chadwick Boseman, despite not being nominated this year (his film was only released in February), is certainly the man of the moment.

He has just strode down the red carpet in an ornate long-line black suit, with eye-catching silver embroidery and embellishment on the shoulders.

Boseman 
Boseman

Asked about the phenomenal success of Black Panther - it's nearly taken $1 billion at the box office - he laughed and said: "It's still rolling!"

And he delighted the fans in the stands by shouting at the top of his lungs: "Wakanda forever!"

12:10AM

Plummer to the rescue

Plummer
Plummer

Speaking on the red carpet, Christopher Plummer said he was unfazed by the fact he replaced Kevin Spacey in All the Money in the World after the film had been shot. "I'm used to it," Plummer told Ryan Seacrest on the red carpet. "I gradually love it…I love risk anyway." He's nominated for Best Supporting Actor. 

11:56PM

"Time's Up" and #MeToo take centre stage

Harriet Alexander writes:

This awards season has, of course, played out under the cloud of the sexual harassment and assault scandal triggered in September by the revelations about Harvey Weinstein, disgraced film producer.

Two of the leading lights in the #MeToo movement have just arrived on the red carpet - Ashley Judd, one of the first to accuse Weinstein, and Mira Sorvino.

Times Up
Times Up

Judd is in a striking purple strapless dress - the colour of royalty indeed.

Both were asked about their activism.

Sorvino said: “I have to tell you, I was with my father and I went to the restroom and this woman came and said to me: ‘Because of you, and because of other people who had the courage to tell their stories, I don’t feel alone again.’

“Women and men and boys and children have been abused forever. But we are taking this out into the light, and we’re going to change it.”

The actress, 50, who won an Oscar for Woody Allen’s Mighty Aphrodite in 1995, said she was initially terrified about speaking out.

“At the beginning I didn’t know if I’d have a career the next day. I thought I’d be blacklisted for speaking out. But instead we’re going to change this, for every women.  It’s a thrilling time. Being yourself and being truthful is the best thing you can do.”

11:52PM

Woman in black

Morrison
Morrison

Rachel Morrison is the first woman ever nominated as a cinematographer for Mudbound, and has a shot of winning, in a year when it would feel like a pertinent gesture. Still, lensing legend Roger Deakins has now managed 14 nominations without winning: will Blade Runner 2049 finally break the curse?

11:49PM

Pretty and witty and bright: Rita Moreno is wearing the same dress she wore when she won Best Actress in 1962

Harriet Alexander writes:

Rita Moreno, the 86-year-old Puerto Rican actress, has just arrived wearing the same dress she wore to win her Oscar in 1962, for West Side Story.

"I didn't think I'd win! I thought Judy Garland would. I swear, it was so unexpected. Imagine!"

Rita Moreno on the red carpet  - Credit: AFP
Rita Moreno on the red carpet Credit: AFP

She's just dancing on the stage, telling the interviewer: "I'm 86 and I'm still here!"

There were audible gasps - she really does look fabulous.

Rita Moreno, with George Chakiris and Rock Hudson in 1962
Rita Moreno, with George Chakiris and Rock Hudson at the Oscars in 1962

Moreno had the gown made especially for her at the time whilst on holiday in Manila in the Philippines, and claimed on the red carpet tonight that she had thought Judy Garland was going to win for her part in for Judgment at Nuremberg.

Our fashion expert Caroline Leaper adds:

"Moreno has made some slight alterations to her now-vintage gown: the neckline has changed from boat to strapless, but she still chose to accessorise with the same black opera gloves."

11:38PM

Important evidence that we really do have a correspondent on the red carpet

We're not lying about this.

 

11:36PM

Can we all just take a minute to appreciate James Ivory's shirt?

Our US correspondent Harriet Alexander is on the red carpet.

She writes:

The big names are arriving now, sending the fashion commentators into overdrive.

Jane Fonda has just turned up looking incredible in a long white gown - the photographers went crazy for her. The noise is amazing.

And James Ivory, the joint-oldest nominee with Agnes Varda (both are 89, although she is eight days older), has turned up in a shirt with Timothee Chalamet's face. He is the screenwriter and joint producer of Call Me By Your Name, for which Chalamet is nominated best actor.

James Ivory arrives at the Oscar - Credit: James Ivory arrives at the Oscar
James Ivory arrives at the Oscar Credit: James Ivory arrives at the Oscar

Chalamet is the youngest nominee.

Youngest Oscar winners and nominees
Youngest Oscar winners and nominees

 

11:32PM

Daniela Vega to make history tonight

Vega 
Vega

 

Daniela Vega, star of the Best Foreign Film nominee A Fantastic Woman, has taken to the red carpet. Tonight she’ll make history by being the first trans woman on stage, presenting an award. The trans director Yance Ford is also nominated for his documentary Strong Island, and could become the first winner.

11:18PM

Allison Williams is wearing Armani

 Allison Williams
Allison Williams

So we've just been told by our Fashion desk. She stars opposite David Kaluuya in the brilliant Get Out, which is up for Best Picture. 

11:14PM

Will Allison Janney win tonight? 

Allison Janney
Allison Janney

Allison Janney, one of the industry’s most popular character actresses, has arrived on the red carpet, dressed in Reem Acra. She's nominated (for Best Supporting Actress) for the first time for her gorgon-mother role in I, Tonya. 

11:12PM

James Ivory is looking dapper on the red carpet - but will he break a record tonight? 

James Ivory’s the strong favourite to win Best Adapted Screenplay for Call Me By Your Name. At 89 years old, he would become the most venerable winner ever of a competitive Oscar -- his first, after three nominations for directing in the Merchant-Ivory days. But the honour may narrowly elude him. Best Documentary Feature is being announced earlier, and the indefatigable French director of Faces/Places, Agnes Varda, also 89, could pip Ivory to the post. She’s eight days older.

Writer/director James Ivory - Credit:  WireImage
Writer/director James Ivory Credit: WireImage

 

11:09PM

Kelly Marie Tran is rocking the red carpet - but will she be part of an Oscar-winning movie?

 Sta Wars: The Last Jedi, which catapulted Tran into instant fame at the end of last year thanks to her likable turn as Rose Tico, is nominated for four awards tonight: Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, Visual Effects and Best Original Score.

Sadly, much as we liked Rian Johnson's bold, brave, take on Star Wars (and its porgs), we're not feeling all that optimistic about its chances tonight in the aforementioned technical categories, especially up against films such as Blade Runner 20149 and Nolan's Dunkirk.

Our film critic Tim Robey, meanwhile, thinks Best Score will most likely go to either Alexandre Desplat, for Shape of Water, or Jonny Greenwood for Phantom Thread.

Kelly Marie Tran arrives at the Oscars - Credit: Invision
Kelly Marie Tran arrives at the Oscars Credit: Invision

 

10:54PM

Michael Stuhlbarg arrives on the red carpet

Of the many injustices to arise from this year’s Oscar nominations, none was perhaps more egregious than Michael Stuhlbarg being snubbed for Best Supporting Actor for Call Me By Your Name. As Timothée Chalamet’s wise father, a figure who intuits his son’s sexual awakening and stands back carefully to let it play out, he'll slay you. Tim Robey wrote about it the other day, in fact. "It’s a performance that’s subtle, unassertive and hardly foregrounded at all, until one late-breaking monologue that sneaks up and destroys you," he writes. 

Interviewed on the red carpet, Stuhlbarg, who is in three of the Best Picture nominees - Call Me By Your Name, The Post and The Shape of Water - said: "It's an embarrassment of riches this year. I'm so grateful and feel blessed to be part of these films." On the monologue at the end of Call Me By Your Name, he said they only did two takes.

10:51PM

Thirty-second broadcast delay is to protect Ryan Seacrest, says source

Questions were raised ahead of tonight's coverage about whether Ryan Seacrest would still be presenting the E! Live From the Red Carpet show, in the wake of recent sexual harassment allegations against the American Idol host.

The solution, according to a source quoted in Deadline, has been to simply broadcast the coverage with a 30-second delay, in case any of the stars Seacrest interacts with bring up the allegations, or otherwise become confrontational. E!, however, has said that a 30-second delay is standard procedure, denying that it was explicitly brought in to shield Seacrest.

 

10:41PM

 The big Get Out question 

A huge number of fans (some of us live-bloggers included) are hoping that Jordan Peele's timely, disturbingly pertinent horror movie will go home with the big prize tonight - but an anonymous insight from one of the Oscar-voters has suggested that not all the people responsible for making the decision feel quite the same way about the film.

"It’s a good B-movie and I enjoyed it, but what bothered me afterwards was that instead of focusing on the fact that this was an entertaining little horror movie that made quite a bit of money, they started trying to suggest it had deeper meaning than it does, and, as far as  I’m concerned, they played the race card, and that really turned me off," the unnamed female voter told The Hollywood Reporter on Friday.

Get Out
Get Out

"In fact, at one of the luncheons, the lead actor, who is not from the United States, was giving us a lecture on racism in America and how black lives matter, and I thought, “What does this have to do with Get Out? They’re trying to make me think that if I don’t vote for this movie, I’m a racist.” ‘I was really offended. That sealed it for me."

Eek. 

Unsurprisingly, the voter's dismissal of Get Out (which merges its "B-movie shocks" with A-grade acting, a super-sharp script and truly chilling topicality) didn't go down all that well on Twitter - and nor did a later revelation that some of the older Academy members had been reluctant to watch the film, on the grounds that it wasn't a "real" Oscar movie.

 

9:59PM

Not long until the real stars arrive...

It's just gone 1:30pm in LA, and our US correspondent Harriet Alexander is on the red carpet.

She writes:

The peacocking in front of the paparazzi is quite something - and the nominees haven't even begun to arrive yet.

We were all given strict instructions as to "suitable" outfits, and the television presenters in particular have really gone to town - flowing trains, sequins and gravity-defying hairstyles.

You can tell when one of the US anchors comes into view; the crowd opposite, sitting on the bleachers for fans, go wild. Mario Lopez, host of celebrity news show Extra (better known to me as A.C. Slater from Saved by the Bell!) got a particularly loud cheer.

The atmosphere is great, though - everyone is genuinely excited, and even the cynical journalists are smiling.

Not long until the real stars arrive...

 

9:58PM

Good evening and welcome to our Academy Awards live blog

We - Patrick Smith, Rebecca Hawkes and Tim Robey - will be bringing you all the latest updates from the red carpet and the ceremony itself, letting you know tonight's winners as soon as they're announced (or, who knows, wrongly announced) - and keeping ahead of any controversies or twists.

Our US correspondent Harriet Alexander, meanwhile, will be feeding in with exciting on-the-ground/on-the-red-carpet events as the night warms up.

Stay tuned, Oscar-watchers.

6:22PM

40 things you didn't know about the Oscars

Harvey Weinstein was the second member to be expelled from the Academy – but who was the first? What was the tragic irony behind the 1939 win for The Rains Came? And why is the booze better at the Baftas? To while away the time until tonight's awards show, here's a smörgåsbord of little-known trivia about the Academy Awards.

40 things you didn't know about the Oscars
40 things you didn't know about the Oscars

 

6:08PM

The behind-the-scenes scrabble for red carpet real-estate

TV crews are already gathering on the red carpet - Credit: Harriet Alexander
TV crews are already gathering on the red carpet Credit: Harriet Alexander

Our US correspondent Harriet Alexander is at the Oscars for us. She writes:

It's 9am here in Los Angeles, and thankfully the rain has stopped and the sun is shining! There's a good five hours to go until the stars start to arrive, but already the red carpet is a hive of activity, with TV crews setting up their equipment – they've been doing that for the past week – and presenters talking to their cameras.

Last night I was talking to a friend who is on the red carpet for a broadcaster; she was telling me funny stories about the hierarchy of the positioning – it's all, as you would expect, very tightly controlled.  Her network three years ago was at the far end of the red carpet, towards the entrance to the Dolby Theater – a deathly spot, she said, as by that point all the stars have had enough and just want to get to their seat. So no one talks to you. (This year she's significantly closer to the start.)

Ryan Seacrest on the Emmys red carpet in 2011: will he get such a warm reception at the Oscars? - Credit: Getty
Ryan Seacrest on the Emmys red carpet in 2011: will he get such a warm reception at the Oscars? Credit: Getty

The big hitters here are the US networks: NBC, ABC, CNN and the entertainment show E! The stars apparently aren't allowed their own publicist on the red carpet, and are accompanied by an Academy publicist instead. I imagine they have coordinated in advance who they want to talk to (if anyone). There is also a "speed lane" for people, like Leonardo Di Caprio, who generally don't want to talk to the press, and just walk straight through.

At the centre of this year's biggest red carpet controversy is one of America's most famous television hosts, Ryan Seacrest, a $65-million-a-year man who presents American Idol. Last week he was accused by his stylist of sexual harassment, which he has strenuously denied, and his network is backing him. But will the stars talk to him? Or even confront him? Watch this space!

5:46PM

After #MeToo and #TimesUp, there's now #AskMoreOfHim

David Schwimmer has joined #AskMoreOfHim, a new all-male protest movement aimed at stamping out sexual harassment. In an open letter published on the eve of the Oscars, the Friends star was one of several film industry professionals who pledged to "to support survivors, condemn sexism wherever we see it and hold ourselves and others accountable". Other signatories include actor David Arquette and Oscar-nominated documentarian Kirby Dick. Though the organisers of #TimesUp have already said they will have "a presence" at the Oscars, there are no plans as yet for an #AskMoreOfHim protest on the red carpet. Read the full story here

4:22PM

Oscars stars who have thanked Weinstein in the past

Harvey Weinstein, the disgraced movie mogul who has denied numerous accusations of sexual misconduct over the last few months, is unlikely to be thanked in any of this year's acceptance speeches. But in previous years, major stars would regularly offer their thanks to the Shakespeare in Love producer.

 

4:14PM

How to host the perfect Oscars after-party

Have your Oscar, and eat it too: confectionery for the Governors Ball - Credit: AFP
Have your Oscar, and eat it too: confectionery for the Governors Ball Credit: AFP

The Governors Ball – the official Oscars after-party – may be the glitziest do in the Hollywood calendar. It's certainly more exciting than the ceremony itself. But organising it takes a great deal of work.

“You know that you’re going to be judged,” Academy Governor Lois Burwell told The Telegraph. Burwell, an Oscar-winning makeup artist, is in charge of tonight's revels. The decorations  include 5,000 pink roses and a wig worn by Audrey Hepburn for Breakfast at Tiffanys. But Burwell – a Londoner, through and through – says her top priority was tracking down "a decent cup of tea".  Read our behind-the-scenes feature here

3:45PM

Expect jokes about Time's Up from Jimmy

Time's Up, the anti-sexual harassment campaign launched in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, will be the subject of some topical comedy tonight, according to host Jimmy Kimmel. The comedian told Vanity Fair that there will be "bits" that address Time's Up, while admitting that the topic of sexual misconduct in the film industry could be a bit close-to-the-bone. "It’s very tricky because when people are scared they don’t laugh," he said, "and when there’s a camera in their face they behave differently... When you’re put in that position, those in the audience become a little bit of a deer in the headlights. "

3:40PM

Get Out scoops Independent Spirit Awards – is it set for Oscars victory?

Get Out's Jordan Peele has won Best Director at the Independent Spirit Awards  - Credit: Universal Pictures
Get Out's Jordan Peele has won Best Director at the Independent Spirit Awards Credit: Universal Pictures

The Independent Spirit Awards, which celebrate films made for under $20 million (£14 m) have in recent years been a good indicator for Oscars success. The last four Best Feature winners at the Spirits have all gone on to win Best Picture at the Oscars (12 Years A Slave, Birdman, Spotlight and Moonlight).

Last night, Get Out won both Best Feature and Best Director at the Spirits. Could it repeat that double victory tonight? Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is still the bookies' favourite for Best Picture, but suddenly its success looks far less certain. Read the full list of Independent Spirit Award winners

2:14PM

Who deserves to win? Ask The Muppets

With the Oscars just hours away, you might have thought every conceivable pundit had already offered up their opinion. You'd be wrong. In an interview with BBC Newsbeat, Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy have shared their thoughts on the Best Picture contenders. Piggy is not too keen on Dunkirk ("Harry Styles does not a movie make"), while Kermit – being a green-skinned romantic lead – is unsurprisingly a fan of The Shape of Water. 

Miss Piggy has some strong feelings about this year's #Oscars selection ���� pic.twitter.com/vzHGz8PtmD

— BBC Newsbeat (@BBCNewsbeat) March 4, 2018

Clearly, these are the movie experts we all need. But if you'd like a second opinion on this year's runners and riders, you can check out our human film critic Robbie Collin's predictions for who will win tonight.

2:04PM

Five nominees who could make Oscars history

Young talent: Timothée Chalamet in Call Me By Your Name - Credit: Sony Pictures
Young talent: Timothée Chalamet in Call Me By Your Name Credit: Sony Pictures

With the Oscars now in its 90th year, it's hard to imagine that there are still any records left to break. But several of tonight's nominees could earn a distinctive place in the history books. Here's why: 

  • Jordan Peele (Best Director, Get Out): If he wins the trophy for his satirical horror hit, Peele will be the first black Best Director winner in Oscars history – a particularly impressive achievement, given that Get Out is his debut film. He's only the fifth black filmmaker ever to be nominated in this category.

  • Timothée Chalamet (Best Actor, Call Me By Your Name): The 22-year-old American could be the youngest ever Best Actor (though he'll have to beat bookies' favourite Gary Oldman. He's won the hearts of audiences for his role in this coming-of-age tale. And speaking of age...

  • James Ivory (Adapted Screenplay, Call Me By Your Name): At 89, the Merchant Ivory founder is likely to become the oldest ever winner in a competitive category, unless he's beaten by...

  • Agnes Varda (Documentary Feature, Faces Places): The 89-year-old French writer/director is eight days older than Ivory, and could beat him to become the Oscars' top golden oldie – if the Academy takes a shine to her study of life in the French countryside.

  • Rachel Morrison (Cinematography, Mudbound) Now better known for her work on Marvel's Black Panther, 39-year-old Director of Photography Morrison became the first ever female cinematography nominee for her work on Netflix's beautiful period drama. Read our interview with Rachel Morrison

1:26PM

Who are this year's nominees?

As we count down the hours until tonight's Oscars, here's a quick reminder of the main contenders.

Fantasy romance The Shape of Water – the story of a mute janitor who falls in love with an amphibian man – leads the pack, with nominations in 13 categories. Winston Churchill biopic Darkest Hour has seven nominations, while Martin McDonagh's black comedy about a mother's attempt to find justice for her murdered daughter, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, has picked up six. It's worth noting that Three Billboards was a major winner at both the Golden Globes and the Baftas, which suggests it may clean up tonight, too. Read the full list of nominees here.

;To do this, I feel a sense of validation. This is crazy, man," he said.

Bryant’s short, “Dear Basketball,” is based on the poem he wrote in 2015 when he announced his retirement from the Los Angeles Lakers. The poem is set to hand-drawn animation by Glen Keane and a score by John Williams. 

Keane laughed at Bryant's joy, adding: "And after you don’t have to sit in a tub of ice."

Asked what was next, Bryant replied: “More! More! After John Williams scored the film, he said: ‘you know, that was way too short. You have to give me more.’ And I was like: ohhhh-kay!”

He added: “The hardest thing for athletes, when you start over, is get rid of the ego. You have to start again. And my advice to athletes is that when you find the thing you love to do, keep doing it. I love getting up in the morning.

“All of it gets me out my comfort zone. My daughter gave me the best piece of advice. My 11-year-old, she said dad, you always tell us to go after our dreams. So do it. Man up."

 

3:21AM

Heaven Is a Traffic Jam on the 405 wins Best Documentary Short, and The Silent Child wins Best Live Action Short Film

Our critic Tim is not impressed:

"The live-action shorts were not very thrilling. The Silent Child is better than some -- well-shot and well-acted, even if it ultimately felt like a button-pushing informercial about the treatment of deaf children. Still, at least they didn’t give it to DeKalb Elementary, a thoroughly phony school-shooting drama. And Tiffany Haddish and Maya Rudolph had fun presenting - and representing - without taking any of it too seriously."

Accepting the award, British actress Rachel Shenton (who plays Mitzee in Hollyoaks) said: "I made a promise to our six-year-old lead actress that I’d sign this speech, but my hands are shaking a little bit so I apologise."

"Our movie is about a deaf child being born into a world of silence. It’s not exaggerated or sensationalised for the movie, this is happening. Children all over the world face communication barriers."

She signed her speech.

3:17AM

Kobe Bryant's problematic past: critics bring up past sexual assault 

Basketball star Bryant accepted an Oscar earlier tonight for his role as the writer of animated short Dear Basketball, a film which tracks the story of his sporting career via a self-penned poem. But, in a night marked by celebration of the recent Me Too and Time's Up movements, some are querying whether his nomination was an appropriate one.

In 2013, Bryant was accused of sexual assault by a 19-year-old woman. She later decided not to testify in court, but Bryant released the following statement, which acknowledged that the woman had not consented to sexual activity: "Although I truly believe this encounter between us was consensual, I recognise now that she did not and does not view this incident the same way I did. After months of reviewing discovery, listening to her attorney, and even her testimony in person, I now understand how she feels that she did not consent to this encounter."

 

3:00AM

Halftime report 

Beyond the Icarus win in Best Documentary, no surprises have been thrown up whatsoever yet. Dunkirk is doing nicely with technical wins, just as everyone expected. Sam Rockwell and Allison Janney completed their home runs to every acting award going. And there haven’t even been any remotely political acceptance speeches to spike the punch. The ceremony is sagging badly under the weight of predictability.

2:59AM

Dunkirk wins its third Academy Award of the night for Best Film Editing

Nolan's searing recreation of the famous Second World War retreat probably won't be going home with any of tonight's big awards - but at least the impeccably well-crafted film is doing well in the technical category.

2:56AM

Blade Runner 2049 wins Best Visual Effects

It's the first award of the night for the stylish (if very belated) sci-fi sequel.

2:51AM

Sufjan Stevens brings the sunshine - but will he also bring home the Oscar?

Sufjan Stevens has just brought the sunshine with a wonderful, if truncated, rendition of his Mystery of Love. Such a joyous song, tinged with so much yearning and melancholy. Would love him to win the Oscar tonight (the song was written for the equally brilliant Call Me By Your Name).

Sufjan Stevens performs Mystery of Love from Call Me by Your Name - Credit: Reuters
Sufjan Stevens performs Mystery of Love from Call Me by Your Name Credit: Reuters

 

2:45AM

Coco wins Best Animated Feature

It's a well-deserved win for the delightful Pixar Animation - but this one felt like a bit of a shoo-in. (It was up against The Boss Baby after all.) Again, it feel as if there have been very few true surprises tonight.

2:41AM

Dear Basketball wins Best Animated Short

And Tim is not very happy at all. 

"The Kobe Bryant animated short, Dear Basketball, is insufferable autohagiography and has duly won, beating the genuinely brilliant Garden Party. This was a very bad choice indeed. Garden Party should have won."

2:31AM

Allison Janney wins Best Supporting Actress for I, Tonya

"I did it all by myself," she joked - before launching into the usual round of thank yous.

There have been almost no surprises so far, except Icarus for Best Documentary.

Allison Janney accepts her Best Supporting Actress Oscar
Allison Janney accepts her Best Supporting Actress Oscar

 

2:29AM

Best Supporting Actress is up next...

Here's our critic Tim's verdict on the nominees:

Will win: Allison Janney, one of the industry’s most popular character actresses, nominated for the first time for her gorgon-mother role in I, Tonya.

Should win: Laurie Metcalf, another of the industry’s most popular character actresses, nominated for the first time for her worrywort-mother role in Lady Bird.

Where’s? Holly Hunter, brilliantly funny and exasperated, should have joined them as Zoe Kazan’s ma in The Big Sick.

2:27AM

A Fantastic Woman wins Best Foreign Language Film

Chile’s A Fantastic Woman has beaten out the Palme d’or winner (The Square) and Andrei Zvyagintsev’s Loveless to Best Foreign Film. Daniela Vega, its trans leading lady, is due to present another prize in a minute...

2:20AM

Sam Rockwell in the press room: 'Three Billboards is a dark fairytale'

Harriet Alexander is now in the press room, which the Oscar winners are ushered into when they come off stage clutching their statuettes.

She writes:

The winner of the first award, for best supporting actor - Sam Rockwell - has just come into the room to face the press.

He dedicated his win to Philip Seymour Hoffman, who died in February 2014, and who Rockwell says was a mentor. 

"Philip Seymour Hoffman was a good friend, and a huge inspiration to me," he said.

He also spoke about the approach to Three Billboards from Martin McDonagh, the Irish director.

Sam Rockwell, winner of the award for Best Supporting Actor
Sam Rockwell, winner of the award for Best Supporting Actor

He said: "Martin says that you couldn’t set this in Ireland or England. But actually I think you could set this in any working class town all over the world. But I think there is something very timely about this."

And he was asked about the ending, where - spoiler alert - Frances McDormand's character Mildred and Rockwell's character Dixon drive into the sunset, on a mission.

"The whole thing is, they have a lot of work to do – Mildred and Dixon. They are not redeemed at the end of the movie. Maybe some therapy. 

"It’s a movie, it’s a dark fairytale or sorts. In real life they probably would have gone to prison, both our characters."

2:18AM

Jennifer Lawrence stops at nothing to get to Meryl Streep 

 

2:14AM

The Shape of Water win its first award of the night for Best Production Design 

The award for Best Production Design, presented by Lupita Nyong’o and Kumail Nunjiani, goes to Shape of Water. “Keep dreaming up your monsters," Paul Denham Austerberry said, thanking director Guillermo Del Toro from the stage.

The fishy romance was nominated for a total of 13 awards, including Best Picture - but this is its first win tonight.

2:05AM

The Oscar for Best Sound Editing goes to Dunkirk - and the Oscar for Best Sound Mixing goes to Dunkirk too

Ever wondered what the exact difference between the two categories is?

The Sound Editing category awards the way in which all the sounds heard in the film (whether captured on set or added in as effects) are recorded and used.

Sound Mixing, in contrast, looks at how elements such as music are blended in with the film's diegetic soundtrack (eg with all the noises that audiences would naturally expect to hear in a scene).

Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk
Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk

 

1:44AM

Icarus wins Best Documentary Feature

The film, which looks at the scandalous world of doping in international competitive sports, and which exposed a massive Russian doping scandal, was directed by Brian Fogel and Dan Cogan and released on Netflix last year - and you can read more about the shocking story behind it here.

1:39AM

Here's our verdict on that opening monologue

JIMMY KIMMEL
JIMMY KIMMEL

Tim Robey writes:

A tough task for Jimmy Kimmel this year, to broach two big elephants and juggle them elegantly, which he did rather well: the shambles of last year’s Best Picture result, and the ongoing spectre of the #MeToo movement. Referring to the Oscar statue as genital-free was a nice way in, and pitching The Shape of Water’s woman-fish romance as the natural upshot of male terribleness was a neat payoff. But what made Kimmel’s intro play so well was his relaxed delivery -- he never seemed flustered or overwhelmed by the job in front of him, didn’t overdo any phoney self-recrimination, addressed the issues head-on, and neatly weaved between straight-talking and satire. As a bonus, there was the promise of a jet-ski for the night’s shortest speech, revealed at the back of the stage with "Helen Mirren not included". Solid job.

Helen Mirren
Helen Mirren

Here are some of his gags:

Kimmel joked that the Oscar statuette was "everyone's favourite man in Hollywood".

"Keeps his hands where you can see them. No penis at all. He’s literally a statue of limitations," he said.

He poked fun at Hollywood's attitude towards women, saying: "We made a movie called what women want – and it starred Mel Gibson."

And he quickly referenced the Weinstein scandal, mentioning how Weinstein was kicked out of the Academy in October - only the second person ever to be disgraced in such a way.

"There were a lot of great nominees and Harvey deserved it the most," he said.

 

1:35AM

Phantom Thread wins Best Costume Design

We were expecting this, given that the film itself is about costume - and the designs we saw on-screen were upheld and executed as meticulously as Daniel Day Lewis's portrayal of Reynolds Woodcock. A well-deserved win. Mark Bridges thanked director Paul Thomas Anderson and "my brilliant crew in London who worked tirelessly to make brilliant dresses and get them on camera".

1:31AM

Darkest Hour wins Best Makeup and Hairstyling

Harriet Alexander writes:

The team was led by Japanese makeup specialist Kazuhiro Tsuji, who was actually coaxed out of “retirement” from film for the production. After working for 25 years as a special effects makeup artist in Hollywood, he shifted focus in 2012, dedicating himself full time to fine art sculpture. But director Joe Wright convinced him to come back.

Alongside Tsuji were two Britons – Lucy Sibbick, and David Malinowski.

Malinowski, 39, studied in Stamford before specialising in television and video in Birmingham.

Before the award, he told me he landed the job when Oldman texted him, after they had worked together on The Hitman’s Bodyguard.

Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour
Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour

“Gary really went out on a limb for me, and said he wanted me on the film.

“I got a text about a year, 18 months ago saying: ‘Hi, it’s Gary, how do you fancy doing Churchill?’

“He’s just been brilliant to work with, and in all of his acceptance speeches has recognised us. He realised that if the makeup wasn’t as good, the film wouldn’t be as good.  And of course, if he wasn’t as good, we wouldn’t be here.

“It gives those in our industry confidence, to know that there really are nice actors out there, who do support us, and do name us. It’s genuine and straight from the heart.”

He said all his friends would be watching in the pub in Aston Clinton, near Aylesbury.

“They’re all rooting for me. My friends Justine and Jerry were due to go on holiday to South Africa, but they even changed their flights so they could be in the village and watch.”

The Oscar for best make-up has gone to the team behind Darkest Hour, who masterminded the incredible transformation of Gary Oldman into Winston Churchill.

Excitement was also stirred up online after it seemed that Tsuji had found time to thank his cats during his acceptance speech - but did he say "my cats" or "Mike Katz"?

Either way, more winners should thank their cats.

We should all thank our cats.

 

1:21AM

Sam Rockwell wins Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

"You guys rock!" said Rockwell of his fellow nominees. He also thanked "everybody involved in Three Billboards and everyone who's ever looked at a billboard".

1:15AM

Best Supporting Actor is about to be announced...

Here's Tim's verdict on the nominees:

Will win: Sam Rockwell, winner of every precursor award going for his unreconstructed hick cop, Deputy Dixon, in Best Picture favourite Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.

Should win: Willem Dafoe, for his beautifully subtle turn as a a long-suffering motel manager in The Florida Project, a film which otherwise fell behind in the competitive scuffle (this is its lone nomination).

Where’s? Michael Stuhlbarg, flat-out wonderful as Timothée Chalamet’s sage, watchful father in Call Me By Your Name. It’s heartbreaking he missed out.

1:03AM

IT'S TIME!

All eyes will be on the Best Picture envelope in the closing minutes of tonight’s ceremony, after the spectacular snafu last year when Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway were given the wrong winner to read out. But all ears will be on the acceptance speeches throughout the night, and on Jimmy Kimmel’s performance at the podium. It’s likely to be the most politicised Oscars in memory, because of the shockwaves that have gone through Hollywood after high-profile harassment and assault charges against Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey and a host of others. These issues are certain to be addressed by female winners and presenters on stage: expect it to be a night when #TimesUp finds extremely forceful voice, with the likes of Annabella Sciorra, Salma Hayek and Ashley Judd – all among Weinstein’s accusers – scheduled to present awards.

1:02AM

"Guillermo, guapo!"

Harriet Alexander writes:

Guillermo del Toro, the Mexican director, has just been surprised with the giant screen over the red carpet switching to a live feed from his hometown of Guadalajara. His friends are gathered there to watch the ceremony, and are bouncing around with excitement.

"Guillermo, guapo!" yells one, to del Toro's evident delight.

The 53-year-old director is nominated for best director for The Shape of Water - the film has 13 nominations, more than any other.

If he wins for his fantasy drama, it will be the fourth time a Mexican has taken home the prize in the last five years, after Alfonso Cuarón won in 2014 and Alejandro González Iñárritu in 2015 and 2016.

Asked what he wants audiences to take away from the film, he replied: "I want people to enjoy it. You can emphasise with the other point of view, rather than choosing fear and hatred.

And, asked what advice he had for young filmmakers, he replied: "A lot of patience. And don't eat Twinkies. They kill me!"

1:00AM

Britain's big hope has landed

Harriet Alexander writes:

Gary Oldman is the red-hot favourite to take home the award for best actor, for his portrayal of Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour.

On Friday night he told me he was philosophical about his chances, saying with a wry smile: "Sunday will be, what Sunday will be."

In less than three hours he will know.

He was asked about the incredible make up - the team behind that is also nominated for an Oscar - and whether he even recognised himself.

"Occasionally," he replied. "A little twinkle, here and there, in the eyes.

"It’s a very special experience being so disguised."

Gary Oldman at the Oscars - Credit: Getty
Gary Oldman at the Oscars Credit: Getty

Oldman, 59, was accompanied by his fifth wife, Gisele Schmidt, an art curator. He actually asked her to marry him in costume, inside the War Rooms. 

He said:

"We had discussed it, and we were on the set, and I got the urge. I asked her to marry me, she said yes, and then the producer said we have to go and there we were."

The pair then laugh about a video she shot of Oldman, in costume, dancing to James Brown.

It's well worth your time...

 

12:45AM

The big Timothee Chalamet controversy

It's the question on everyone's lips - and, via Twitter, everyone's fingertips. Just how do you pronounce "Timothee"? "Do I call him by my name?" says Telegraph film critic Tim (actually Timothy) Robey.

The answer, alas, is " definitely not". Timothee could never be a plain old Timothy.  But while some are opting for a soft "Tim-oh-thay", others are arguing that the correct French pronunciation should in fact be "Tim-oh-tay".

 Turn out, they're right - but lovely Timothee doesn't like correcting people.

 Timothee Chalamet
Timothee Chalamet

“The real pronunciation is Timo-tay, but I can’t ask people to call me that,” he revealed in an interview last month. “It just seems really pretentious.”

“My dad is from France, so it’s a French spelling, but it seems like too much of an obligation to ask people to call me that.”

12:45AM

Margot Robbie wears Chanel 

Fashion editor Caroline Leaper's verdict on Margot Robbie's gown:

Robbie
Robbie

The verdict on tonight’s gown? Simple, yet effective; a new chapter to watch unfold in Robbie's corresponding red carpet fashion career - and a sign that a great stylist is the best investment a star can make.

Robbie is up for Best Actress for I, Tonya. 

12:39AM

Elio, Oliver, Oliver, Elio

Armie
Armie

Timothee Chalamet and Armie Hammer, co-stars in Luca Guadagnino's Call Me By Your Name,  an incomparably lovely period romance. Chalamet is up for Best Actor; should he win, he'll become the youngest ever person to win in that category. Fun fact: the youngest Best Actor winner is currently Adrien Brody (aged 29) for The Pianist. 

Our own Tim says:

"Taking the world by storm with his sexual awakening in Call Me By Your Name, Timothée Chalamet is nothing less than a credit to Timkind, perhaps the best Tim to get an acting nomination since Tim Roth (Rob Roy, 1995) or maybe even Timothy Hutton (Ordinary People, 1980). If anyone was capable of beating Gary Oldman in that category, it’s probably him."

12:31AM

Eritrea represented

Harriet Alexander writes:

Comedian and actress Tiffany Haddish has arrived in an incredible embroidered black cape, headdress and strapless dress, from Eritrea. Apparently it’s called a “zuria”.

Haddish 
Haddish

She explained:

"My father is from Eritrea, and he passed away last year, and he said that if ever I make it here I have to honour my people. So here I am!

"It’s amazing. This is like, historic."

12:30AM

Daniel Kaluuya arrives at the Oscars

Kaluuya
Kaluuya

Get Out’s British star, Daniel Kaluuya, has got to be the coolest nominee this year, having starred in the kind of genre picture – a horror-thriller – which yields acting nominations only once in a blue moon. He was just too good, too subtle, too compelling in negotiating every one of the script’s confrontations differently. He’d be a thrilling surprise as a Best Actor winner, but it looks like that award is Gary Oldman’s, all the way.

12:27AM

Whoopi Goldberg: her dress has pockets

Harriet Alexander writes:

Whoopi Goldberg, 62, has just rocked up in a stunning blue floral strapless dress – causing audible gasps. It’s a great, super funky dress.

Goldberg, who won an Oscar in 1991 for her role in Ghost, was asked about whether it was still surreal, despite her being an industry veteran.

She said: “It is a little nutty. But then I walk around and see all the newbies, and it’s just grand for them.”

Whoopi Goldberg and her dress (with pockets) - Credit: FilmMagic
Whoopi Goldberg and her dress (with pockets) Credit: FilmMagic

She said her dress was made by Christian Siriano, the 32-year-old American designer.

“He said I want you to be comfortable. It has pockets.”

She then lifted up her dress, to show off her Timberland-style boots.

12:22AM

Ah look - it's not just Rita Moreno recycling an old look...

 

 

12:13AM

"Wakanda forever!"

The star of Black Panther is prowling the red carpet, reports Harriet Alexander.

She writes:

Chadwick Boseman, despite not being nominated this year (his film was only released in February), is certainly the man of the moment.

He has just strode down the red carpet in an ornate long-line black suit, with eye-catching silver embroidery and embellishment on the shoulders.

Boseman 
Boseman

Asked about the phenomenal success of Black Panther - it's nearly taken $1 billion at the box office - he laughed and said: "It's still rolling!"

And he delighted the fans in the stands by shouting at the top of his lungs: "Wakanda forever!"

12:10AM

Plummer to the rescue

Plummer
Plummer

Speaking on the red carpet, Christopher Plummer said he was unfazed by the fact he replaced Kevin Spacey in All the Money in the World after the film had been shot. "I'm used to it," Plummer told Ryan Seacrest on the red carpet. "I gradually love it…I love risk anyway." He's nominated for Best Supporting Actor. 

11:56PM

"Time's Up" and #MeToo take centre stage

Harriet Alexander writes:

This awards season has, of course, played out under the cloud of the sexual harassment and assault scandal triggered in September by the revelations about Harvey Weinstein, disgraced film producer.

Two of the leading lights in the #MeToo movement have just arrived on the red carpet - Ashley Judd, one of the first to accuse Weinstein, and Mira Sorvino.

Times Up
Times Up

Judd is in a striking purple strapless dress - the colour of royalty indeed.

Both were asked about their activism.

Sorvino said: “I have to tell you, I was with my father and I went to the restroom and this woman came and said to me: ‘Because of you, and because of other people who had the courage to tell their stories, I don’t feel alone again.’

“Women and men and boys and children have been abused forever. But we are taking this out into the light, and we’re going to change it.”

The actress, 50, who won an Oscar for Woody Allen’s Mighty Aphrodite in 1995, said she was initially terrified about speaking out.

“At the beginning I didn’t know if I’d have a career the next day. I thought I’d be blacklisted for speaking out. But instead we’re going to change this, for every women.  It’s a thrilling time. Being yourself and being truthful is the best thing you can do.”

11:52PM

Woman in black

Morrison
Morrison

Rachel Morrison is the first woman ever nominated as a cinematographer for Mudbound, and has a shot of winning, in a year when it would feel like a pertinent gesture. Still, lensing legend Roger Deakins has now managed 14 nominations without winning: will Blade Runner 2049 finally break the curse?

11:49PM

Pretty and witty and bright: Rita Moreno is wearing the same dress she wore when she won Best Actress in 1962

Harriet Alexander writes:

Rita Moreno, the 86-year-old Puerto Rican actress, has just arrived wearing the same dress she wore to win her Oscar in 1962, for West Side Story.

"I didn't think I'd win! I thought Judy Garland would. I swear, it was so unexpected. Imagine!"

Rita Moreno on the red carpet  - Credit: AFP
Rita Moreno on the red carpet Credit: AFP

She's just dancing on the stage, telling the interviewer: "I'm 86 and I'm still here!"

There were audible gasps - she really does look fabulous.

Rita Moreno, with George Chakiris and Rock Hudson in 1962
Rita Moreno, with George Chakiris and Rock Hudson at the Oscars in 1962

Moreno had the gown made especially for her at the time whilst on holiday in Manila in the Philippines, and claimed on the red carpet tonight that she had thought Judy Garland was going to win for her part in for Judgment at Nuremberg.

Our fashion expert Caroline Leaper adds:

"Moreno has made some slight alterations to her now-vintage gown: the neckline has changed from boat to strapless, but she still chose to accessorise with the same black opera gloves."

11:38PM

Important evidence that we really do have a correspondent on the red carpet

We're not lying about this.

 

11:36PM

Can we all just take a minute to appreciate James Ivory's shirt?

Our US correspondent Harriet Alexander is on the red carpet.

She writes:

The big names are arriving now, sending the fashion commentators into overdrive.

Jane Fonda has just turned up looking incredible in a long white gown - the photographers went crazy for her. The noise is amazing.

And James Ivory, the joint-oldest nominee with Agnes Varda (both are 89, although she is eight days older), has turned up in a shirt with Timothee Chalamet's face. He is the screenwriter and joint producer of Call Me By Your Name, for which Chalamet is nominated best actor.

James Ivory arrives at the Oscar - Credit: James Ivory arrives at the Oscar
James Ivory arrives at the Oscar Credit: James Ivory arrives at the Oscar

Chalamet is the youngest nominee.

Youngest Oscar winners and nominees
Youngest Oscar winners and nominees

 

11:32PM

Daniela Vega to make history tonight

Vega 
Vega

 

Daniela Vega, star of the Best Foreign Film nominee A Fantastic Woman, has taken to the red carpet. Tonight she’ll make history by being the first trans woman on stage, presenting an award. The trans director Yance Ford is also nominated for his documentary Strong Island, and could become the first winner.

11:18PM

Allison Williams is wearing Armani

 Allison Williams
Allison Williams

So we've just been told by our Fashion desk. She stars opposite David Kaluuya in the brilliant Get Out, which is up for Best Picture. 

11:14PM

Will Allison Janney win tonight? 

Allison Janney
Allison Janney

Allison Janney, one of the industry’s most popular character actresses, has arrived on the red carpet, dressed in Reem Acra. She's nominated (for Best Supporting Actress) for the first time for her gorgon-mother role in I, Tonya. 

11:12PM

James Ivory is looking dapper on the red carpet - but will he break a record tonight? 

James Ivory’s the strong favourite to win Best Adapted Screenplay for Call Me By Your Name. At 89 years old, he would become the most venerable winner ever of a competitive Oscar -- his first, after three nominations for directing in the Merchant-Ivory days. But the honour may narrowly elude him. Best Documentary Feature is being announced earlier, and the indefatigable French director of Faces/Places, Agnes Varda, also 89, could pip Ivory to the post. She’s eight days older.

Writer/director James Ivory - Credit:  WireImage
Writer/director James Ivory Credit: WireImage

 

11:09PM

Kelly Marie Tran is rocking the red carpet - but will she be part of an Oscar-winning movie?

 Sta Wars: The Last Jedi, which catapulted Tran into instant fame at the end of last year thanks to her likable turn as Rose Tico, is nominated for four awards tonight: Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, Visual Effects and Best Original Score.

Sadly, much as we liked Rian Johnson's bold, brave, take on Star Wars (and its porgs), we're not feeling all that optimistic about its chances tonight in the aforementioned technical categories, especially up against films such as Blade Runner 20149 and Nolan's Dunkirk.

Our film critic Tim Robey, meanwhile, thinks Best Score will most likely go to either Alexandre Desplat, for Shape of Water, or Jonny Greenwood for Phantom Thread.

Kelly Marie Tran arrives at the Oscars - Credit: Invision
Kelly Marie Tran arrives at the Oscars Credit: Invision

 

10:54PM

Michael Stuhlbarg arrives on the red carpet

Of the many injustices to arise from this year’s Oscar nominations, none was perhaps more egregious than Michael Stuhlbarg being snubbed for Best Supporting Actor for Call Me By Your Name. As Timothée Chalamet’s wise father, a figure who intuits his son’s sexual awakening and stands back carefully to let it play out, he'll slay you. Tim Robey wrote about it the other day, in fact. "It’s a performance that’s subtle, unassertive and hardly foregrounded at all, until one late-breaking monologue that sneaks up and destroys you," he writes. 

Interviewed on the red carpet, Stuhlbarg, who is in three of the Best Picture nominees - Call Me By Your Name, The Post and The Shape of Water - said: "It's an embarrassment of riches this year. I'm so grateful and feel blessed to be part of these films." On the monologue at the end of Call Me By Your Name, he said they only did two takes.

10:51PM

Thirty-second broadcast delay is to protect Ryan Seacrest, says source

Questions were raised ahead of tonight's coverage about whether Ryan Seacrest would still be presenting the E! Live From the Red Carpet show, in the wake of recent sexual harassment allegations against the American Idol host.

The solution, according to a source quoted in Deadline, has been to simply broadcast the coverage with a 30-second delay, in case any of the stars Seacrest interacts with bring up the allegations, or otherwise become confrontational. E!, however, has said that a 30-second delay is standard procedure, denying that it was explicitly brought in to shield Seacrest.

 

10:41PM

 The big Get Out question 

A huge number of fans (some of us live-bloggers included) are hoping that Jordan Peele's timely, disturbingly pertinent horror movie will go home with the big prize tonight - but an anonymous insight from one of the Oscar-voters has suggested that not all the people responsible for making the decision feel quite the same way about the film.

"It’s a good B-movie and I enjoyed it, but what bothered me afterwards was that instead of focusing on the fact that this was an entertaining little horror movie that made quite a bit of money, they started trying to suggest it had deeper meaning than it does, and, as far as  I’m concerned, they played the race card, and that really turned me off," the unnamed female voter told The Hollywood Reporter on Friday.

Get Out
Get Out

"In fact, at one of the luncheons, the lead actor, who is not from the United States, was giving us a lecture on racism in America and how black lives matter, and I thought, “What does this have to do with Get Out? They’re trying to make me think that if I don’t vote for this movie, I’m a racist.” ‘I was really offended. That sealed it for me."

Eek. 

Unsurprisingly, the voter's dismissal of Get Out (which merges its "B-movie shocks" with A-grade acting, a super-sharp script and truly chilling topicality) didn't go down all that well on Twitter - and nor did a later revelation that some of the older Academy members had been reluctant to watch the film, on the grounds that it wasn't a "real" Oscar movie.

 

9:59PM

Not long until the real stars arrive...

It's just gone 1:30pm in LA, and our US correspondent Harriet Alexander is on the red carpet.

She writes:

The peacocking in front of the paparazzi is quite something - and the nominees haven't even begun to arrive yet.

We were all given strict instructions as to "suitable" outfits, and the television presenters in particular have really gone to town - flowing trains, sequins and gravity-defying hairstyles.

You can tell when one of the US anchors comes into view; the crowd opposite, sitting on the bleachers for fans, go wild. Mario Lopez, host of celebrity news show Extra (better known to me as A.C. Slater from Saved by the Bell!) got a particularly loud cheer.

The atmosphere is great, though - everyone is genuinely excited, and even the cynical journalists are smiling.

Not long until the real stars arrive...

 

9:58PM

Good evening and welcome to our Academy Awards live blog

We - Patrick Smith, Rebecca Hawkes and Tim Robey - will be bringing you all the latest updates from the red carpet and the ceremony itself, letting you know tonight's winners as soon as they're announced (or, who knows, wrongly announced) - and keeping ahead of any controversies or twists.

Our US correspondent Harriet Alexander, meanwhile, will be feeding in with exciting on-the-ground/on-the-red-carpet events as the night warms up.

Stay tuned, Oscar-watchers.

6:22PM

40 things you didn't know about the Oscars

Harvey Weinstein was the second member to be expelled from the Academy – but who was the first? What was the tragic irony behind the 1939 win for The Rains Came? And why is the booze better at the Baftas? To while away the time until tonight's awards show, here's a smörgåsbord of little-known trivia about the Academy Awards.

40 things you didn't know about the Oscars
40 things you didn't know about the Oscars

 

6:08PM

The behind-the-scenes scrabble for red carpet real-estate

TV crews are already gathering on the red carpet - Credit: Harriet Alexander
TV crews are already gathering on the red carpet Credit: Harriet Alexander

Our US correspondent Harriet Alexander is at the Oscars for us. She writes:

It's 9am here in Los Angeles, and thankfully the rain has stopped and the sun is shining! There's a good five hours to go until the stars start to arrive, but already the red carpet is a hive of activity, with TV crews setting up their equipment – they've been doing that for the past week – and presenters talking to their cameras.

Last night I was talking to a friend who is on the red carpet for a broadcaster; she was telling me funny stories about the hierarchy of the positioning – it's all, as you would expect, very tightly controlled.  Her network three years ago was at the far end of the red carpet, towards the entrance to the Dolby Theater – a deathly spot, she said, as by that point all the stars have had enough and just want to get to their seat. So no one talks to you. (This year she's significantly closer to the start.)

Ryan Seacrest on the Emmys red carpet in 2011: will he get such a warm reception at the Oscars? - Credit: Getty
Ryan Seacrest on the Emmys red carpet in 2011: will he get such a warm reception at the Oscars? Credit: Getty

The big hitters here are the US networks: NBC, ABC, CNN and the entertainment show E! The stars apparently aren't allowed their own publicist on the red carpet, and are accompanied by an Academy publicist instead. I imagine they have coordinated in advance who they want to talk to (if anyone). There is also a "speed lane" for people, like Leonardo Di Caprio, who generally don't want to talk to the press, and just walk straight through.

At the centre of this year's biggest red carpet controversy is one of America's most famous television hosts, Ryan Seacrest, a $65-million-a-year man who presents American Idol. Last week he was accused by his stylist of sexual harassment, which he has strenuously denied, and his network is backing him. But will the stars talk to him? Or even confront him? Watch this space!

5:46PM

After #MeToo and #TimesUp, there's now #AskMoreOfHim

David Schwimmer has joined #AskMoreOfHim, a new all-male protest movement aimed at stamping out sexual harassment. In an open letter published on the eve of the Oscars, the Friends star was one of several film industry professionals who pledged to "to support survivors, condemn sexism wherever we see it and hold ourselves and others accountable". Other signatories include actor David Arquette and Oscar-nominated documentarian Kirby Dick. Though the organisers of #TimesUp have already said they will have "a presence" at the Oscars, there are no plans as yet for an #AskMoreOfHim protest on the red carpet. Read the full story here

4:22PM

Oscars stars who have thanked Weinstein in the past

Harvey Weinstein, the disgraced movie mogul who has denied numerous accusations of sexual misconduct over the last few months, is unlikely to be thanked in any of this year's acceptance speeches. But in previous years, major stars would regularly offer their thanks to the Shakespeare in Love producer.

 

4:14PM

How to host the perfect Oscars after-party

Have your Oscar, and eat it too: confectionery for the Governors Ball - Credit: AFP
Have your Oscar, and eat it too: confectionery for the Governors Ball Credit: AFP

The Governors Ball – the official Oscars after-party – may be the glitziest do in the Hollywood calendar. It's certainly more exciting than the ceremony itself. But organising it takes a great deal of work.

“You know that you’re going to be judged,” Academy Governor Lois Burwell told The Telegraph. Burwell, an Oscar-winning makeup artist, is in charge of tonight's revels. The decorations  include 5,000 pink roses and a wig worn by Audrey Hepburn for Breakfast at Tiffanys. But Burwell – a Londoner, through and through – says her top priority was tracking down "a decent cup of tea".  Read our behind-the-scenes feature here

3:45PM

Expect jokes about Time's Up from Jimmy

Time's Up, the anti-sexual harassment campaign launched in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, will be the subject of some topical comedy tonight, according to host Jimmy Kimmel. The comedian told Vanity Fair that there will be "bits" that address Time's Up, while admitting that the topic of sexual misconduct in the film industry could be a bit close-to-the-bone. "It’s very tricky because when people are scared they don’t laugh," he said, "and when there’s a camera in their face they behave differently... When you’re put in that position, those in the audience become a little bit of a deer in the headlights. "

3:40PM

Get Out scoops Independent Spirit Awards – is it set for Oscars victory?

Get Out's Jordan Peele has won Best Director at the Independent Spirit Awards  - Credit: Universal Pictures
Get Out's Jordan Peele has won Best Director at the Independent Spirit Awards Credit: Universal Pictures

The Independent Spirit Awards, which celebrate films made for under $20 million (£14 m) have in recent years been a good indicator for Oscars success. The last four Best Feature winners at the Spirits have all gone on to win Best Picture at the Oscars (12 Years A Slave, Birdman, Spotlight and Moonlight).

Last night, Get Out won both Best Feature and Best Director at the Spirits. Could it repeat that double victory tonight? Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is still the bookies' favourite for Best Picture, but suddenly its success looks far less certain. Read the full list of Independent Spirit Award winners

2:14PM

Who deserves to win? Ask The Muppets

With the Oscars just hours away, you might have thought every conceivable pundit had already offered up their opinion. You'd be wrong. In an interview with BBC Newsbeat, Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy have shared their thoughts on the Best Picture contenders. Piggy is not too keen on Dunkirk ("Harry Styles does not a movie make"), while Kermit – being a green-skinned romantic lead – is unsurprisingly a fan of The Shape of Water. 

Miss Piggy has some strong feelings about this year's #Oscars selection ���� pic.twitter.com/vzHGz8PtmD

— BBC Newsbeat (@BBCNewsbeat) March 4, 2018

Clearly, these are the movie experts we all need. But if you'd like a second opinion on this year's runners and riders, you can check out our human film critic Robbie Collin's predictions for who will win tonight.

2:04PM

Five nominees who could make Oscars history

Young talent: Timothée Chalamet in Call Me By Your Name - Credit: Sony Pictures
Young talent: Timothée Chalamet in Call Me By Your Name Credit: Sony Pictures

With the Oscars now in its 90th year, it's hard to imagine that there are still any records left to break. But several of tonight's nominees could earn a distinctive place in the history books. Here's why: 

  • Jordan Peele (Best Director, Get Out): If he wins the trophy for his satirical horror hit, Peele will be the first black Best Director winner in Oscars history – a particularly impressive achievement, given that Get Out is his debut film. He's only the fifth black filmmaker ever to be nominated in this category.

  • Timothée Chalamet (Best Actor, Call Me By Your Name): The 22-year-old American could be the youngest ever Best Actor (though he'll have to beat bookies' favourite Gary Oldman. He's won the hearts of audiences for his role in this coming-of-age tale. And speaking of age...

  • James Ivory (Adapted Screenplay, Call Me By Your Name): At 89, the Merchant Ivory founder is likely to become the oldest ever winner in a competitive category, unless he's beaten by...

  • Agnes Varda (Documentary Feature, Faces Places): The 89-year-old French writer/director is eight days older than Ivory, and could beat him to become the Oscars' top golden oldie – if the Academy takes a shine to her study of life in the French countryside.

  • Rachel Morrison (Cinematography, Mudbound) Now better known for her work on Marvel's Black Panther, 39-year-old Director of Photography Morrison became the first ever female cinematography nominee for her work on Netflix's beautiful period drama. Read our interview with Rachel Morrison

1:26PM

Who are this year's nominees?

As we count down the hours until tonight's Oscars, here's a quick reminder of the main contenders.

Fantasy romance The Shape of Water – the story of a mute janitor who falls in love with an amphibian man – leads the pack, with nominations in 13 categories. Winston Churchill biopic Darkest Hour has seven nominations, while Martin McDonagh's black comedy about a mother's attempt to find justice for her murdered daughter, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, has picked up six. It's worth noting that Three Billboards was a major winner at both the Golden Globes and the Baftas, which suggests it may clean up tonight, too. Read the full list of nominees here.