LOS ANGELES – The 89th Academy Awards should be a very schizophrenic affair: equal parts pomp and politics.
The only thing expected to take the stage more often than the frothy front-runner “La La Land” at tonight’s ceremony is protest (and probably some punchlines) over the policies of President Donald Trump. For largely liberal Hollywood, his election has proven a rallying cause-celebre throughout an awards season that has otherwise been a parade of honors for Damien Chazelle’s celebrated musical.
Just how political things are going to get at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles may be the biggest question of tonight’s show, to be broadcast by ABC beginning at 6:30 p.m. MST, with red carpet coverage starting earlier.
Even the usually glitzy lead-up to the show has taken on the form of a gathering tempest. On Friday, the United Talent Agency, forgoing its usual Oscar party, instead held a rally over immigration. “We will not tolerate chaos and ineptitude and war-mongering,” Jodie Foster told attendees.
More strikingly, the six directors of the foreign film nominees on Friday released a joint statement condemning “the climate of fanaticism and nationalism we see today in the U.S. and in so many other countries, in parts of the population and, most unfortunately of all, among leading politicians.”
The signees included the Iranian director Asghar Farhadi, whose “The Salesman” is favored to win him his second foreign language Oscar. He isn’t attending the awards out of protest for Trump’s proposed travel ban from seven predominantly Muslim nations, including Iran.
On Friday, he posted a video thanking the Hollywood community for its support of his Oscar boycott. In it, Farhadi condemned Trump’s policies and said they are “trying to promote hate.”
And sure to stoke the rhetoric at tonight’s Oscars is news this weekend that U.S. immigration authorities are barring entry to a 21-year-old Syrian cinematographer who worked on the documentary short nominee “The White Helmets,” about the nation’s civil war.
Meanwhile, some Trump supporters are calling for a boycott of the broadcast, expecting more speeches like Meryl Streep’s fiery remarks at the Globes – which prompted Trump to call her “overrated.” (The Academy of Motion Pictures on Friday added Streep, also a nominee, to its presenters.) But similar so-called boycotts have also trailed the Broadway sensation “Hamilton” and 2016’s top box-office hit, the “Star Wars” spinoff “Rogue One.”
Host Jimmy Kimmel will have a delicate balance on his hands. Play it too light and he’ll appear out of sync with the mood. Hammer too hard and he’ll alienate viewers already inundated by politics.
