In spite of living in the age of Netflix, the gilt still isn't peeling off the Academy Awards.
Oscars 2024 Photo: Culture 101
It's the big night of the year in Hollywood, where the film industry gets on their Sunday best and struts the red carpet for the annual award ceremony of the season.
Newshub entertainment editor Kate Rodger says the Oscars is an event that stops the whole city, and truly is one of a kind.
"It's an iconic awards show and probably the first to dominate any kind of conversation around awards."
So what can we expect for Aotearoa this year?
Wēta FX has earned a nomination for its role in the production of Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3.
It was also part of the production of War is Over! Inspired by the Music of John and Yoko, which is nominated for Best Animated Short Film.
The Academy Awards never fail to populate the headlines and this year was no different, with critics, fans and stars themselves speaking out after the nomination list failed to include Barbie star Margot Robbie for best actress and Greta Gerwig for best director.
"The optics of this absolutely suck, there's no question. Here we have Barbie not nominated, but we have Ken nominated. We have the architect of the film, not nominated for best director," says Rodger.
Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures
She would've loved to see more women included in the directing category, and says the nominations reflect what she thinks are the worst statistics on the number of female directors in Hollywood this year.
"So would I want to swap out, and put Greta in there for best director? Quite possibly I'd like to pop that in instead of maybe Jonathan Glazer, but the reality is Jonathan Glazer directed a stunning film." she says.
Glazer helmed The Zone of Interest, which is nominated in the all-important Best Picture category.
But Rodger says ultimately deciding what film is better is like comparing a pen to a pencil.
"They're completely different, they kind of do the same thing, but you have a totally different experience with these two things.
"How do you compare a film about the Holocaust with a film about Barbie?"
Public outcry over a lack of diversity in Oscar nominees and winners isn't new, and many blame it on the lack of diversity in the members of the Academy, who choose the winners.
Following the #OscarsSoWhite movement in 2016 the Academy promised to double its number of women and ethnically diverse members by 2020.
And even though the progress is slow, there are some nods to increased diversity this year with the nomination list including two films that aren't in the English language, Anatomy of a Fall and The Zone of Interest.
"Is it diverse enough? Of course it's not, but we still love it, and I always will love it. I love what it does for film, I love that it gets people talking.
"I love that it means that people will sit down and watch Killers of the Flower Moon, I love those other little films that bubble up."
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