Everything You Need to Know About the 2018 Oscars

It’s been almost a year since the infamous envelope mix-up of 2017, which means the 90th annual Academy Awards are fast approaching. New procedures have been implemented to prevent another envelope snafu in this year’s ceremony — but the glitzy evening always holds the potential for a few surprises. After steamrolling through the Golden Globes, SAG Awards and Critics’ Choice Awards, several of the acting awards appear to be more or less locked. But there’s still plenty of time for the winds to shift before 2018 Oscar voting closes later in February.

Here’s what to know about the 90th Academy Awards:

When are the 2018 Oscars?

The 90th Academy Awards will take place on March 4, 2018, at 8 p.m. E.T. They are happening later than usual this year to avoid scheduling conflicts with the Winter Olympics, which run from Feb. 9 through Feb. 25.

Where will the 2018 Oscars be held?

The 2018 Oscars will air live from the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, where the ceremony has been held since 2002. The program will air on ABC and can be streamed on ABC Go.

Who’s hosting the Academy Awards?

Jimmy Kimmel will host the Oscars for the second year in a row. Early promos for the awards show have taken control of the narrative of last year’s mix-up, preemptively joking, “What could go wrong?” According to Kimmel, a lot: In interviews, he has expressed some anxiety about how to handle Hollywood’s most glamorous night during a time of soul searching and painful revelations for the industry.

“I think there are certain groups of people who think I shouldn’t make any jokes about that situation. And there are groups of people who will be mad if I don’t make jokes about that situation,” he told GQ. “So you just kind of have to figure it out. Whatever I do will be criticized by someone.”

Who’s nominated for Oscars this year?

Guillermo del Toro’s fish monster love story The Shape of Water leads the pack with 13 Oscar nominations, followed by Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk (with eight) and the comically dark small-town drama Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. After a string of awards-season wins, Frances McDormand and Gary Oldman are favorites to win Lead Actress and Actor (for Three Billboards and Darkest Hour, respectively), with McDormand’s costar Sam Rockwell taking the edge for Supporting Actor and I, Tonya‘s Allison Janney looking good for Supporting Actress.

Many of the Oscar-nominated movies are available to stream.

Who got snubbed for Oscar nominations?

Setting aside the debate around the notion of a “snub” itself — plenty of great films and performances go unrecognized every year — many observers were unhappy to see a lack of nominations for the 2017 box-office and pop-culture sensation Wonder Woman. Others were surprised to see just two nominations for The Post, despite its overwhelmingly positive reception and Spielbergian bona fides. James Franco failed to score a nod for his performance in The Disaster Artist; the nominations were announced just days after allegations of sexual misconduct were leveled against him. (Franco said the allegations were “not accurate.”) Girls Trip breakout Tiffany Haddish, Call Me By Your Name‘s supporting actors and directors Martin McDonagh and Steven Spielberg were also absent from the list, despite strong support.

Have any records been broken?

Yes: Rachel Morrison, the director of photography for Mudbound, became the first woman ever nominated for Best Cinematography. Lady Bird filmmaker Greta Gerwig is the fifth woman ever nominated for Best Director, and the first since Kathryn Bigelow won for The Hurt Locker in 2009. Mary J. Blige became the first person nominated for an acting performance and Original Song, for Mudbound. Get Out writer and director Jordan Peele became the first black person nominated for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay in the same year.

Other records: Dee Rees (Mudbound) is the first black woman nominated for Adapted Screenplay; Yance Ford (documentary Strong Island) is the first trans director nominated for an Oscar; and Agnes Varda (documentary Faces Places) is the oldest person to receive a nomination, at 89.

Who votes on the Academy Awards?

Oscars are determined by members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which consists of 17 branches including actors, writers, cinematographers and directors. Members include people who have been nominated for an Oscar or meet certain criteria before being voted up or down by their respective branch. Most nominations are voted on by members of the specific branch (cinematographers’ branch votes on Best Cinematography, and so on), while the Academy Awards themselves are voted on by members of all branches. After the votes are in — this year, voting closes on Feb. 27 — the results are tabulated by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

After the #oscarssowhite controversy of 2016, during which no people of color were included among 20 acting nominations, the majority white and male Academy extended invitations to a record number of new members, in both 2016 and 2017, in an effort to diversify its ranks. According to Variety, 30% of the class of 2017 are people of color.

Who’s presenting awards this year?

The first group of Oscar presenters, announced by the show’s producers on Feb. 16, includes last year’s Supporting Actor and Actress winners, Mahershala Ali and Viola Davis, and last year’s Best Actress winner, Emma Stone. The list also includes several of this year’s nominees: Greta Gerwig (Best Director, Best Original Screenplay), Margot Robbie (Best Actress), and Kumail Nanjiani (Best Original Screenplay). The group is rounded out by Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman, two-time nominee Laura Dern, Love, Simon star Jennifer Garner, Girls Trip breakout Tiffany Haddish, Tom Holland a.k.a. Spider-Man and Daniela Vega, star of Best Foreign Language Film nominee A Fantastic Woman.

The second group of Oscar presenters, announced on Feb. 21, includes quite a few performers with franchise credibility: Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman), Zendaya (Spider-Man) and Mark Hamill, Oscar Isaac and Kelly Marie Tran of old and new Star Wars fame. Also on the list are Gina Rodriguez, who alongside Isaac in the new sci-fi film Annihilation, Call Me By Your Name star Armie Hammer, Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda and Hostiles actor Wes Studi. The member of the group with the longest Hollywood career, Eva Marie Saint, won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 1955 for On the Waterfront and starred in the Alfred Hitchcock classic North by Northwest.

One expected presenter who won‘t be at the Dolby Theatre on March 4: Casey Affleck. It is customary for the previous year’s Lead Actor and Lead Actress winners to present the Oscars in those categories, but Affleck’s publicist announced in January that the Manchester by the Sea star would not be in attendance. Many have speculated that Affleck, who has been accused of sexual harassment in the past, did not think his presence would be well received in the midst of the #metoo movement, which will undoubtedly have a strong presence at the ceremony.