Your favorite season may be Fall, Spring, Winter, or Summer, but my favorite season is Award season! To kick off the 2022 award season, we have the famous Oscars. The Academy of Motion Pictures will be presenting the 94th Academy Awards ceremony at the glamorous Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, on March 27, 2022. Getting an Oscar is one of the most prestigious awards within the American and International Film Industry and is extra special this year because The Oscars are planning to have a host for the first time since 2018. 

Before we talk about this year’s Oscars, let’s start with the first Oscars ceremony to ever be held on May 16, 1929. The first ever Academy Award (also known as an Oscar) was bestowed upon Emil Jannings for Best Actor for his leading roles in silent films. The first time the Oscars was televised was on March 19, 1953 from NBC TV and the radio network carried the 25th Oscar Ceremonies live from Hollywood. The youngest person to ever win an Oscar is Tatum O’Neal at age seven for her role in the film “Paper Moon,” while the person with the most Oscars is Katharine Hepburn, who won four Oscars throughout her acting career. The most nominated actor for an Oscar is Meryl Streep (no surprise there!) with 21 nominations, and surely more to come.

Now back to the 2022 Oscars: while we don’t know much about the Oscars at the moment, what we do know is that the nominations for the Oscars come out on February 8, 2022. Here are some actors and actresses that are believed to be shoo-ins for a nomination or two: Andrew Garfield for “Tick Tick Boom,” Ariana Deboise for “West Side Story,” and Lady Gaga for “House of Gucci,” among many others. Kristen Stewart, Nicole Kidman, Denzel Washington, Timothee Chalamet, and more are also expected to be up for a nom or two. 

We also are aware of the fact that for the first time in 4 years, the Oscars will have a host! The host hasn’t been unveiled yet, but people believe that it could be Jimmy Kimmel, Chris Rock, Neil Patrick Harris, Selena Gomez, or Tom Holland. It is also unclear whether performances for The Oscars will be live or pre-recorded (as they were in 2021 due to Covid-19), but the lineup could include Billie Elish singing “No Time To Die,” Ariana Grande and Kid Cudi singing “Just Look Up” from the new Netflix movie Don’t Look Up, or H.E.R with “Automatic Woman” from the new movie, Bruised. Aside from performances (and with Covid-19 permitting, of course!), the 2022 Oscars should have a full red carpet, so expect the usual parade of show stopping fashions from ball gowns to sequined capes and loud colors galore!

An Academy Award can play a crucial role in the success of actors and actresses who are considered to be major winners … the Best Picture Award can significantly increase the box office earnings of the winning film. To win an Oscar is equivalent to winning a Grammy for music. Make sure to tune in on March 27, 2022, to watch The Oscars live and look out for the February and/or March issues of the Viking Call Newspaper to see the outcome of this year’s Oscars!