Ryan Gosling, Jennifer Lawrence, Al Pacino and Native American songs... the 2024 Oscars promise to be festive

How do you get viewers to come back to watch the Oscars? Like all televised awards shows, the Hollywood high mass has lost its luster. There were 48 million curious people in 2000 who followed the coronation of American Beauty live. In 2023, only 18 million Americans have watched the triumph of the SF film Everything, Everywhere All At Once. A slight improvement compared to the berezina of 2021 post covid: only 10 million people tuned into ABC.

So to bring back the public, the organizers of this 96th edition have a sense of celebration. Already, the ceremony will start an hour earlier at 7 p.m. on the East coast (i.e. midnight in France for Canal subscribers), so as not to discourage those who want to find Morpheus. Above all, ABC and the producers of the show have planned a glamorous parade of stars and are banking on several spectacular numbers, destined to become iconic.

Also read Oppenheimer, Anatomy of a fall: Le Figaro’s predictions before the Oscars

When pop phenomenon Barbie was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, the ceremony's organizers immediately knew who to turn to: Ryan Gosling, whose song I'm Just Ken went viral. The actor will get back into the shoes of the plastic doll's boyfriend on Sunday, to perform this unexpected hit "for the first time" on stage. He will be surrounded by around sixty dancers. A former Disney child star, the star of the musical La La Land was the frontman of a rock band growing up. Since knowing he had to perform at the Oscars, he has immersed himself in rehearsals.

Also read: I’m Just Ken: Ryan Gosling will perform his song in Barbie at the Oscars

Traditionally, the five songs nominated for best song are performed live on the Oscar stage. This year, the Barbie trailer will be shown twice, a rare occurrence. Billie Eilish's performance of What Was I Made For also promises a truly emotional moment.

Betting on Barbie is an obvious choice for the Oscars. Greta Gerwig's feminist saga dominated the global box office this year, with $1.4 billion in revenue: the ceremony therefore hopes to ride on this success to attract new viewers and make people forget that the comedy, nominated eight times, is absent from two queen categories: best actress and directing. Last year, producers placed a lot of emphasis on the blockbuster Top Gun: Maverick.

Organizers also hope that the reunion of the Oppenheimer stars, the other half of the tidal wave to theaters last summer, will also appeal to moviegoers.

The Oscars are planning other highlights: Native Americans from the Osage tribe will come and sing the ceremonial music of Killers of the Flower Moon, the historical fresco by Martin Scorsese thanks to which Lily Gladstone could win the Oscar for best actress.

The organizers of the evening also changed the label of the four interpretation prizes. Each nominee will be introduced by a former winner. Which promises a more than glamorous floor. Jennifer Lawrence, Charlize Theron, Christoph Waltz, Jamie Lee Curtis, Brendan Fraser, Matthew McConaughey, Lupita Nyong'o, Al Pacino... The hopefuls of the younger generation are also invited: Zendaya, Anya Taylor-Joy.

The presentation was entrusted to a veteran of the exercise, host Jimmy Kimmel. This will be an opportunity for him to mention the actors' and writers' strikes, which paralyzed Hollywood for six months last year.

Its first ceremony in 2017 was marked by a major imbroglio: the envelopes had been poorly distributed and La La Land was mistakenly announced as the Oscar for best film instead of the real winner, Moonlight. This did not traumatize the comedian, who recently made it known that he was hoping for surprises and unexpected things for Sunday. But definitely no Will Smith slap!