The Oscars get underway with red carpet dazzle
LOS ANGELES — Attendees streamed down the red carpet at an unusually tumultuous Academy Awards where gender equality in Hollywood has as much of the spotlight as one of the most unpredictable best-picture races in years.
The Oscars will hope to live down their most infamous blunder at the ceremony, which began at 8 p.m. EST and was broadcast live by ABC from the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.
But more than redemption was on the line Sunday for last year’s embarrassing best-picture flub — the fiasco known as Envelopegate.
The ceremony, hosted again by Jimmy Kimmel, is the crescendo of one of Hollywood’s most tumultuous awards seasons ever — one that saw cascading allegations of sexual harassment topple movie moguls, upended Oscar campaigns and new movements launched to improve gender equality throughout the industry.
No Golden Globes-style fashion protest was held by organizers of Time’s Up, the initiative begun by several hundred prominent women in entertainment to combat sexual harassment. Their goals go beyond red carpets, organizers said in the lead-up to the Oscars.
It’s been an unusually lengthy — and often unpredictable — awards season, already an increasingly protracted horse race begun as most of the contenders bowed at film festivals last September.