LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, United States (Reuters) — Preparations were underway in Hollywood on Monday (February 22) for the the biggest event in the global entertainment calendar, the 88th Academy Awards.
The Oscars ceremony, which will bring together the biggest names in the film industry, will take place at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on Sunday (February 28).
“Well we closed down the Boulevard last night at 10 o’clock. We’re starting to assemble all the structures and the staging for the show. It’s day one of what is going to be about 9 very long days out here so we’re just getting ready. Once this goes up in the air then tomorrow we will start all of the pre-show elements underneath and away we’ll go,” said Joe Lewis, the associate producer for the pre-Oscars show.
“I never get worried. We know when we gotta be done and we’ll always be ready. There’s over 17,000 square ft of carpet, there’s over 300 people working on the carpet alone, there’s probably over 800 media , there’s over 7,000 people credentialed for the show. It’s a big show,” he added.
In a rollercoaster movie awards season with no clear favorite in the Oscars best picture race, there is one sure bet – Leonardo DiCaprio, one of the world’s biggest celebrities, is finally expected to take home the best actor statuette on Sunday.
DiCaprio’s fifth acting Oscar nomination, for his role as a fur trapper bent on revenge in “The Revenant,” will prove the charm, awards pundits say, and crown the actor’s transformation from teen heartthrob to Hollywood heavyweight.
Twenty years after his first Oscar nomination as a blue-eyed teen in “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape,” DiCaprio, 41, has swept every major prize in the long Hollywood awards calendar for his role as taciturn Hugh Glass, who is left for dead in the wilderness after being mauled by a bear.
The actor carries the two-and-a-half hour film, which was shot in sub-zero temperatures over seven months, despite barely speaking after the bear rips out his character’s throat.
