This Year’s ‘Wicked’ Contenders: The 97th Oscar Nominees

By Stella Bovender

The 97th Oscars are upon us, and it’s already gaining traction! Television host and comedian, Conan O’Brien, has been selected as the host, with the Academy CEO and President both saying on ABC’s website, “Conan has all the qualities of a great Oscars host…[he] has proven himself to be a master of live event television.” The public reacted mostly positively to the host announcement, with some preferring O’Brien over four-time Oscar host, Jimmy Kimmel. 

Besides the choice of host, we have our long list of nominees! The most notable of which is Emilia Pérez, carrying the most nominations with 13. However, many people are not happy with its nominations due to its terrible plot and script, and the main actor writing some controversial posts on social media. Variety predicts that the film will only take home two out of the 13 nominations, and in fact, The Complete Unknown and Wicked are predicted to tie for the most wins of four, but The Complete Unknown is predicted to take home the award for “Best Picture.”

For the actors and actresses, Timothée Chalamet (A Complete Unknown) and Demi Moore (The Substance) are predicted to take home “Best Actor” and “Best Actress” respectively, according to Variety. After Demi Moore recently won her first-ever acting award for “Best Actress” at the Golden Globes, the public is on her side and rooting for her to win at the Oscars. As for “Best Supporting Actor” and “Best Supporting Actress,” Edward Norton (A Complete Unknown) and Ariana Grande (Wicked) are the predictions of Variety. The public is mostly in favor of the pop star turned actress to win an Oscar with ScreenRant saying, “She is all-around the best choice.” 

This year has some serious contenders, but we won’t know who will take home the trophy until March 2 at 7:00 p.m!