Whether it was the lingering drama of “The Slap” or the prominence of blockbusters in the best picture race, a bigger audience was lured back to the Oscars this year.

The opening of the 95th Academy Awards on Sunday is going to be a “moment,” the show’s producers promise.

Jimmy Kimmel is ready to host the Oscars again.

James Bond didn’t get an Oscar nomination this year, but that doesn’t mean he won’t be part of the ceremony.

The 93rd Oscars will be held on April 25. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision/AP, File)With nominations set and just over a month until showtime, details are trickling out about the 93rd Oscars and neither sweatshirts nor Zoom made the cut. They’ve enlisted Emmy and Tony Award winning director Glenn Weiss to direct the live broadcast on April 25. The producers said they plan to treat the event like an active movie set with on-site COVID safety teams and testing protocols. The 93rd Oscars will be broadcast live on ABC on April 25 starting at 8 p.m.

(AP Photo/John Locher)LOS ANGELES, Calif. – Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Will Ferrell are standing on the Oscars stage performing some hilarious material for a few dozen people who are in stitches watching the two comedians. Louis-Dreyfus and Ferrell are just a few of the stars who circulated in and out of the Dolby Theatre to rehearse Saturday, including Tom Hanks, Salma Hayek, Jane Fonda and Mahershala Ali. But the stars weren’t always confined to the stage, especially if they arrived a little early. Makeup artists Antonio Rael has been standing in for big stars for 34 years. Rael was talking about the stand-ins but that doesn’t mean some of the stars aren’t anxious as well.