Five Things to Expect from Sunday’s Oscars

As we said in our “Preliminary Award Show Review,” the main storylines for Oscar Sunday have been broken down enough. Many of the nominees are essentially eliminated from contention because of the few heavyweights who have established their positions at the other red carpet ceremonies. But there are a few reasons why the Oscars have the prestige and the reputation as the biggest night in movies. Here’s what we can expect.

1. Seth MacFarlane Will Get the Comedy Ball Rolling. It’s fairly safe to assume that the “Family Guy” creator will offend some people, but from what we’ve seen with his efforts so far, he seems to be taking the job seriously. He may not admit that though. That’s the difference between him and Ricky Gervais, another shock comedian, who made it perfectly clear that he didn’t care about his Golden Globes hosting gig.

Hopefully MacFarlane’s example will mean that the other presenters and participants will be in cheery and laughing moods. It’s definitely more fun to hear a witty acceptance speech than a gushy one. Wouldn’t it be great if Daniel Day-Lewis makes a crack about Steven Spielberg’s Harry Potter glasses up there with his statue instead of acting like the Lincoln director is Gandhi? That’s not going to happen, but it’s the Oscars, crazier things have.

3. Adele Will Make the Best Original Song Category Relevant. It was fun when “Man or Muppet” won the award last year, but with both Adele and Norah Jones performing on the Oscars stage, this is the year the audience will remember to care about movie music. “Skyfall” stands a very good chance of forcing Adele to make some room in her Grammy cabinet for the little golden man. It will also be very interesting to see what is being billed as tribute to musicals of the last decade. I think that means Les Miserables, Dreamgirls and Chicago. It must be like getting the band back together for the Les Mis folks.

4. The E! Red Carpet People May Explode. I always watch the red carpet broadcasts before award shows because that is the only time we get to hear from most of the nominees and other guests. Believe it or not, I do not enjoy Kelly Osbourne fawning over every single dress that steps out of a limo or the strangely creepy “mani-cam,” but after watching them cover award shows for the last few months, I think the only thing left for them to do is spontaneously combust. They can’t possibly have more empty compliments in their arsenals. With that being said, Ryan Seacrest knows his stuff (interview wise) and is a great red carpet reporter. Just get rid of the rest of them.

4. Potentially Innovative Nominee Announcements. We won’t know until the big show, but in past years there have been some really creative ways to present category nominees. The first that comes to mind is in 2009 where a handful of past winners in the acting categories individually introduced the nominees. The most memorable of those instances has Cuba Gooding Jr. describing Robert Downey Jr. as “a white actor, playing a white Australian actor, playing a black man, in black face.” Alan Arkin went on to award Heath Ledger’s Oscar to the late actor’s family in the same segment. So while some years are more exciting than others, the award presentations can go a long way in making the show exciting.

5. It’s the Oscars! Even if you haven’t seen a number of the movies, this is the Superbowl of the film year. After Sunday night, we begin to thaw out from the winter cold and the dense indie films and work our way toward the sunshine and blockbusters of the summer. Take advantage of the Sunday night festivities and watch as Hollywood awards itself. Remember The Artist and Hugo last year? Well Argo may make it two years in a row for movies about movies.

The 85th Academy Awards air Sunday night on ABC.