Oscars’ top prize up for grabs as unease hangs over Hollywood

LOS ANGELES – Hollywood rolls out the red carpet for Sunday’s Oscars, the film industry’s highest honors, with an unusually open best-picture race that pits vampire hit “Sinners,” ​the leader in nominations, against the darkly comic thriller “One Battle After Another.”

Security for the ceremony at the Dolby Theatre will be ‌tight. Organizers said they were working closely with the FBI and Los Angeles police after a federal warning of a possible Iranian threat against California, though authorities have cited no specific or credible danger to the Academy Awards.

Hosted by Conan O’Brien for a second year, the festivities will feature a wide-open contest led by “Sinners” with 16 nominations — a record number in the ​nearly 100-year-old history of the Oscars — as Hollywood grapples with geopolitical tensions, industry consolidation and anxiety over artificial intelligence.

The show, starting at 7 ​p.m. ET (midnight GMT), will be televised live on Walt Disney’s ABC and streamed on Hulu. Performers will include the ⁠real-life singers of HUNTR/X, the fictional band in animated film nominee “KPop Demon Hunters.”

The glitzy celebration, Hollywood’s most over-the-top gala of the year, will take place ​as the U.S. wages war on Iran. O’Brien said he planned to touch on current events but his primary mission was to make people laugh and feel at ​ease.

“My job is to hit this very, very thin line, I think, between entertaining people and also acknowledging some of the realities,” he told a press conference on Wednesday. “All I can say is I’ll use my best judgment.”

The ceremony masks the unease in the film business over where movies are being made as studios chase tax incentives and lower ​costs elsewhere in the U.S. and overseas, weakening Hollywood’s grip on production.

Warner Bros., the studio behind “One Battle” and “Sinners,” is in the process of being sold ​to Paramount Skydance in a deal that will narrow the ranks of major film distributors. A media watchdog group, Free Press, circulated a roving billboard around Hollywood over the ‌weekend airing ⁠its opposition to the merger.

Workers in front of and behind the camera are worried artificial intelligence will limit job opportunities and stifle creativity and risk-taking.