Oscars producers David Hill and Reginald Hudlin announced today the first slate of presenters for the 88th Oscars telecast. The Oscars, hosted by Chris Rock, will air live Oscar^® Sunday, February 28, on ABC.  

The presenters and performers, including past Oscar winners and nominees, are: 

Lifetime voting rights reframed; new governor seats added and committees restructured

Goal to double number of diverse members by 2020

In a unanimous vote Thursday night (1/21), the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences approved a sweeping series of substantive changes designed to make the Academy’s membership, its governing bodies, and its voting members significantly more diverse.  The Board’s goal is to commit to doubling the number of women and diverse members of the Academy by 2020.

Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs, Guillermo del Toro, John Krasinski and Ang Lee will announce the 88th Academy Awards® nominations in all 24 Oscar® categories at a special two-part live news conference on Thursday, January 14, at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.  The Oscars® will air Sunday, February 28, live on ABC.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced that 10 scientific and technical achievements represented by 33 individual award recipients will be honored at its annual Scientific and Technical Awards Presentation on Saturday, February 13, at the Beverly Wilshire in Beverly Hills. In addition, the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) will receive a special award recognizing a century of fundamental contributions to the advancement of motion picture standards and technology.

Nominations voting for the 88th Oscars^® will close on Friday, January 8, at 5 p.m. PT. 

The votes will be tabulated and verified by the international accounting firm of PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The 88th Oscars Nominations Announcement will be broadcast live on Thursday, January 14, from the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.

The Academy Museum announced today that it has accepted into its collection a major gift of the sole surviving full-scale model of the 1975 Jaws shark, donated by Nathan Adlen. The monumental Fiberglas model is the fourth and final version made from the original mold. Created for display at the Universal Studios Hollywood at the time of the film’s release, the prop remained a popular backdrop for photos until 1990, when it was moved to the yard of Aadlen Brothers Auto Wrecking, a firm in Sun Valley, California, that regularly bought or hauled used vehicles from Universal Studios.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced that 10 films remain in the running in the Visual Effects category for the 88th Academy Awards®.

The films are listed below in alphabetical order:

    “Ant-Man”
    “Avengers: Age of Ultron”
    “Ex Machina”
    “Jurassic World”
    “Mad Max: Fury Road”
    “The Martian”
    “The Revenant”
    “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”
    “Tomorrowland”
    “The Walk”

Nine features will advance to the next round of voting in the Foreign Language Film category for the 88th Academy Awards®.  Eighty films had originally been considered in the category.

The films, listed in alphabetical order by country, are:

     Belgium, "The Brand New Testament," Jaco Van Dormael, director;

     Colombia, "Embrace of the Serpent," Ciro Guerra, director;

     Denmark, "A War," Tobias Lindholm, director;

     Finland, "The Fencer," Klaus Härö, director;