This weekend, the latest movie awards season wraps up with the 89th annual Academy Awards. The latest Oscars show features a showcase of all the best movies, performers, writers, directors, musicians, and associated talents from 2016. Golden statues will be handed out to the best of the best, as this year's movie frontrunners include the heavily-nominated "La La Land," as well as "Manchester By the Sea," "Hidden Figures," and "Moonlight." Many viewers are wondering when are the Oscars 2017 taking place, as well as the other important details for watching this year's show.
Here's the latest information you need to know.
Top Oscar nominees
Each year, the Best Picture category honors a group of the top movies over the past year. This year, the Oscars will include nine contenders. "La La Land" is the favorite to win the category but will compete against "Manchester By the Sea," "Moonlight" and "Hidden Figures" for the award. Other contenders include "Lion," "Hacksaw Ridge," "Hell or High Water," "Arrival," and "Fences." It should be noted that "La La Land" is up for a record-tying 14 total awards on the evening, a feat only two other films have accomplished over Oscars history.
The top actor and actress awards are also of high interest each year. In the Best Actor category, Casey Affleck ("Manchester By the Sea") is considered the favorite to win along with Ryan Gosling ("La La Land") and Denzel Washington ("Fences.) In the Best Actress category, Emma Stone ("La La Land") competes against top contenders Natalie Portman ("Jackie") and Meryl Streep ("Florence Foster Jenkins").
When it comes to Best Director, Forbes believes that Damien Chazelle will get the win for "La La Land." He's up against Mel Gibson ("Hacksaw Ridge"), Barry Jenkins ("Moonlight"), Kenneth Lonergan ("Manchester By the Sea") and Denis Villenueve ("Arrival").
Other favorites at Forbes include Viola Davis ("Fences") for Best Supporting Actress and Mahershala Ali ("Moonlight") for Best Supporting Actor.
The song "City of Stars" from "La La Land" should win Original Song, while "Zootopia" is expected to take home Best Animated Film.
Oscars date, time & place
The Oscars 2017 ceremony is scheduled to take place on Sunday, February 26th. The telecast officially goes live starting at 7 p.m. Eastern Time or 4 p.m. Pacific Time. This year's Academy Awards will be held at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California. There will also be red carpet specials prior to the main show for viewers to check out all of the fashions, interviews, and latest buzz heading into the ceremony.
This year's Oscars show will be televised live via the ABC network around the United States. Late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel will serve as the 2017 Oscars host, following up last year's gig hosted by comedian/actor Chris Rock. Running time for the annual ceremony is estimated to top 3-1/2 hours by the time all the awards have been handed out.