Oscars 2025 LIVE Updates: Stars arrive on the red carpet

Oscars glam got off to a strong start Sunday with both subtle and bold displays of glam as fans anticipated the arrivals of Hollywood's biggest stars.
Julianne Hough kicked things off in an elegant light beige ethereal look straight off the Christian Dior spring 2025 runway. Joan Chen also went fairy-like in green chartreuse, an off-shoulder number from the Elie Saab resort 2025 collection.

The color red — big, bright red — endured at the Oscars as a strong trend. Among early walkers wearing the hue: Storm Reid in a shortie with a long cape and Emily Kassie. Others stuck to black, including Marlee Matlin in Yara Shoemaker Couture and Coco Jones in sexy Coach, a custom combo of vintage and new.

Mikey Madison, Demi Moore, Timothée Chalamet, Danielle Deadwyler, Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo are among A-listers with red carpet wow momentum heading into the Oscars.

The 97th Oscars come less than two months after the devastating Los Angeles fires subdued carpet dressing for a time. As the city moves into rebuild mode, stars have been upping their fashion games heading into the biggest awards night of the season.

As stars arrived on the red carpet, some added messaging to their ensembles. Swedish singer and actor Kayo Shekoni lifted up her black heel to reveal the words “free Congo” on the red carpet in support of the African country, advocating for the conflict-ridden African nation.

“Conclave” writer Peter Straughan showed his support for Ukraine with a Ukrainian flag pin accent on his tuxedo.

“Just to say, let’s not turn our backs on Ukraine,” he told Variety’s Marc Malkin.

The pin caries extra significance after a tense meeting unfolded between Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House with President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance Friday.

Jeff Goldblum blooms on red carpet
Actor Jeff Goldblum added a floral arrangement to his off-white tuxedo jacket lapel, in a play off his last name.

How can I stream the Oscars?
The show is being livestreamed this year on Hulu. It's also available on services offering live streaming of ABC such as Hulu Live TV, YouTubeTV, AT&T TV and FuboTV.

I don’t live in the U.S. How can I watch the Oscars?
The Oscars are widely broadcast beyond the United States.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has a handy guide to dozens of international territories that have Oscar telecasts.

How can I watch the red carpet?
The Oscars red carpet is a major fashion showcase. Oscar nominees and winners from past, present and future pose and mingle ahead of the ceremony.

ABC will begin its red carpet pre-show at 6:30 p.m. Eastern, live on air and streaming on Hulu.

E! will kick off its show, “Live From E!: The Oscars,” beginning at 4 p.m. Eastern.

The Associated Press will have a livestream of stars’ arrivals available on APNews.com and YouTube.

Sally Field’s 1985 Oscar acceptance speech is one of the most talked about moments in Academy Awards history. But for decades, her words have been repeatedly misquoted, leading to a widespread misunderstanding of her emotions that night. In a candid reflection, the legendary actress admitted that the persistent misinterpretation of her speech has frustrated her so much so that she once joked about wanting to “punch” those who got it wrong.

At the 57th Academy Awards, Sally Field won her second Best Actress Oscar for her performance in 'Places in the Heart.' Overwhelmed with gratitude, she expressed her joy with the now-famous words:

“I can’t deny the fact that you like me. Right now, you like me!”

However, in the years that followed, her speech was frequently misquoted as:

“You like me! You really, really like me!”

The incorrect version of her speech quickly took on a life of its own, appearing in parodies, pop culture references, and even advertisements. While it became an iconic catchphrase, it also stripped Field’s words of their original meaning, turning a deeply personal moment into something more comedic and exaggerated.

"Emilia Perez" - 13

"The Brutalist" - 10

"Wicked" - 10

"A Complete Unknown" - 8

"Conclave" - 8

Emma Stone knows her way around the Dolby Theatre, but the even the two-time Oscar winner needs a little rehearsing before the big show. This year she’s not a nominee but a presenter, though which category she’ll be announcing is under wraps until it’s broadcast live around the world on Sunday.
The day before the ceremony, Stone was casually dressed in a brown shirt jacket, white T-shirt and jeans. On the Oscars stage Saturday, she mimicked walking to the microphone in high heels before immediately flubbing her lines — a moment of levity for the busy production staff milling around.

“Oh God,” she said. “This is going to go great.”

Many stars cycled in and out of the show venue Saturday morning. Andrew Garfield, Whoopi Goldberg, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Miley Cyrus, Oprah Winfrey, Sterling K. Brown, Ana de Armas, Goldie Hawn and Miles Teller all made their way to Hollywood to practice their lines, walk in their show heels and find their marks.

There could be an even younger winner on the actress side, if a groundswell of support for "Anora" carries its star Mikey Madison, 25, to the Oscars stage.

But she will have to get past Demi Moore, the 1990s megastar who had enjoyed a sparkling career renaissance thanks to gory body horror flick "The Substance."

"Hollywood loves a comeback story," said the Oscars voter.

If the vote is split, Brazil's Fernanda Torres could spring a surprise with "I'm Still Here," about a family ripped apart by her country's military dictatorship.

But the Academy Award hopes of fellow nominee Karla Sofia Gascon, of musical narco-thriller "Emilia Perez," appear to have collapsed.

Gascon, the first openly trans acting nominee, saw her campaign implode after years-old racist tweets about Islam, China and American George Floyd, a Black man who died at the hands of US police in 2020, went viral.

The controversy also sunk Netflix's chance of its first best picture win, though co-star Zoe Saldana remains the favorite to win for best supporting actress.

Best supporting actor appears to be similarly locked. Kieran Culkin has won almost everything going this year for his portrayal of a charismatic but troubled cousin on an ancestral road trip through Poland in "A Real Pain."

The voter, anonymous because Academy members cannot reveal their picks, also expressed admiration for "The Brutalist," a potential dark horse about a Hungarian Jewish architect making a new life in the United States after World War II.

Adrien Brody, who plays the titular gifted architect and Holocaust survivor, has been the presumed favorite to win the best actor Oscar for months.

Brody has won the prize previously, for 2002's "The Pianist." If he prevails again, he'd join an elite club of double winners including Marlon Brando and Jack Nicholson.

But Timothee Chalamet -- who earned wide admiration for his pitch-perfect performance as a sardonic young Bob Dylan in "A Complete Unknown" -- won the Screen Actors Guild Award over Brody, and could prove a spoiler.

At just 29, he arguably has the most star power of any of this year's nominees, and would beat Brody's record as the category's youngest-ever winner.

Brody is "still the safer pick," said Feinberg -- assuming enough Academy voters made it through his film's three-and-a-half-hour runtime.

Sean Baker's "Anora" -- about a New York stripper and escort who weds a wealthy Russian playboy, only to learn that her dream marriage is a nightmare illusion -- won the Cannes festival's Palme d'Or last May.

The low-budget indie has accrued top prizes from Hollywood directors, producers, writers and critics.

"Conclave" -- a film about the secretive and cutthroat election of a new Catholic leader, lent an uncanny timeliness by the real-life Pope Francis's health woes -- appears to have won over many late voters.

The film starring Ralph Fiennes and Isabella Rossellini earned top honors from Britain's BAFTAs, and the Hollywood actors' SAG Award for best cast.

One Oscars voter told AFP they had voted for "Conclave" because "it's just more of a traditional, classic 'best picture' film."

Hollywood veteran Harrison Ford will give the 97th Academy Awards a miss after being diagnosed with shingles. The 82-year-old actor's representative confirmed Ford's diagnosis and his absence from the ceremony.

Ford, whose latest film appearance is "Captain America: Brave New World", was supposed to be one of the presenters at Sunday's awards gala but was diagnosed with shingles on Friday.

As per the Mayo Clinic, the disease -- also known as herpes zoster -- is a painful rash caused by the varicella-zoster virus.

Other presenters at the Oscars 2025 include Dave Bautista, Gal Gadot, Andrew Garfield, Samuel L Jackson, Margaret Qualley, Alba Rohrwacher, Zoe Saldana and Rachel Zegler.

Brazil's Carnival muse this year isn't one of the divas or drum queens parading with the Rio de Janeiro samba schools. It's Fernanda Torres, who's competing for the best actress Oscar on Sunday.
The Oscars fall smack in the middle of Carnival, Brazil’s largest celebration, which runs through Tuesday. During the five-day revelry, the rest of the universe usually fades into the background as Brazilians cut loose and indulge.

Not this year, and the keen focus on the Oscars speaks to Brazil’s pride for its culture and desire to be recognized on the global stage.

“Just imagine, her winning the Oscar on Carnival Sunday. It’ll be a double celebration," Clarissa Salles, 33, told The Associated Press while buying a replica Oscar statuette in Sao Paulo for her costume.

Torres is nominated for her performance as the lead in the Walter Salles-directed “I’m Still Here,” which is also nominated for best picture and best international feature. Excitement around the awards has prompted TV Globo, Brazil’s largest network, to resume live coverage of the ceremony after a five-year hiatus. It will forgo the nationwide airing of high-ratings Carnival parades, instead broadcasting the Oscars everywhere except Rio.

Bars and nightclubs across Brazil are organizing Oscar watch parties and results will even be shown on a big screen to the tens of thousands of spectators gathered at Rio's Sambadrome for the parades.

“Today, all of Brazil only thinks about this,” President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said on his social media channels. “Everybody is cheering for ‘I’m Still Here' and Fernanda Torres at the Oscars.”

This year's Oscars are unspooling after a turbulent year for the film industry. Ticket sales were down 3% from the previous year and more significantly from pre-pandemic times. The strikes of 2023 played havoc with release schedules in 2024. Many studios pulled back on production, leaving many out of work. The fires, in January, only added to the pain.

Last year’s telecast, propelled by the twin blockbusters of “Oppenheimer” and “Barbie,” led the Oscars to a four-year viewership high, with 19.5 million viewers. This year, with smaller independent films favored in the most prominent awards, the academy will be tested to draw as large of an audience.

With a not particularly starry array of best song nominees, the academy has done away with performances of original songs this year. But there will be music, including a performance by “Wicked” stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, and a tribute to the late Quincy Jones, with Queen Latifah.

Last year’s acting winners — Emma Stone, Robert Downey Jr., Cillian Murphy, Da’Vine Joy Randolph — will also take part in the ceremony. The acting awards won't get the “fab five” treatment, with five previous winners per category, but producers say it will be used for some other categories that “maybe don’t normally get the spotlight on the Oscar stage.”

While the supporting acting categories feature overwhelming favorites in Zoe Saldana (“Emilia Pérez”) and Kieran Culkin (“A Real Pain”), both best actor and best actress are close contests.

In best actress, Demi Moore (“The Substance”) is most likely to win, but Mikey Madison (“Anora”) or Fernanda Torres (“I’m Still Here”) could pull off the upset.

Adrien Brody is favored in best actor for his performance in “The Brutalist. But Timothée Chalamet stands a decent chance of beating him, for his performance as Bob Dylan in “A Complete Unknown.” The 29-year-old Chalamet, who won at the Screen Actors Guild, would become the youngest best actor winner ever, edging Brody’s record, set in 2003 in his win for “The Pianist.”

The lead nominee is Netflix’s “Emilia Pérez,” with 13 nominations, but that film has seen its chances crater following uproar over years-old offensive tweets by its star, Karla Sofía Gascón, the first openly trans actor nominated for best actress.

The favorite is Sean Baker’s “Anora,” about a sex worker who weds the son of a Russian oligarch. The Neon release, the Cannes Palme d’Or winner, won with the producers, directors and writers guild. The only movie with the same resume to not win best picture is “Brokeback Mountain.”

Its closest competition is “Conclave,” the papal thriller starring Ralph Fiennes. It won at the BAFTAs and the SAG Awards, wins that came just as Pope Francis was hospitalized for double pneumonia. Oscar voting concluded before the pope fell ill.

Also in the mix are “The Brutalist,” nominated for 10 awards, and the musical hit “Wicked,” also with 10 nominations. Several of the early craft Oscars could be shared between “Wicked” and “Dune: Part Two.”

After a topsy-turvy Oscar season in which frontrunners were constantly shuffled, old tweets hobbled a top contender and space was held for “Wicked,” the 97th Academy Awards get underway Sunday.

Sunday’s Academy Awards, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, will bring to a close one of the most unpredictable Oscar races in recent memory.

Though some rain had been in the forecast, sunny skies pervaded across a Los Angeles still recovering from wildfires that devastated the Pacific Palisades and Altadena neighborhoods earlier this year.

The fires affected many throughout the film industry and within the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. Some even called for the cancellation of Hollywood’s awards season. While his Pacific Palisades house was spared, O’Brien has been living out of a hotel the last two months. Oscar producers have said the show will celebrate the city’s resilience.