The 97th Academy Awards, AKA the 2025 Oscars, are almost upon us, with the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles ready to welcome the great and the good from the world of cinema on Sunday (March 2).

Inevitably, much of the pre-ceremony speculation and predictions center around the “top” categories, particularly Best Picture, Best Directing, Best Actor and Best Actress.

The controversial “Emilia Pérez” leads the way in terms of nominations with 13, while big names actors and actresses Adrien Brody, Timothée Chalamet and Demi Moore are all hoping to take home a statuette.

Follow all the information on the 2025 Oscars

• Oscars 2025, live: ceremony, speeches, and all the winners of the Academy Awards, live.
• List of winners for the 2025 Academy Awards: all the awardees at the Oscars in Los Angeles.
• 2025 Oscar for Best Picture
• 2025 Oscar for Best Director
• 2025 Oscar for Best Actress
• 2025 Oscar for Best Actor
• 2025 Oscar for Best Supporting Actress
• 2025 Oscar for Best Supporting Actor
• Oscars 2025: What is the order of awards and how many categories are there at the Academy Awards?
• What time are the 2025 Oscars? Schedule, TV, how to watch, and where to follow the Oscar ceremony online.

Conan O’Brien to host first Oscars

Halle Berry, Emma Stone and Selena Gomez are among those who have been confirmed as presenting an award, although the night’s main host will be Conan O’Brien.

The 61-year-old takes over hosting duties from Jimmy Kimmel, who was in charge in 2023 and 2024 for the third and fourth times.

O’Brien, on the other hand, will be the man with the mic at the Oscars for the first time in his career. It comes more than three-and-a-half years after his retirement from late-night television in June 2021.

Since then, the Brookline, Massachusetts native has worked on his own podcast, “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend,” and starred in “Conan O’Brien Must Go,” a four-episode international travel series shown on HBO.

Jimmy Kimmel reveals Oscars hosting pay

O’Brien will be tasked with making sure everything runs smoothly at what is arguably the biggest event of the year in the film industry, so you might imagine he would be getting paid obscene amounts of money to do so.

However, that isn’t expected to be the case.

Although the Academy hasn’t officially revealed how much the Oscars host makes, Kimmel stated last year he was paid $15,000 for his work on the 2024 ceremony, describing it as “nothing”.

While mere mortals could only dream of earning such an amount in a such a short space of time (even including preparation and rehearsals), the gig isn’t especially lucrative for Hollywood’s biggest and brightest stars.

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