Oscars 2016: Academy Awards set for Hollywood tonight

Lights, cameras and action! The Oscars are finally here, with some of the world's biggest stars, top filmmakers and powerful movie industry executives gathering for Hollywood's annual celebration of the silver screen.

Here's what you need to know about tonight's ceremony.

What:

This year marks the88thannual edition of the Academy Awards. TheCBC News arts team is on-site in Hollywood, reporting live from thered carpetand behind-the-scenes.

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Where:

The Dolby Theatreat the Hollywood & HighlandCenterin Hollywood, Calif.

When:

The red carpetpre-showstarts at 7 p.m. ET, with the awards ceremony to followat 8:30 p.m. ET. The telecast,which runs approximately fourhours, will be broadcast live by ABC,simulcast in Canadaby CTV and ultimately shown in more than 225 countries around the globe.

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The host:

This year, acerbic stand-upcomedian, actor and producerChris Rockmakes his return to the Oscars podium. Hepreviously hosted in 2005 and deflated a good number of egos with hisceleb-skewering bits (one wonders whether Jude Law ever forgavehim)as well as an uncomfortably honest skit about how the public doesn't actually watch Oscarcontenders).

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Producers tapped theSaturday Night Live alum and Everybody Hates Chris creator as the 2016 Oscars hostlast fall more than two months before the nominations were announced and set off the#OscarsSoWhite uproar for a second year.

Rock has been mum about the racial diversityfurore that has engulfed this year's ceremony, but given that his comedynever ducksheavy topics including politics or race relations, who better to host? His monologue will definitely be Sunday night'smust-see TV.

The big story:

The Academy Awards are arguably the most prestigious film industry honour on the planet just scoringan Oscar nodmakes it into a person'sobituary. An Oscar nomination (and, most assuredly, awin) can change the course of a career. So it's understandable that which individuals, teams or movies earn nominations become a big deal.

For a second consecutive year, the film academy put forth a slate of all-white acting nominees and was instantly greeted with a tsunami ofsocial media outrage that quickly manifested into offline criticism and widespread debate. Moving quickly to introduce new diversity efforts only sparked a retaliatory backlash.

• #OscarsSoWhite, Hollywood diversity woes loom over Academy Awards

The #OscarsSoWhitefiasco which admittedly points a larger issue within the wider film industry itself hangslike a storm cloud over the 2016proceedings andcasts a shadow over this year's nominees.

That said, survival thrillerThe Revenant leads this year'sOscar race with 12 nominations, while thecontenders for best picture, the night's most anticipated trophy, are:

• The Big Short
• Bridge of Spies
• Brooklyn
• Mad Max: Fury Road
• The Martian
• The Revenant
• Room
• Spotlight

The completelist of the nominees can be foundhereandCBC's arts reporter and film criticEli Glasneroffershis predictions here.

The Canadian contenders

This year, the field is peppered withCanadians.Chief among them are Irish-Canadian co-productionsRoom(including a nod for Irish-Canadian author Emma Donoghue's screenplay) and Brooklyn. Both are contenders for best picture.

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Filmed partly inAlberta and British Columbia, lead Oscar nomineeThe Revenant's contenders include a spate of Canadian collaborators, includingvisual effects artist CameronWaldbauer, set decoratorHamishPurdy, sound technician ChrisDuesterdiek(up for sound mixing), makeup and hair artist RobertPandini.

• The Revenant costumes designed to weather 'extreme' Canadian climate

Emma Donoghue tells CBC's Zulekha Nathoo what she's learned from screenwriting

9 years ago

Duration 1:01

The Irish-Canadian Oscar-nominated author describes what she will apply to her next film-writing project

Denis Villeneuve'sSicarioearned a trio of nods (though theQuebec filmmaker himself failed to earn one). Rachel McAdams is a best supportingactress nominee for her turn in Spotlight, while R&B chart-topperThe Weekndand his Canadian team of co-songwriters are in the running for best original song for Earned It from the film Fifty Shades of Grey.

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Other Canadian hopefuls include:

• Documentary short filmmakers Adam Benzine (for Claude Lanzmann: Spectres of the Shoah) andSharmeen Obaid-Chinoy (for A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness).
• The Martian sound technician Paul Massey (for sound mixing) and artist Anders Langlands(visual effects).
• Animated short nominee Richard Williams (shares in nomination for Prologue with Imogen Sutton).

Find full coverage of the 2016 Academy Awards tonight at CBCNews.ca/arts.

Tune in Monday, when the CBC's Eli Glasner will offer his take on this year's Oscars in a live chat (beginning at 12 p.m. ET) with the CBC News Trending team.