Let us save you a classic Google search: the Eighty-Seventh Academy Awards telecast will air Sunday at 7 P.M. E.S.T. on ABC. Fluff the couch pillows, charge the smartphone, and prepare to enjoy the Super Bowl of snark and sequins. Perhaps you’ve had the good fortune of being invited to an Oscar party, but the misfortune of only having binge-watched “Orange Is the New Black.” Problem solved: “Watch All of This Year's Best Picture Nominees in Under 4 Minutes.”
Should you require more background, and you probably do, start with Nathan Heller’s Profile of Richard Linklater, from the June 30th issue. Linklater’s movie “Boyhood” will vie with Alejandro González Iñárritu’s “Birdman” for Best Picture honors; here is Anthony Lane’s review. Our critic David Denby admired “Selma,” which was snubbed by Oscar in several major categories but contains indelibile images, and was also the film that launched a thousand Op-Eds. Nicholas Schmidle wrote a long feature about Chris Kyle, the Navy SEAL who is the subject of Clint Eastwood’s “American Sniper.” And it has been a good year for Wes Anderson, whose nominated movie, “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” is based on a work by Stefan Zweig; read Leo Carey on Zweig’s melancholy life. Richard Brody points out why the best film never wins Best Picture, and also has predictions about who will win what and why—should you care to attempt an educated guess in that silent moment when the envelope is being ripped open.
There is always more: here is a complete landing page for our Oscars-related coverage. And be sure to follow The New Yorker’s Twitter account on Sunday night, which will keep tabs on the ceremony and feature live-drawing by our cartoonists Bob Eckstein and Liza Donnelly.
