Oscars: Here's what you need to know for this year's Academy Awards - ABC News

Lady Gaga holding microphone and singing into it, Bradley Cooper in background watching, red stage lighting.

Was A Star is Born snubbed? Is Glenn Close in with a chance for best actress? And will Black Panther scoop the awards?

If you're still in the dark about this year's Academy Awards (heads up, they are on tomorrow) we've got just the guide to get you up to speed on what everyone will be talking about.

Here's what you need to know about who is tipped to take out the big awards (and who won't).

What ever happened to A Star is Born being tipped to collect Best Picture Oscar?

Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper both singing into the same mic, on stage, seen from the side.

This awards season has demonstrated just how quickly a movie can go from shoo-in, to ho-hum.

With Bradley Cooper behind the lens and in front of it, and Lady Gaga riding pillion, the musical drama garnered lots of early critical attention and seven Oscar nominations.

Then it started missing out on the statues at other awards ceremonies, leaving us to guess at what might have gone wrong.

Were voters unable to take Lady Gaga seriously as an actor? Is it an issue that the film is a remake of a remake?

Shallow is still tipped to win the Oscar for best song, and while A Star is Born may not have struck the right chord with industry voters to date, fans are still excited that Cooper and Gaga will perform at the ceremony.

Why is Glenn Close favourite to win best actress?

Glenn Close reading a book titled The Walnut in a scene from The Wife

Glenn Close has been Hollywood royalty for as long as we can remember. Well, OK, since the '80s.

She had pivotal roles in The Big Chill and The World According to Garp, but then she made Fatal Attraction and bunny has been off the menu ever since.

Close was nominated for the best actress Oscar that year, in 1987, but Cher took home the statuette for her role in Moonstruck.

Glenn Close wears a white suit as she stands at podium with SAG award in her hand while delivering speech.

Close has never won a statue, despite another five nominations during her career.

Her nomination this year for her role as the silently talented partner of an egomaniacal Nobel laureate in The Wife is deserving. Academy members may also think it's her turn.

Who is Rami Malek anyway?

Colour still of Rami Malek as Freddie Mercury performing on stage in 2018 film Bohemian Rhapsody.

Sacha Baron Cohen was originally attached to play Freddie Mercury in the biopic of the Queen frontman, but the English comic walked away from the project after reportedly disagreeing with what he saw as the sanitising of Mercury's very colourful life.

Enter Malek, an American born in LA with Egyptian parents.

His biggest role to date was as a computer hacker in the American TV series Mr Robot.

He is now favourite to collect the Oscar for best actor in Bohemian Rhapsody.

Colour still of Gwilym Lee, Rami Malek and Ben Hardy in recording studio in 2018 film Bohemian Rhapsody.

Malek's screen career dates to a 2004 guest role on the TV series Gilmore Girls.

Since then, he's also appeared in Larry Crowne, The Pacific, and the Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn.

This awards season, Malek has already scooped a Golden Globe, a BAFTA, and a Screen Actors Guild award — though he's up against some stiff competition in Bradley Cooper for A Star Is Born and Christian Bale for Vice.

Who is hosting this year?

Nobody.

There was a big drama involving Kevin Hart and some historic homophobic tweets.

The Academy asked him to apologise, he refused, saying that he had previously addressed the issue.

Kevin Hart, wearing a suit, smiles and holds up two fingers as he poses for the camera while arriving at a movie premiere.

He was asked to apologise or step down. He chose the latter, saying he did not want to be a distraction.

The list of award presenters since released is long. It includes Michael Keaton, Helen Mirren, Pharrell Williams, Paul Rudd, Michelle Yeoh, Laura Dern and Samuel L Jackson.

And the door remains open for a surprise presenter to appear on the day.

Only two Aussie nominees this year — does that usually happen?

We have come to expect to see numerous Australians nominated for Oscars, but historically this year is quite normal.

Two writers stand holding BAFTA trophies.

Tony McNamara is tipped to become the first Australian to collect the Oscar for best screenplay, with co-writer Deborah Davis, for The Favourite.

Fiona Crombie follows in the footsteps of several Australian designers who have been awarded at the Oscars, she is also a chance to take home Oscar for her work on the English period romp.

In the past 20 years, dozens of Australians have garnered Oscar nominations due to their work on movies that were either made here, or directed by Australians.

Colour still of Rachel Weisz and Olivia Colman having an intimate moment in 2018 film The Favourite.

Shine (1997), Babe (1996), Moulin Rouge (2002) and Peter Weir's Master and Commander (2004) all attracted numerous nominations.

There have been some standout years for Australian talent when more than half a dozen nominations flowed from different films.

In 1999, there were nine Aussie Oscar nominations across different categories from seven different movies, including for director of The Truman Show Peter Weir, and Cate Blanchett for her lead performance in Elizabeth.

That golden age of Australians in cinema now seems like a long time ago.

Black Panther has already won (even if it doesn't scoop the awards)

Still from Black Panther film of the superhero facing an enemy.

If the bookies are to be believed, Black Panther isn't a serious chance to win the Oscar for best picture, but it's our guess the executives at Disney have not lost any sleep over the matter.

Even before it earned seven Oscar nominations, the Panther is already the victor.

It's the first movie from the Marvel franchise with a predominantly black cast directed by a black director, Ryan Coogler.

The Marvel superhero picture is also the ninth-highest grossing movie of all time, having reaped $US1.4 billion worldwide from its reported $US200 million budget.

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