After last year’s infamous attack and a build-up sullied by bad blood, Sunday’s ceremony arrives with the organisers craving calm
A crisis management team has been appointed. Ditto a host – Jimmy Kimmel – whose deft handling of the 2017 best picture debacle (when La La Land was incorrectly announced rather than Moonlight) earned him a reputation as a safe pair of hands.
Rumours that Sarah Ferguson would present an award have been squashed. The Academy has set up a website memorialising 200 recently deceased industry players so as to avoid a repeat of this year’s Baftas backlash, when Phil Davis quit after an apparent snub of the late Bernard Cribbins.
