The diamonds, the divas and the drama of the Oscars

Hollywood's red carpet is getting rolled out for its premier event, the Oscars, for the 96th time this weekendIn spite of living in the age of Netflix, the gilt still isn't peeling off the Academy Awards.It's the big night of the year in Hollywood, where the film industry gets on their Sunday best and struts the red carpet for the annual award ceremony of the season.Newshub entertainment editor Kate Rodger says the Oscars is an event that stops the whole city, and truly is one of a kind."It's an iconic awards show and probably the first to dominate any kind of conversation around awards."So what can we expect for Aotearoa this year? Wēta FX has earned a nomination for its role in the production of Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3. It was also part of the production of War is Over! Inspired by the Music of John and Yoko, which is nominated for Best Animated Short Film. The Academy Awards never fail to populate the headlines and this year was no different, with critics, fans and stars themselves speaking out after the nomination list failed to include Barbie star Margot Robbie for best actress and Greta Gerwig for best director."The optics of this absolutely suck, there's no question. Here we have Barbie not nominated, but we have Ken nominated. We have the architect of the film, not nominated for best director," says Rodger.She would've loved to see more women included in the directing category, and says the nominations reflect what she thinks are the worst statistics on the number of female directors in Hollywood this year."So would I want to swap out, and put Greta in there for best director? Quite possibly I'd like to pop that in instead of maybe Jonathan Glazer, but the reality is Jonathan Glazer directed a stunning film." she says.Glazer helmed The Zone of Interest, which is nominated in the all-important Best Picture category. But Rodger says ultimately deciding what film is better is like comparing a pen to a pencil. "They're completely different, they kind of do the same thing, but you have a totally different experience with these two things. "How do you compare a film about the Holocaust with a film about Barbie?"Public outcry over a lack of diversity in Oscar nominees and winners isn't new, and many blame it on the lack of diversity in the members of the Academy, who choose the winners. Following the #OscarsSoWhite movement in 2016 the Academy promised to double its number of women and ethnically diverse members by 2020. …Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details