Argo tipped as Hollywood counts down to Oscars

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Bigger stars, more music and edgier comedy are on the menu for Sunday's Oscar ceremony, when the most coveted awards in the movie industry are handed out during a glittering Academy Awards show.

The red carpet is rolled out and ready for Tinseltown's finest to strut and preen before the Oscars show, widely seen as one of the least predictable in recent memory following a bumper movie year.

Producers of the three-hour Oscar telecast at Hollywood's Dolby Theatre are promising a faster-paced show and more face time with first-time host Seth MacFarlane, while honoring the best films not just of 2012 but also of decades past.

Steven Spielberg's presidential movie Lincoln heads into Sunday's ceremony with a leading 12 nominations, followed by Ang Lee's shipwreck tale Life of Pi with 11, French Revolutionary musical Les Miserables and romantic comedy Silver Linings Playbook with eight apiece, and Iran hostage drama Argo with seven.

All five are competing for Best Picture, the top prize, in a tight race that has narrowed in recent weeks to Lincoln or Argo and will be the last to be announced on Sunday night.

Affleck won a last minute diplomatic boost on Saturday when new US Secretary of State John Kerry tweeted his best wishes for the film.

Spielberg, bidding for his first best picture Oscar since Schindler's List in 1994, tops the nominations with 12 nods for Lincoln - but Argo has cleaned up in Hollywood's awards season so far, despite having only seven.

Although he started the season two months ago in front, Spielberg may have to settle Sunday for the best director award - one that Affleck cannot beat him to, having not been nominated in the category, in a perceived snub.

Remarkably, as film directors worry about their creations, organizers are growing increasingly concerned about the viability of the awards show itself that appears to be losing its luster as an undisputable advertising juggernaut.

If the nationally televised ceremony drew an average of 46 million viewers in the 1990s, according to Nielsen, its viewership, for the most part, was below 40 million in the last five years.

In addition, the median age of the audience has risen from barely 39 twenty years ago to nearly 53 last year.

These figures are of concern to advertisers and organizers who are making a concerted effort to inject new life into what is still considered a must-see TV event.

（中国日报网英语点津 Helen 编辑）

About the broadcaster:

Emily Cheng is an editor at China Daily. She was born in Sydney, Australia and graduated from the University of Sydney with a degree in Media, English Literature and Politics. She has worked in the media industry since starting university and this is the third time she has settled abroad - she interned with a magazine in Hong Kong 2007 and studied at the University of Leeds in 2009.