The Kodak Theatre is the venue for the 84th Academy Awards, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), will honor the best films of 2011 in California. During the ceremony, AMPAS will present its annual Academy Awards (commonly referred to as Oscars) in 24 competitive categories. The ceremony will be televised in the United States on ABC. The Oscars are the premier film awards ceremony internationally, and mark the culmination of a long season of awards ceremonies worldwide, including the Grammy Awards and the BAFTA Awards in London.
Billy Crystal will host the ceremony, while Brian Grazer will produce it. This will be Crystal's ninth time serving as host for the Academy Awards. The ceremony was originally scheduled to be hosted by Eddie Murphy. However, after Brett Ratner resigned as producer after using a gay slur when talking about rehearsals, Murphy also stepped down. The nominees for the 84th annual Academy Awards were announced on January 24, 2012, at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater by Tom Sherak, AMPAS president, and Oscar-nominated actress Jennifer Lawrence. The winners will be announced during the awards ceremony on February 26, 2012.
Unlike most award categories, the categories of Best Makeup, Best Foreign Language Film, and Best Visual Effects each have a multiple-stage nomination process. For these awards, specific Academy branches choose pre-nominees and then, from that list, final nominees. From the list of final nominees, the AMPAS membership selects the award winner. For example, seven Best Makeup pre-nominees were narrowed down to three final nominees, from which the entire AMPAS membership will choose a winner.
