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Rachel Zegler’s face will be all over the Oscars telecast this weekend: as the co-lead of West Side Story, she’ll appear in ads, montages, and posters. But as of now, Zegler won’t be there in person: she wrote on Instagram that she wasn’t even invited to the ceremony. “I have tried it all but it doesn’t seem to be happening,” she wrote.
Her post was met with a wave of incredulity on social media: How could the leading lady of one of the most celebrated films of the year not score a ticket? Zegler’s predicament is a function of both an unusual year and a long history of intense competition and internal politics revolving around Hollywood’s biggest night. An annual process rife with backdoor dealing and hurt egos has been exacerbated by restrictions due to the ever-lingering pandemic.
The Oscars invite process is overseen by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ (AMPAS) Membership and Awards team, which works to fill each seat of the Dolby Theater’s 3,300 capacity. This year, however, only 2,500 to 2,600 of those seats will be filled in order to promote social distancing. (The audience will also be required to show proof of vaccination against the coronavirus and at least two negative PCR tests.) The 800-seat deficit means that ticket allotments are squeezed across the board. The annual lottery, which Academy members can sign up for in the hopes of winning a ticket, has also been scrapped.
The first invites go to the nominees themselves, who get a pair of tickets for each nomination they’ve received. Jane Campion, for instance, is nominated three times—for writing, directing, and producing Power of the Dog—so she gets six tickets. With regards to Best Picture nominations, the only people from those movies who get individual invites from the…
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Source : time
