Oscars 2017 date: Curtains to rise on 89th Academy Awards on 26 February in Los Angeles' Dolby Theatre

The 89th Academy Awards are all set to take place at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on Sunday, 26 February. That’s early Monday morning — 27 February — for us folks in India. And Firstpost will be bringing you live coverage from the proceedings, ever step of the way. While who will win the coveted golden statuette remains open to conjecture, one thing is for sure: the ceremony will be fraught with political tension. Here is what we expect to unfold over Sunday night/Monday morning: Trumped? Although Donald Trump has indicated that he will not be watching the Oscar ceremony, if another Meryl Streep-esque speech happens we can be sure that POTUS will react to it. Especially if host Kimmel repeats his Emmy monologue, we can expect some ranty Presidential tweets at the very least. [caption id=“attachment_3301508” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Kimmel hosting the Emmys. Image courtesy: Twitter[/caption] Brotherly love When he collected his BAFTA, Casey Affleck thanked just about everybody in the universe, except big brother Ben Affleck . Will he be in a position to remedy this omission come Oscars night? The Matt Damon-Jimmey Kimmel Faux Feud The infamous feud between Jimmy Kimmel and Matt Damon may technically be fake, but that doesn’t make it any less entertaining. In the 11 years since its inception, the bit has evolved from an improvised one-liner to a series of elaborate segments, resulting in one of the most popular late night gags ever. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Kimmel said he will make sure Matt Damon doesn’t get on stage. La La Land might sweep the Oscars Damien Chazelle’s romantic musical is pinning its hopes on 14 nominations, tied with Titanic (1997) and All About Eve (1950) for the most ever. “When you mention those movies, it makes my head spin even more than it’s spinning. I’m a little speechless,” Chazelle, 32, told trade magazine Variety when the nominations were announced in January. The #OscarSoWhite debate Last year’s Oscar nominee list was criticised because of the lack of diversity. In fact, it spawned the hashtag #OscarSoWhite, and Jada Pinkett Smith even boycotted them. This year, the Academy rushed to correct itself and hence Denzel Washington got a nomination for Best Actor for Fences, Hidden Figures got a Best Film nomination. But do the stars think the Academy is opening up to people of colour? Like Viola Davis mentioned in her BAFTA speech , she thinks the film fraternity has a long way to go to accept diversity in the community. It will be worth a watch to see who will comment about Hollywood’s diversity debate this time round. Watch this space for our live blog on the Oscars. In the meantime, take this fun Oscars quiz and test your trivia knowledge: (Compiled using agency inputs) Catch our live blog here: Oscars 2017 LIVE updates: Hollywood’s ready for its big night with 89th Academy Awards