Expect fast and fierce show

Organisers of the Oscar telecast have promised the competition will be fierce and the show fast-paced in a bid to boost viewership.

Tonight's Academy Awards ceremony – criticised in the past as bland, unfunny and even unappealing for a young audience – is being outfitted with more humour and a youthful mentality, organisers told a news conference on the red carpet outside Oscar's home, the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood.

"We designed part of the show, not to lose the traditional audience but to reinvite the younger audience,'' co-producer Bill Mechanic said, predicting "anybody under the age of 25 will enjoy the show unlike any other".

Organisers hope the biggest change in the awards – the expansion to 10 best-picture nominees instead of five – will yield a larger TV audience after more mainstream movies got the nod.

In past years, lower budget and little seen critical successes have dominated the top movie awards, such as the dark drama No Country for Old Men that won best film in a 2008 telecast watched by a small US audience of 32 million. When Titanic sailed home with 11 Oscars including best film at the 1998 ceremony, a high of 55.2 million people watched.

Widening the field to 10 nominees helped the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences include hits like The Blind Side and Avatar, which surpassed Titanic to become the No1 all-time draw at global box-offices with $2.5 billion (Dh9.18bn).

"The competition is a bit more fierce this year," Academy President Tom Sherak said. "That is good for the show." Asked if the producers were under pressure to live up to the expectations of a bigger audience, he said the nominations for films that have proved popular such as Avatar were "going to help".

"When people are invested in those movies they have seen, then they can cheer for them or root for them and they can possibly win."

Hairspray director and show co-producer Adam Shankman put it this way: "Snobbery departed the Oscars this year".

Among new presenters are Tom Hanks, Robin Williams, Cameron Diaz, Jennifer Lopez, Pedro Almodovar and Colin Firth.

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