LOS ANGELES - With "Sinners" and "One Battle After Another" neck-and-neck for best picture and several acting races far too close to call, this Sunday's Oscars gala is shaping up to be the most unpredictable in years.
A Hollywood ceremony set to feature music from "KPop Demon Hunters" and Conan O'Brien as host will feature several nail-biting reveals, culminating in the announcement of the year's best film, which remains anyone's guess.
Until "the final envelope is opened for best picture, we're not going to know who's going to win," said Variety's awards columnist Clayton Davis.
"Both have a huge opportunity in order to break multiple Oscar records," he told AFP.
"Sinners," a smash-hit vampire period horror film from director Ryan Coogler, has already made Academy Awards history with its whopping 16 nominations.
But the frontrunner of this awards season has long been "One Battle," a zany thriller about a retired revolutionary looking for his teen daughter.
While suspense about best picture doesn't happen every year, what is truly unusual this time is the amount of uncertainty surrounding the acting prizes.
Best international film is arguably the hardest to call of all, with Norwegian family drama "Sentimental Value" up against Brazil's surreal political thriller "The Secret Agent."
O'Brien returns to host the Oscars for a second year running, while Barbra Streisand is rumoured to be singing a tribute to her "The Way We Were" co-star Robert Redford, who died in September.
Ejae, Audrey Nuna and Rei Ami, the singing voices behind "KPop Demon Hunters" fictional girl group HUNTR/X, will perform the Netflix smash film's Oscar-nominated song "Golden."