85th Academy Awards
A woman holds an Oscar, won by producer Robert Hudson, outside the location for the 85th Academy Awards in Los Angeles, California, on 22 February 2013. The Oscars will be presented at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood on 24 February 2013. (Reuters/Adrees Latif)

The 85th Academy Awards will take place on Sunday 24 February, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. The awards ceremony begins at 1.30amGMT.

There are, as ever, several big names in contention for a prestigious Oscar, but the biggest among them are two films with strongly patriotic/military themes - Ben Affleck's Argo and Steven Spielberg's Lincoln. Also in contention is Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty, a re-telling of the US hunt for Osama Bin Laden and, on a lighter note, the romantic comedy Silver Linings Playbook. If Daniel Day-Lewis picks up the Best Actor Oscar for his performance in Lincoln, he will become the first actor in cinema history to win the coveted award three times.

Where to Watch The Oscars Live

READ Oscars 2013 Live: Red Carpet Arrivals [UPDATES]

Sky Movies will air the red carpet arrivals live from 11.30pm GMT, on Sky Movies Oscars (and HD) and Sky Living (and HD). The actual awards ceremony will air on Sky Movies Oscars (and HD) from 1.30am GMT to 4am GMT.

The event will also be broadcast online on Livestream.com.

Keep in touch with all the news and the awards via the official Oscars app, available for mobile devices running iOS or Android. The app is also available on Amazon.

For the latest updates on award winners and exclusive interviews, tune into the Academy Awards' official YouTube channel.

The event can also be followed via official Facebook and Twitter accounts.

Hosts and Presenters

The event will be hosted by the comic actor Seth MacFarlane. Academy Award winners Jack Nicholson and Dustin Hoffman will be among this year's high-profile presenters, show producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron revealed on Friday 22 February.

Nicholson has been nominated 12 times - more than any other actor - and has won Best Actor Oscars for One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (1975) and As Good as It Gets (1997). He also won the award for Best Supporting Actor in Terms of Endearment (1983).

Hoffman has been nominated seven times and has won awards for leading roles in Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) and Rain Man (1988).

"Between the two of them, Jack Nicholson and Dustin Hoffman have created more iconic characters than any other pair of actors in the world," Zadan and Meron said in a statement released to Entertainment Weekly. "Their participation in this year's Oscars completes a list of presenters and performers that truly represents that great breadth and depth of acting talent in film today."

Other presenters at the Oscars ceremony will include Kristen Stewart, Jennifer Aniston, Michael Douglas, Jamie Foxx, Paul Rudd, Salma Hayek, Melissa McCarthy, Liam Neeson, John Travolta, Ben Affleck, Jessica Chastain, Jennifer Lawrence, Halle Berry, Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, Mark Wahlberg, Jean Dujardin, Octavia Spencer and Meryl Streep.

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READ Oscars 2013 Predictions: Argo, Spielberg and Osama bin Laden in the Spotlight