5 things you need to know about this year's Oscars

Cape Town – In four days the biggest film award ceremony will close off this awards season.

All eyes will be on the 88th Academy Awards which takes place on Sunday at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.

This year's awards and its lack of diversity has been a strong talking point resulting in prominent black actors and actresses such as Jada Pinkett-Smith, Will Smith and Spike Lee boycotting the ceremony.

While the debate about the lack of diversity and how to rectify the situation continues, the stage is set and the red carpet is ready to be rolled out for this year's Oscars ceremony.

The Red Carpet is almost ready for its close up. #Oscars pic.twitter.com/DMwegIP1Vm

— The Academy (@TheAcademy) February 24, 2016

Here are five things you need to know about this year's Oscars.

1. The host

Chris Rock returns to host the ceremony. He first hosted the ceremony in 2005 and is remembered for his controversial remarks about Tobey Maguire, Colin Farrell and Jude Law.

After the outcry for Chris to step down over the lack of diversity in this year's nominations he decided to ditch the script and was given full backing of show bosses to mock the issue.

Getting my outfit together pic.twitter.com/0W2D8v1Aeb

— Chris Rock (@chrisrock) February 23, 2016

2. The nominees

The Revenant leads the way with 12 Academy Award nominations.

Leonardo DiCaprio will vie for Best Actor, Alejandro G Inarritu is up for Best Director, Tom Hardy has been nominated for Best Supporting Actor and the movie will compete for Best Picture.

Mad Max: Fury Road is second with an impressive 10 nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director for George Miller, although its cast missed out on acting nods.

Meanwhile, The Martian has seven nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actor for its star Matt Damon.

See the full list of nominations here. 

3. The presenters and performances

Ryan Gosling, Tina Fey, Charlize Theron, Pharrell Williams, Jacob Tremblay, Kevin Hart, Benicio Del Toro and Whoopi Goldberg are all set to hand out awards at the ceremony.

Performers during the ceremony include Lady Gaga, the Weeknd and Sam Smith.

4. Predictions

AP film writers Lindsey Bahr and Jake Coyle have been unanimous in their predictions which are on par with earlier award winners.

Leonardo DiCaprio might finally bag that elusive Oscar statuette.

See all the predictions here.

5. Where to watch it!

Channel24 will cover the Oscars live as it happens on Monday 29 February from 03:00.

The ceremony will be aired on M-Net Movies Premiere, DStv (102), on Monday, 29 February 2016 at 03:30.  A repeat will air on M-Net (DStv 101) on Monday at 19:30.