It's not just stars and studios who have campaigned furiously in recent weeks to win an Oscar on Sunday night.
Alongside the most followed machinations in the mecca of cinema, another battle, equally intense, was fought between heirs and agents to bring the 'dearly departed' to occupy a slot in the In Memoriam segment which in the middle of the night of the stars pays homage to the Hollywood's dead in the year that has just ended.
The space is limited, the names are many and the omissions are possible with the mathematical certainty of causing controversy every year.
Like when in 2010 Farrah Fawcett was snubbed (the excuse was that the Charlie's Angels diva had worked more for TV than for cinema) or, more recently last year, Paul Sorvino of These Bravi Ragazzi, much to the chagrin of the daughter Mira.
This year the red carpet from the grave rightfully belongs to Robbie Robertson, the band's frontman: who died of cancer in August, he spent the last year of his life composing the soundtrack of Killers of the Flower Moon of his friend from the days of 'Last Waltz Martin Scorsese.
Robbie is nominated and, if he were to win, he would be the first posthumous Oscar winner.
It is the Academy, bombarded in recent months by relatives, agents and publicists, that decides who to honor with the sound of music during the live broadcast: last year it was Lenny Kravitz who serenaded the faces that scrolled sadly on the giant screen.
"There are always those who are disappointed," explains Chuck Workman who worked on 22 Oscar broadcasts, in particular curating four In Memoriam segments.
Because while fans expect to see familiar faces grace the screen, the Academy isn't just made up of stars, but also those who work behind the scenes to bring the magic of cinema into viewers' lives.
"All 18 branches of the Academy would like to see recognized colleagues who have recently passed away and who have not managed to achieve the global fame of A-list stars", explains Workman.
Who will be honored this year is still shrouded in secrecy.
You might be reminded of Bill Cunningham, the original voice of Mattel's Ken in the early 1960s, or Michael Lerner, Oscar nominee for Barton Fink by the Coen Brothers and who died in April at 81.
Tom Sizemore of Saving Private Ryan and Black Hawk Down passed away in March at the age of 61 from a brain aneurysm.
There will certainly be Alan Arkin, Oscar winner in 2006 for Little Miss Sunshine, Michael Gambon, Dumbledore from Harry Potter, Tom Wilkinson unforgettable in The Full Monty, and Melina Dillon, candidate for Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
Ryan O'Neal of Paper Moon and Barry Lyndon died in December: a star whose life was tormented by drug abuse and domestic violence against Fawcett.
For the moralists of the Academy the dilemma arises whether to include it or not.
As with Lee Sun-kyun, the father of the wealthy Park family in Parasite: the popular South Korean actor committed suicide on December 27 while under investigation for drug use.
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