LOS ANGELES — An unfiltered Conan O’Brien, a K-pop takeover onstage and absolutely no awards for Tilly Norwood.

This year, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is “leaning into big cultural moments,” in the words of CEO Bill Kramer.

Sunday’s Oscars ceremony comes at a period of transition for the academy, which has recently signed a groundbreaking deal with YouTube and is grappling — like the rest of the world — with the impact of AI.

Kramer and academy President Lynette Howell Taylor said in a recent interview with NBC News that they are mindful of the challenges the Oscars face in an ever-changing media landscape and in a year when often bleak headlines have dominated the news cycle.

“Everybody’s aware all the time of what’s happening outside of the Dolby Theatre, what’s happening around the world,” Howell Taylor said. But, she emphasized, “this night is about elevating artists and celebrating filmmakers.”

The academy, a nonprofit organization of film professionals, makes the vast majority of its income from the broadcast rights to the awards show. That means the Oscars must accomplish an increasingly tricky task: They have to entice and entertain viewers who are tuning in from 225 countries around the world, as well as the anxious entertainment industry crowd sitting in Hollywood’s 3,400-seat Dolby Theatre.

The 2025 Oscars, which O’Brien also hosted, drew 19.7 million viewers in the U.S., a five-year high. Critics praised O’Brien, who isn’t overtly political when it comes to his humor, for his “silliness and enthusiasm.”

He returns to the stage Sunday after having tested out some of his Oscar night jokes in clubs around Los Angeles. It’s unclear whether he’ll wade into topics such as the war in Iran, which has upended day-to-day life for many, or the looming acquisition deal for Warner Bros. Discovery, which is expected to change the future of the industry.

Howell Taylor and Kramer said they didn’t ask O’Brien to keep politics or any other topics out of his monologue.

“We give him a lot of creative leeway, and he never disappoints,” Kramer said.

Beyond tapping O’Brien to return as emcee, the academy has also enlisted artists from Netflix’s “Kpop Demon Hunters” and Warner Bros.’ “Sinners” to deliver live performances of nominated songs from the hit films.

The In Memoriam segment, which is often one of the most discussed and debated parts of the show, is expected to be crowded with industry giants who died over the last 12 months. The list includes Robert Redford, Diane Keaton, Robert Duvall and Rob Reiner, to name just a few.

Over the past few years, the academy has included an online gallery to supplement the faces who appear in the telecast, which it will do again this year.

“There’s incredible sensitivity around that piece on the show,” Howell Taylor said of the In Memoriam planning. “The biggest challenge is that there’s simply not enough time to include everybody in the on-air segment.”

And although the 98th awards have yet to air, the academy and its execs are already looking ahead to future ceremonies and how to keep people interested.

In December, the organization signed a deal to move the Oscars telecast to YouTube starting in 2029, after what will have been a more than 50-year run on ABC.

Moving the Oscars to the Google-owned platform will allow new kinds of engagement with the telecast, such as second-screen experiences like commentary or audience polling, Kramer said.

“What we were looking for was one deal that was both domestic and international that reached the largest global audience possible,” Kramer said.

Artificial intelligence — which has been a flash point among creatives in Hollywood — has also been a talking point among the academy and its members.

After last year’s Oscars, the academy added language about artificial intelligence to its rules, saying a film’s use of AI and digital tools will “neither help nor harm” its chances of nomination.

“It was important to note that AI is a tool, and across disciplines of the academy, people are using this tool,” Kramer said. “However, it needs to be used ethically, and there needs to be human authorship. Eventually we will have to make a decision about what it means for the awards in a bigger way, and that’s something that we’re continuing to discuss.”

One thing they are sure about? A synthetic performer, like the controversial AI actor Tilly Norwood, will never be eligible for an Oscar.

“An Oscar is given to a human,” Howell Taylor said, “and that is something that will remain.”