Oscars 20K Swag Bag

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WOLO) —  The 88th Academy Awards will air Sunday, Feb. 28, on ABC Columbia.

For presenters and performers of this year’s award show they’ll have twenty thousand reasons to smile.

They’ll receive a swag bag to include $1,500 private dinner party for the recipient and friends at any Morton’s steakhouse worldwide, a pair of Beamer Video Phones valued at $499 together, and a four-night stay worth $1,500 at Rosewood’s Badrutt’s Palace Hotel, a luxury hotel in St. Moritz, Switzerland.

This year’s Oscars have come under fire because of the all-white field of acting nominees.

Will Smith and his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, as well as Spike Lee, have said they will not attend the ceremony.

Returning after 11 years, actor Chris Rock will host the ABC telecast.

For a complete list of nominees for 88th Oscars® click here.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is overhauling its membership policy following a controversy over the diversity of the top categories of the Oscars over the past two years.

The organization’s board voted unanimously on Thursday, January 21  to take steps to make its membership, governing policies and voting members “significantly” more diverse, according to a press release.

The goal is to double the number of women and diverse members by 2020.

“The Academy is going to lead and not wait for the industry to catch up,” said Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs. “These new measures regarding governance and voting will have an immediate impact and begin the process of significantly changing our membership composition.”