Anderson's One Battle After Another is the favourite heading into the ceremony but Coogler's Sinners comes in the lead nominee with a record 16 nominations. Both filmmakers are poised to leave with their first Oscar.
But little else is assured at an Academy Awards where Michael B Jordan or Timothée Chalamet (despite the ballet diss heard 'round the world) could win their first Academy Award in a too-close-to-call best actor race.
Security for the ceremony at the Dolby Theatre will be tight on Sunday.
Organisers said they were working closely with the FBI and Los Angeles police after a federal warning of a possible Iranian threat against California, though authorities have cited no specific or credible danger to the Academy Awards.
Conan O'Brien is returning as host for the second year in a row. Despite the war in Iran and expanding geopolitical turmoil, O'Brien has pledged an entertaining show.
"Let's have fun with it, is my attitude," O'Brien told reporters earlier in the week.
Still, the already high security will be even greater this year at an Oscars, taking place two weeks after the US launched the war with Iran. Some attendees wore pins reading "Artists for cease fire".
Sinners and One Battle After Another were both theatrical releases shot on film. And both came from Warner Bros., the legacy studio that's agreed to merge with David Ellison's new media colossus, Paramount Skydance.
The $US111 billion ($A159 billion) deal, which awaits regulatory approval, has rattled an industry already reconciling itself to the acquisitions of MGM (by Amazon) and 20th Century Fox (by The Walt Disney Co).
The in memoriam segment is expected to include, among many others, remembrances of Robert Redford, Diane Keaton and Robert Duvall. O'Brien, who had hosted a party attended by Rob and Michele Reiner the night before their deaths, has promised a "very powerful" tribute.
The best actor is one of the most hard-to-call categories.
Chalamet had been seen as the front-runner for his performance in Marty Supreme but a swaggering meta campaign, that drew headlines, of all things, a perceived slight of ballet and opera, may have helped put Jordan into the lead.
While Jessie Buckley (Hamnet) is widely expecting to win best actress, the supporting categories are highly competitive, including Australian Rose Byrne for If I Had Legs I'd Kick You.
Byrne who's hoping to win her first Oscar, arrived wearing a strapless black fishtail gown by Dior, with floral embroidery across the bodice and hem.
Byrne paired the look with slicked back hair, a statement necklace and a bright red lip.
Amy Madigan (Weapons) is the slight favourite in best supporting actress, but Teyana Taylor (One Battle After Another) and Wunmi Mosaku (Sinners) are in the mix, too.
Despite almost no campaigning, Sean Penn is viewed as the best supporting actor favourite, with Australia's Jacob Elordi also nominated in the category.
That award, could easily also go to Stellan Skarsgård (Sentimental Value) or Delroy Lindo (Sinners).
Another Australian Nick Cave is nominated for the title song to Clint Bentley's film Train Dreams, starring Joel Edgerton.
Though the Oscars often feel largely removed from their times, a crop of nominees that explicitly grapple with the current political moment will be centre stage.
That includes not just One Battle After Another, which opens with a raid on an immigration detention facility, but movies like Kleber Mendonça Filho's Brazilian political thriller The Secret Agent and Jafar Panahi's Iranian revenge drama It Was Just an Accident.
The war in Iran has particular meaning to Panahi, whose film is nominated for best international feature and for best screenplay.
The esteemed Iranian filmmaker and last year's Palme d'Or winner has made films clandestinely in his native Iran despite repeated imprisonment, travel ban and even home arrest. While promoting the film, Panahi was sentenced to a year in prison.
At least one of his cowriter nominees, Mehdi Mahmoudian, was unable to leave Iran to attend the awards.
with Reuters
21°C