The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has just announced key dates for the next Oscar ceremony. The 87th annual awards show is confirmed to take place February 22, 2015 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, and will be broadcast live on ABC.

The road to the movie’s biggest night will kick off with Governors Awards on November 8 this year. Voting for nominations will begin December 29 and will be closed on January 8. The nominees will be unveiled January 15, and the final voting will end on February 17.

No host has been announced. This year, the live telecast was hosted by Ellen DeGeneres who caused a buzz for taking a star-studded selfie that broke social media records. She also ordered pizza for the A-list guest. “Gravity” collected 7 awards, but “12 Years a Slave” took home the top honor as 2013’s Best Picture.

Marking Christianity’s most hopeful day, Pope Francis made an Easter Sunday plea for peace and dialogue in Ukraine and Syria, for an end to terrorist attacks against Christians in Nigeria and for more attention to the hungry and neediest close to home.

Well over 150,000 tourists — Romans and pilgrims, young and old — turned out for the Mass that Francis celebrated at an altar set up under a canopy on the steps of St. Peter’s Basilica.

Francis noted that this year the Catholic church’s celebration of Easter coincided with that of Orthodox churches, which have many followers in Ukraine.

Francis prayed that God would “enlighten and inspire the initiatives that promote peace in Ukraine, so that all those involved, with the support of the international community, will make every effort to prevent violence.”

In eastern Ukraine, the holiday was marred by a deadly shooting Sunday fueled by tensions between pro-Russian supporters in the east and those loyal to an interim government in Kiev. The clash appeared to defy an international agreement reached last week in hopes of ending months of unrest.

Syria has destroyed a majority of its chemical weapons material, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said Saturday.

The OPCW also said Saturday that the regime of embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is now on track to complete the disposal of the country’s chemical weapons in the next few days. If that happens, Syria would meet the deadline set by the OPCW for the destruction of the weapons before the end of April.

In March, Syria submitted to the OPCW a revised proposal for its chemical weapons disposal with a deadline at the end of April. That revised deadline proposal followed a February report by the OPCW that the country had shipped out just 11% of its weapons stockpile for disposal, falling far short of a February 5 deadline to have all such weapons removed.

Al-Assad agreed to get rid of all of Syria’s chemical weapons last fall to avoid a possible U.S. military strike against the regime.