Lalla Hirayama will represent South Africa on the red carpet of the opulent Oscar awards at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood tonight.

And, to showcase even more South African talent, she'll be dressed in a bespoke David Tlale creation.

Hirayama said this was most definitely the highlight of her career.

South Africa also scored an Oscar nomination at this year's 90th Academy Awards with The Triggerfish animation film Revolting Rhymes receiving a nomination in the category best animated short film.

The film is based on the classic book of surprising fairytales by Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake.

The banned local film InXeba, The Wound missed out on the best foreign language film.

The nominated films in this category were A Fantastic Woman, The Insult, Loveless, On Body and Soul and The Square.

Only two South African films have ever been nominated for the Academy Award for best foreign language film, Darrell Roodt's Yesterday and Gavin Hood's Tsotsi.

Oscar nominee Mary J Blige will perform this year's nominated song Mighty River, from Mudbound, a song she co-wrote with Raphael Saadiq and Taura Stinson.

Blige is nominated for best actress in a supporting role for Mudbound.

She is the first person to be nominated for both a performance and original song in the same year.

Hosted by Jimmy Kimmel for the second time, the awards will air live on M-Net at 3.30am tomorrow and later at 9.30pm on M-Net.

The Red Carpet Special, featuring Hirayama, will air at 8.30pm.