Oscars say, Let’s do it like a movie
The Academy Awards won’t be short on star power this year.
Brad Pitt, Halle Berry, Harrison Ford, Bryan Cranston and Renée Zellweger will be among the bigname presenters at this month’s Oscars ceremony in Los Angeles, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences revealed Monday.
The actors are among a “stellar cast” of 15 A-listers who will hand out the coveted statuettes in a ceremony that’s supposed to make viewers at home feel as if they are watching a Hollywood movie instead of a typical small-screen awards show, according to the producers.
The presenters were unveiled Monday in a video from the Academy that asked, “In a world filled with award shows, what if an award show was actually a movie? Which stars would you cast?”
“In keeping with our awardsshow-as-a-movie approach, we’ve assembled a truly stellar cast of stars,” the show’s producers said in a statement. “There’s so much wattage here, sunglasses may be required.”
Reese Witherspoon, Joaquin Phoenix, Rita Moreno, Angela Bassett, Don Cheadle, Marlee Matlin and Regina King were also announced as presenters. Several of them expressed their excitement Monday, including two past Oscar winners.
“The countdown to the #Oscars is on,” tweeted Matlin, who won best actress award 1986’s “Children of a Lesser God.” “I am so honored and humbled to part of the ensemble of presenters at this year’s @TheAcademy Awards.” Moreno, best supporting actress in 1961 for “West Side Story,” wrote, “Back at @TheAcademy this year... As a presenter! #Oscars.”
The event celebrating achievements in film is set to take place April 25 and will be spaced out at two different venues — the Dolby Theatre and Union Station — amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Top contenders this year include “Mank,” a black-and-white drama about “Citizen Kane” screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz, which leads all films with 10 nominations. “Nomadland,” about a widow traveling the western United States after losing her job, has six nominations. .
The Oscars were originally scheduled for February, but were postponed over the pandemic.
The Academy has not announced if there will be a host this year. The past two ceremonies have not had one.