“Emilia Pérez” star Selena Gomez, billionaire media mogul Oprah Winfrey and Oscar winner Halle Berry are among the stars slated to present at the 97th Academy Awards on Sunday evening, though Harrison Ford is no longer slated to present after receiving a shingles diagnosis Friday.
"Emilia Pérez" stars Zoe Saldaña and Selena Gomez will present at the Oscars. (Photo by Matt ... [+]
In keeping with Oscars tradition, the four acting winners from last year’s ceremony—Emma Stone, Cillian Murphy, Da’Vine Joy Randolph and Robert Downey Jr.—will all return to the Dolby Theatre stage to present this year.
Stars from some of this year’s nominated movies will present, including Selena Gomez (“Emilia Pérez”), Margaret Qualley (“The Substance”), Lily-Rose Depp (“Nosferatu”), Elle Fanning (“A Complete Unknown”), Joe Alwyn (“The Brutalist”) and Bowen Yang (“Wicked”)—as well as Zoe Saldaña, who is nominated for Best Supporting Actress for “Emilia Pérez.”
Past Oscar winners and nominees who are set to present include Halle Berry, Ana de Armas, Penélope Cruz, Whoopi Goldberg, Scarlett Johansson, John Lithgow, Goldie Hawn, Sterling K. Brown, Andrew Garfield, Samuel L. Jackson and billionaire Oprah Winfrey.
Other celebrities who will present include Willem Dafoe, Ben Stiller, Amy Poehler, June Squibb, Connie Nielsen, Gal Gadot, Dave Bautista, Alba Rohrwacher and Rachel Zegler.
Academy CEO Bill Kramer and President Janet Yang announced last month the “Fab 5” presentation—in which five previous Oscar winners honor each nominee in a given category one-by-one before presenting the award—would return for this year’s ceremony, though they did not specify which categories they would be for. The “Fab 5” presentation was used last year in the acting categories, in which previous winners, including Best Actress winners Jennifer Lawrence, Charlize Theron, Sally Field, Michelle Yeoh and Jessica Lange gave tributes to nominees Lily Gladstone, Annette Bening, Emma Stone, Sanda Hüller and Carey Mulligan, respectively. Variety reported, citing anonymous sources, the “Fab 5” presentations will not be used in acting categories this year, and that the Academy made this decision before Best Actress nominee Karla Sofía Gascón ignited controversy over resurfaced tweets in which she made disparaging remarks about Islam, diversity at the Oscars and George Floyd. Variety reported the “Fab 5” presentation will instead be used in the Best Director category and several other unspecified categories.
The Academy Awards will air at 7 p.m. EST/4 p.m. PST on Sunday, March 2. The ceremony will broadcast live on ABC and will stream live on Hulu for the first time.
“Emilia Pérez,” a controversial musical about a Mexican cartel leader who undergoes a gender transition, leads the nomination tally with 13 total. “Wicked” and “The Brutalist” follow with 10 each. Those three films, as well as “Anora,” “Conclave,” “A Complete Unknown,” “Dune: Part Two,” “I’m Still Here,” “Nickel Boys” and “The Substance,” are nominated for Best Picture, the ceremony’s biggest prize.
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