The Academy regularly introduces tweaks to the format of its annual telecast, hoping to appeal to a younger, tech-savvy audience (as well as to cut down on the show’s overall length). Sometime the ideas tank, as when below-the-line talents gave acceptance speeches from their spots in the auditorium, or when Anne Hathaway and James Franco were paired as hosts. But every once in a while, a format tweak works, and I hope one is coming back for the upcoming Oscars.
The Academy confirmed today via Twitter that previous Best Actress winners Halle Berry, Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon will be presenting awards at the Oscars this year. The tweet didn’t say which Oscar these ladies would be handing out, or if they’d be handing them out separately, or as a group.
That gives me hope that the Oscars will go back to the presenting format that they used a few years back, where multiple winners in a given category appeared on stage to say something notewrorthy about the nominated actor or actress, then present the winning Oscar. It was a great way to get a lot of star power onto the stage at one time. The previous winners had very nice things to say about the nominees. In general, I just thought it was a really classy and sophisticated way to handle the presentations of the Oscars.
Of course, if this will be the case this year, we’re bound to hear about a lot more names being confirmed – unless, of course, the Academy wisely keeps the presenters under wraps, because that, too, led to the element of surprise. We shall see soon enough.
