Oscars 2021 will be like a movie Starring Brad Pitt, Halle Berry

In the ever-evolving plan to get viewers to like ― no, really like ― the Oscars again, this year’s ceremony is hoping to turn the very concept of the awards show on its head. 

So prepare for the very chaotic, COVID-impacted awards season to come to an end with a mostly in-person Academy Awards later this month that will “feel like a film” instead of the glitchy, virtual gatherings over the past year. 

Fully committing to the theme, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences unveiled the “all-star cast” in a new trailer on Monday that asks: “In a world filled with award shows, what if an award show was actually a movie?” 

The answer to the somewhat befuddling question has yet to be revealed. But at least now we know those appearing as presenters will include past winners and famous faces like Angela Bassett, Halle Berry, Bong Joon Ho, Don Cheadle, Bryan Cranston, Laura Dern, Harrison Ford, Regina King, Marlee Matlin, Rita Moreno, Joaquin Phoenix, Brad Pitt, Reese Witherspoon, Renée Zellweger and Zendaya.

“In keeping with our awards-show-as-a-movie approach, we’ve assembled a truly stellar cast of stars,” producers Jesse Collins, Stacey Sher and Steven Soderbergh said in a statement. “There’s so much wattage here, sunglasses may be required.” 

Additional talent joining the show will be announced at a later date. 

The academy has even released a blockbuster-style poster boasting the ensemble tapped to hand out the trophies (and do whatever else is in store) at the event.

The 2021 Oscars telecast, which will air this month, is set to take place at both Union Station and the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, as well as a London-based venue via satellite to accommodate nominees around the globe. The 93rd annual ceremony will forgo a traditional audience and host with only presenters, nominees and their guest in attendance under strict COVID-19 protocols. Producers are looking to follow the model set by the Grammys last month that saw the honorees gather together by category in person at a safe distance and then rotate out throughout the night.

Soderbergh, however, is hoping to give the affair an extra cinematic flair, telling Vanity Fair earlier this month, “The most exciting thing about this show is that it is going to feel like a film, in the sense that, at the end, we hope it’ll feel like you watched a movie.”

“Everybody will be a character: Every nominee, every person that gives an award, will feel like characters in a film. And in the end, you’ll know who everybody was and what they wanted,” he continued. “You’ll have a connection to everyone in this show. What we want to do is have this three-hour movie in which some awards are given out.”

The 93rd annual Oscars telecast will air Sunday, April 25 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.

Source: huffpost.com