The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced the first round of presenters for the 2025 Oscars, clarifying a big question surrounding the presenation of the acting categories, especially amid the scandal surrounding Karla Sofía Gascón.
Recent Academy Award winners Robert Downey Jr., Cillian Murphy, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, and Emma Stone, who all won at the 2024 ceremony, will be back to present at the 97th Oscars. The news was first shared by the telecast’s executive producer and showrunner Raj Kapoor and executive producer Katy Mullan.
Though the announcement does not share which categories they will present, tradition has the winner of Best Actor present Best Actress, and vice versa, so one can infer that will be the format returning this year.
What will not be returning to the acting categories is the “Fab 5” format used last year, and at other ceremonies, where five winners come to the stage to tribute each nominee, one by one.
Upon the recent revelation of nominee Karla Sofía Gascón’s offensive past tweets, there were many jokes online about who would have to be the one to do her tribute, but while Academy CEO Bill Kramer and Academy President Janet Yang had previously announced that the format would be back at this year’s ceremony, they never specified which categories they would utilize it for.
Though they have already shown why is it not good to assume, the new expectation is that the Fab 5 format will be back for the Best Director presentation this year, though it’s worth noting that using the format for any of the categories in back-to-back year was never a sustainable endeavor, as the pool of former Oscar winners who are still alive is not particularly deep.
Producers Kapoor and Mullan will continue to announce talent joining the show in the coming weeks.
The 2025 Oscars will be hosted by Conan O’Brien from the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood, and air live on ABC and stream live on Hulu on Sunday, March 2, 2025, at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT, with the official live red carpet show airing at 6:30 p.m. ET/3:30 p.m. PT.
SOURCE: IndieWire
