Penélope Cruz, Kate Winslet and Sean Penn — the three living performers who won Oscars in the acting categories last year — will return as presenters at the 2010 Academy Awards ceremony on March 7. Heath Ledger won a posthumous Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his performance as the Joker in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight. He'd previously been nominated in the best actor category for Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain.
Last year, Penélope Cruz took home the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona, in which she plays Javier Bardem's fiery ex. She had been previously nominated in the Best Actress category for Pedro Almodóvar's Volver (2006), and is up for an Oscar this year for her supporting performance in Rob Marshall's Nine.
Sean Penn has been nominated five times for Best Actor in a Leading Role; he won twice: in 2003 for Clint Eastwood's Mystic River and last year for his impersonation of politician Harvey Milk in Gus Van Sant's Milk. Penn's other nominations were for Tim Robbins' Dead Man Walking (1995), Woody Allen's Sweet and Lowdown (1999) and Jessie Nelson's I Am Sam (2001).
Kate Winslet was last year's Best Actress Oscar winner for Stephen Daldry's The Reader. She has been nominated five more times: as best actress for James Cameron's Titanic (1997), Michel Gondry's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) and Todd Field's Little Children (2006), and as best supporting actress for Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility (1995) and Richard Eyre's Iris (2001).
The 2010 Academy Awards ceremony will take place on Sunday, March 7 at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center. In the United States, it'll be televised live by ABC.
Photos: Michael Yada / ©A.M.P.A.S.
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It makes sense that Penn, Wensley and Cruz are at the Oscars, but only them and 4 kids who have not done anything in the movies (Miley Cirus, Zack Efron…), the balance will be very poor. The Academy lately is not very selective