Kristen Stewart & Zac Efron, Taylor Lautner & Miley Cyrus: Oscar presenters
Kristen Stewart, Zac Efron, Taylor Lautner, and Miley Cyrus have been added to the roster of presenters at the 2010 Oscar ceremony.
This will be Efron and Cyrus’ second appearance at the Academy Awards. Stewart and Lautner will be making their Oscar ceremony debut.
Kristen Stewart movies
This year’s BAFTA Orange Rising Star winner, Kristen Stewart is best known for playing the lovestruck Bella Swan in Catherine Hardwicke’s Twilight and Chris Weitz’s New Moon.
Stewart will be seen next in the following:
- The Yellow Handkerchief, opposite William Hurt and Maria Bello.
- The Runaways, with Dakota Fanning and Michael Shannon.
- The third installment in the Twilight Saga franchise, David Slade’s Eclipse, co-starring Taylor Lautner and Robert Pattinson.
Kristen Stewart’s other film credits include Welcome to the Rileys, Panic Room, Zathura: A Space Adventure, Into the Wild, and Adventureland.
The fourth (and fifth) installment(s) in the Twilight movies, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – in two parts (?) – is scheduled to start shooting in late fall.
Zac Efron movies
Zac Efron is currently starring for Burr Steers in Charlie St. Cloud, also featuring Amanda Crew and Best Supporting Actress Oscar winner Kim Basinger (L.A. Confidential, 1997), and which is scheduled to be released later this year.
Efron’s other film credits include Hairspray, High School Musical 3: Senior Year, 17 Again, and Me and Orson Welles.
Taylor Lautner movies
Taylor Lautner, the teen werewolf Jacob Black in Twilight and New Moon, can currently be seen in Garry Marshall’s Valentine’s Day, featuring an all-star cast that includes Bradley Cooper, Julia Roberts, Jessica Alba, Jessica Biel, Ashton Kutcher, and Anne Hathaway.
Lautner will next be seen in the aforementioned Eclipse. Besides Breaking Dawn, among his several projects in development is Stretch Armstrong. (According to reports, the Northern Lights deal has fallen through.)
Taylor Lautner’s other film credits include The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D and Cheaper by the Dozen 2.
Miley Cyrus movies
Miley Cyrus, best known for her Hannah Montana television series and concerts, lent her voice to the Oscar-nominated animated feature Bolt and starred in Hannah Montana: The Movie with her father, Billy Ray Cyrus.
She will next be seen in The Last Song, a romantic melo with Liam Hemsworth and Greg Kinnear.
Higher television ratings?
As for the 2010 Oscar ceremony, expect higher telecast ratings thanks to the presence of those four young celebrities. No kidding.
This year’s ceremony will take place on Sunday, March 7, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center. In the U.S., the Oscarcast will be televised live by ABC.
Bette Davis’ Best Actress statuette
In other Academy Award news, Bette Davis’ Best Actress Oscar for William Wyler’s Jezebel (1938) and the – as yet unengraved – 2010 Best Actor statuette will be on display at “Meet the Oscars, Chicago” at The Shops at North Bridge on Michigan Avenue.
The exhibition opens Thursday, Feb. 25, and runs through Sunday, March 7. Hours are Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Admission is free.
“Meet the Oscars, Chicago” will also feature a display of Oscar statuettes in various stages of completion – as manufactured by the locally based R.S. Owens & Company – in addition to the 1930-31 Academy Award given to the DuPont Film Manufacturing Corporation and Eastman Kodak Company for the development of super-sensitive panchromatic film.
For the record, this year’s Best Actor nominees are Jeff Bridges, Colin Firth, Jeremy Renner, George Clooney, and Morgan Freeman.
Judy Garland’s miniature Oscar
There’s more: “Meet the Oscars, New York,” to be held at The Shops at Columbus Circle at Time Warner Center, will feature Judy Garland’s miniature Oscar for her “juvenile” 1939 screen performances (including Babes in Arms and The Wizard of Oz) and the – also as yet unengraved – 2010 Best Actress statuette.
“Meet the Oscars, New York” opens Thursday, Feb. 25, and runs through Sunday, March 7. Hours are Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Admission is free.
Like its Chicago counterpart, the New York exhibition will show the statuettes in various stages of completion, in addition to the Scientific and Technical Award presented to the Eastman Kodak Company in 2007 “for the development of photographic emulsion technologies incorporated into the Kodak Vision2 family of color negative films.”
This year’s Best Actress nominees are Sandra Bullock, Meryl Streep, Carey Mulligan, Gabourey Sidibe, and Helen Mirren.
On Friday, March 5, the statuettes designated for this year’s Best Actor and Best Actress will be shipped to Hollywood where they will join the other Oscar statuettes to be presented on Sunday, March 7.
Bette Davis Oscar history
Bette Davis’ Oscar for Jezebel has a curious recent history.
In 2001, the statuette was purchased at auction – for $578,000 – by an anonymous buyer. The buyer in question was later revealed to be none other than Steven Spielberg – who then returned it to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which abhors (and since 1950 all but forbids) the sale of Oscar statuettes.
The Jezebel statuette is one of three the Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind director has bought and given back to the Academy. The other two were Clark Gable’s Best Actor Oscar for It Happened One Night (1934; bought for $607,500 in 1996) and Bette Davis’ first Best Actress Oscar statuette, for Dangerous (1935; bought for $180,000 in 2002).
Besides Bette Davis, Jezebel also features Henry Fonda, George Brent, Richard Cromwell, Margaret Lindsay, Donald Crisp, Spring Byington, John Litel, Henry O’Neill, Theresa Harris, and eventual Best Supporting Actress Oscar winner Fay Bainter – who, that same year, was also shortlisted in the Best Actress category for Edmund Goulding’s White Banners.
Bainter’s double nomination in the acting categories was an Oscar first.
‘Ajami’: Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani’s Palestinian-Israeli drama is a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar nominee (representing Israel).Oscar Week movies
Beginning on Tuesday, March 2, and concluding on Saturday, March 6, the day before the Oscar ceremony, the Academy will present five public events. Among these are screenings, film clips, and discussions with the Oscar-nominated filmmakers in the Animated Feature Film, Documentary Feature, Foreign Language Film, Make-Up, and Short Film categories.
All events will take place at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. The information below is from the Academy’s press release.
2010 Oscar Week schedule
Tuesday, March 2, 7:30 p.m. (Doors open 6:30 p.m.)
Shorts! The 2009 Animated and Live Action Short Film Nominees. SOLD OUT (see standby info below).This event features screenings of all of the 2009 Oscar-nominated films in the Animated and Live Action Short Film categories, plus an onstage discussion with the filmmakers (schedules permitting).
Wednesday, March 3, 7:30 p.m. (Doors open 6:30 p.m.)
Docs! The 2009 Documentary Short Subject and Documentary Feature Nominees. TICKETS AVAILABLE.The Academy celebrates the work of the nominated filmmakers in the Documentary Short Subject and Documentary Feature categories with its first annual “Docs!” night. The program will include film clips from each of the nominated documentaries in both categories, and a panel discussion with each group of nominees (schedules permitting).
Thursday, March 4, 7:30 p.m. (Doors open 6:30 p.m.)
Oscar-Nominated Animated Feature Symposium. TICKETS AVAILABLE.The Animated Feature Symposium celebrates the work of the 2009 Oscar nominees in the Animated Feature Film category. The nominees (schedules permitting) will discuss their creative process and the development of their films, and present clips illustrating their techniques.
Saturday, March 6, 10 a.m. (Doors open 9 a.m.)
Foreign Language Film Award Nominees Symposium. SOLD OUT (see standby info below).The Academy’s Foreign Language Film Award Nominees Symposium brings together the directors of the motion pictures nominated in the Foreign Language Film category to discuss their work and address such wide-ranging topics as art, politics and the challenges of their profession.
Saturday, March 6, 2:30 p.m. (Doors open 1:30 p.m.)
Oscar-Nominated Make-Up Artists and Hairstylists Symposium. SOLD OUT (see standby info below).Oscar Week’s culminating public event celebrates the achievements of the Oscar nominees in the Make-Up category.
Tickets to Shorts!, Docs!, and the Animated Feature Symposium events are $5 for the general public and $3 for Academy members and students with a valid ID. Tickets to the Foreign Language Film Award Nominees Symposium and the Make-Up Artists and Hairstylists Symposium are free.
Doors open one hour prior to the event. All seating is unreserved.
For sold out events, standby numbers will be assigned approximately one hour prior to doors opening. Any available tickets will be distributed shortly before the program begins. Ticket holders should arrive at least 15 minutes before the start of the event to ensure a seat in the theater.
For more information, visit www.oscars.org.
Upcoming Oscar presenter Kristen Stewart New Moon image: Summit Entertainment.
Bette Davis Jezebel image: Warner Bros.
Best Foreign Language Film Oscar nominee Ajami image: Kino International.