One massive unanswered question hangs over this year’s Oscars ceremony. Who will present the award for Best Actress? Will Smith’s ten-year ban from the event will require the Academy to break with the traditional format for presenting awards. But who will step up to the plate to hand out the golden trophy?
Here is what we know heading into the ceremony.
Why is Will Smith’s ban a problem?
Usually, the performer who won the previous year’s Best Actor award will take to the stage to present the award for Best Actress. In the same way, the actress who won Best Actress the previous year will present the Best Actor award.
However, Will Smith has been banned from all Academy events for ten years due to last year’s infamous moment where he took to the stage and slapped Chris Rock. This means that Smith will be unable to present the award.
At the time of writing, the Academy hasn’t announced who will take Smith’s place or if Smith’s ban will lead to a complete reshuffle of the award-presenting system. However, viewers likely won’t find out until it is time for the award to be given out and the selected person takes to the stage.
Is there a historical precedent for this?
This isn’t the first time the Oscars ceremony has had to shuffle who is presenting which award. In fact, history gives us a good idea of how the ceremony will handle this issue, as it is much more common than you would expect.
The most recent example came in 2018 when Casey Affleck opted not to attend the ceremony after sexual harassment allegations were made against the actor. Because of this, the Best Actress award at that ceremony was presented by Jennifer Lawrence and Jodie Foster, two previous Best Actress winners. The same year, Jane Fonda and Helen Mirren presented the Best Actor award, with Emma Stone – the past year’s Best Actress winner handing out the Best Director trophy.
This is far from the only time something like this has happened. The Best Actor or Actress awards have been presented by groups of previous winners several times, including in 2009 and 2010. This means that the Academy will likely return to this format this year. Jessica Chastain, last year’s best actress winner, will present another category, and the Best Actor and Best Actress awards will be given out by former Best Actor and Actress winners. However, we won’t know for sure until the ceremony starts.