While everyone knows who the nominees for this year's show is, what are the chances that they know who will likely show up? This entry will serve as a compilation of everything that has been announced so far regarding the Oscars ceremony including presenters, performers and who is in charge of writing Neil Patrick Harris' opening song. While there is likely more information to come, this is what is known with a little over two weeks to go. If nothing else, there's a lot of great entertainment to look forward to this time around.
One of the biggest complaints in any given year is that the Oscars don't appeal to younger audiences. It does feel like this has been attempted to be fixed in the past with hosts such as the notorious duo James Franco and Anne Hathaway in 2011 as well as Seth MacFarlane and Ellen Degeneres in 2013 and 2014 respectively. These were immediately met with complaints of either being sexist or too meandering. In this year's ceremony, they have chosen the MVP of awards show hosting with Neil Patrick Harris, who has garnered the most noteworthy highlights for both the Emmy Awards and Tony Awards when he served as host. He is a force of musical bombast unlike anyone the Oscars have hand picked since Hugh Jackman in 2009.
Among the forces behind Harris and the show is writing staff Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kriesberg, Seth Grahame-Smith and Michael Green (read here for further details). Between them, they have worked on franchise properties such as the recent CW series The Flash and films such as The Green Lantern, Dark Shadows and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. The show will also feature Harris performing a musical number penned by last year's Best Original Song winners Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson who won for the Frozen song "Let It Go."
Among the presenters who have been announced, it will include nominees such as Marion Cotillard, Benedict Cumberbatch, Meryl Streep, Oprah Winfrey and Reese Witherspoon. Also scheduled is Jack Black.
On probably the most optimistic note of them all is that as of today, all five of the Best Original Song nominees have been announced as having performances at the ceremony. For those wanting to see the spectacle, it is a solid line-up that includes:
Adam Levine of Maroon 5 performing "Lost Stars" from the film Begin Again (of which he also co-stars).
Common and John Legend performing "Glory" from the film Selma.
Tim McGraw performing "I'm Not Gonna Miss You" from Glen Campbell... I'll Be Me.
Rita Ora performing "Grateful" from Beyond the Lights.
Tegan and Sara with The Lonely Island will be performing "Everything is Awesome" from The LEGO Movie.
So get your best dishes cooked and prepare for a great show full of fun and whimsy as the show embraces its musical heritage. The questions will remain: is Birdman capable of beating Boyhood? What about Selma? Can a show that's pretty much about handing out awards actually be entertaining? Sounds like it.
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