The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has announced the first names that will take the stage at the Oscars to deliver the statuettes to the winners. Among them are Riz Ahmed , winner for Best Live-Action Short last year and announcer of this year’s nominations, Emily Blunt , Glenn Close , Samuel L. Jackson and Dwayne Johnson . Also with them are Jennifer Connelly, Ariana DeBose (Oscar winner for West Side Story last year), Michael B. Jordan, Troy Kotsur (winner for CODA for supporting role ),Jonathan Majors, Melissa McCarthy, Janelle Monáe, Deepika Padukone, Questlove (director of winning documentary Summer of Soul ), Zoe Saldaña and Donnie Yen .
The Academy’s 9,579 voting members are now busy with the final ballots, which close on March 7 at 5pm.
Jimmy Kimmel will host this year’s ceremony, which will be broadcast live on ABC on the night of March 12. Here it will be broadcast live on Sky and streaming on NOW. You can read the complete list of this year’s Oscar nominees.