Riz Ahmed becomes first actor of Pakistani descent to announce Oscars nominations

Riz Ahmed becomes the first actor of Pakistani descent who is all set to announce the Academy Awards nominations next week. Ahmed will be pairing up with M3GAN star Allison Williams for the task. 

According to Deadline, the announcement is scheduled to take place at 8:30am ET/5:30am PT on Tuesday from the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater and will air live on ABC’s Good Morning America, the ABC morning show announced Wednesday.

It also will stream live on Goodmorningamerica.com, ABC News Live, Disney+, Oscars.org, Oscar.com and the Academy’s social media platforms, including Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

Last year Ahmed won his first Oscar for the critically acclaimed live-action short film The Long Goodbye, which he co-wrote with Aneil Karia.  He previously was nominated for his performance in Sound of Metal. Other credits include Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and the miniseries The Night Of, for which he won an Emmy.

Earlier this week, Ahmed announced that he has joined Pakistan's Oscar submission, Joyland, as its executive producer. Taking to Instagram, Ahmed shared he was ecstatic over the collaboration. "We are so proud at Left Handed Films to be a part of Joyland. Our motto is “go left” and Saim Sadiq’s unique film does just that," the Emmy-winning artist penned. 

“Joyland is ground-breaking. And it’s easy to get lost in all the ways that it is; the first Pakistani film at Cannes, the first award-winner, the first to be Oscar-shortlisted, and a queer love story that has overcome multiple obstacles to its release,” said Ahmed and Left Handed Films executive Allie Moore in a statement to Variety while announcing the partnership. “But more important than any of the glass ceilings it smashes is how this film so masterfully breaks our hearts.”

Their statement further read, “Saim Sadiq’s filmmaking is both understated and gut-wrenching. His writing is consistently unexpected — both unflinchingly joyous and devastating. Every scene is so elegantly composed yet bursting with vividly raw characters and performances. Joyland is one of the best films of the year, and against all odds of resources and marketing budgets, it’s been amazing to see festival juries, audiences, and critics shouting that from the rooftops.”

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