Riz Ahmed, Deepika Padukone to present awards at Oscars 2023

The actors will join the likes of Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, Micheal B Jordan and more

Pakistani British actor Riz Ahmed and Indian actor Deepika Padukone will be presenting the awards at the 95th Academy Awards taking place on March 12 in Los Angeles’ Dolly Theatre. The social media handle for the prestigious annual awards announced the list of presenters on Thursday night. 

Joining Padukone and Ahmed as presenters, the list includes Dwayne Johnson, Michael B Jordan, Emily Blunt, Glenn Close, Troy Kotsur, Jennifer Connelly, Samuel L Jackson, Melissa McCarthy, Zoe Saldana, Donnie Yen, Jonathan Majors, Janelle Monae, Ariana DeBose and Questlove.

 

 

 

 

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Ahmed, an Oscar-winning actor, keeps making history for Pakistan on the global stage. Last month, he became the first actor of Pakistani descent to announce the Academy Awards nominations from the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater. He was paired with M3GAN star Allison Williams for the task and the announcements streamed live on many portals online. 

In addition to that, 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.

Padukone shared the news with her fans on the same night on Instagram and fans and celebrities lauded her for the big achievement. Her husband-actor Ranveer Singh dropped angel face and clapping hands emojis in the comment section while Neha Dhupia commented, "Can't wait to watch you, Deepu." Fans also compared Padukone’s fast-paced global success to that of Priyanka Chopra's. “Great going. First Priyanka and now Deepika. Indian actors are winning,” a comment read.  

As for nominations from their home countries, three Indian movies are competing for the coveted Oscar Awards 2023 nominations. RRR's song Naatu Naatu is on the shortlist for Best Original Song, after winning the Golden Globe Award in the same category earlier this year. Shaunak Sen's All That Breathes has been nominated for Best Documentary Feature Film and Guneet Monga's The Elephant Whisperers for Best Documentary Short.

Saim Sadiq’s Joyland, Pakistan’s official submission to Oscars 2023, failed to bag a spot in the nominations after being shortlisted. Ahmed was also an executive producer for the film.