Kevin Hart and Room’s Jacob Tremblay among first sampling of Oscar presenters

By Victor Beigelman | January 28, 2016 | 8:36pm

Aux Features Film

In a move that may or may not be strategically connected to the whole #OscarsSoWhite situation, the Academy has released its first, noticeably diverse batch of presenters for the upcoming 88th Academy Awards. First reported by Deadline, it’s a list that begins with a couple of cute, short people—Kevin Hart and Room’s Jacob Tremblay—and continues with Benicio Del Toro, Tina Fey, Whoopi Goldberg, Ryan Gosling, Lady Gaga, Sam Smith, Charlize Theron, The Weeknd, and Pharrell Williams. Only two of the 11 aforementioned names are adult white men, a demographic that makes up an overwhelming majority of the Academy’s members.

It remains to be seen how—or if—any of these presenters will address Hollywood’s diversity problem on stage. Since Oscars producer Reginald Hudlin already seems pretty sure what Chris Rock is going to say in his monologue, maybe we should all prod him for clues that his PR people will promptly squash. Regardless, as Rock’s publicist Leslie Sloane says, “all will be revealed on February 28th.”