Oscars 2022: Regina Hall, Amy Schumer, Wanda Sykes to host; adds new ‘fan favourite' category

This year, the Academy Awards are shaking things up, and in more ways than one. The 94th edition of the Oscars has announced the hosts and, as an unprecedented development, also added a new category this year as well.

According to a report by Variety, this year’s Academy Awards will be hosted by Regina Hall, Amy Schumer and Wanda Sykes. Reports regarding this year’s awards having more than one host have been floating for the past couple of weeks, speculating that Murders in the Building stars Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez were front runners for the same. This year will be the first time in decades that the awards ceremony would feature multiple hosts. The last time it featured multiple hosts was for the 55th edition of the Academy Awards, which took place in 1983. It was hosted by Walter Matthau, Liza Minnelli, Dudley Moore and Richard Pryor, and it went on to become one of the most-watched televised versions of the awards ever.

For the past three years, the ceremony was conducted without a host. The last Oscars host was Jimmy Kimmel, who hosted the awards in 2018.

And now, the Academy has also introduced a new award category this year, called the fan-favourite film. The public can vote for the films they love either by tweeting using the hashtags #OscarsFanFavorite and #Sweepstakes or by visiting the Academy’s website oscarsfanfavorite.com.

The decision by the Academy comes on the heels of criticism as it excluded some popular film titles released this season such as Tom Holland’s Spider-Man: No Way Home. Kimmel had also taken a dig at the academy on his talk show recently. The ce remony is also dealing with a decline in viewership at the moment as well.