The awards season juggernaut raises its head for another year with the announcement by Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences president Tom Sherek that Academy Award-winning producer Bruce Cohen and acclaimed television producer/director Don Mischer will produce the 83rd Academy Awards telecast. Mischer will also serve as the telecast’s director. This will be the first involvement with the Oscar telecast for both men, though the two worked together on the Academy’s inaugural Governors Awards event in November of 2010.
“I’m absolutely ecstatic that Bruce and Don have accepted my invitation to produce and direct the 83rd Academy Awards telecast,” said Sherek. “Their work in producing the Academy’s inaugural Governors Awards was exceptional.”
After last year’s rather dismal production by Adam Shankman and Bill Mechanic, one hopes that Cohen, who won an Academy Award in 1999 as producer, with Dan Jinks, of Best Picture American Beauty and was nominated again with Jinks in 2008 for Milk and Mischer whose producer/director credits include We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial, The Kennedy Center Honors and several Super Bowl half-time shows as well as the opening ceremonies of both Winter and Summer Olympic Games, will bring energy and style to a ceremony that Mischer refer to as “a unique opportunity to celebrate the extraordinary artists who take us on a journey every time we step into a movie theater.”
“I fell in love with the Oscars as an eight-year-old kid, the night my grandmother let me stay up to watch for the first time” said Cohen. “It is a dream come true for me to be producing the show with the phenomenal Don Mischer whom I’ve had an incredible time working with in the past. We hope to create a show that celebrates what people around the world love about the Academy Awards year after year – the excitement, glamor and tradition of Oscar Night itself.”
“During my previous collaborations with Bruce, I have come to know him as a passionate, smart and creative producer, and I couldn’t be more thrilled to now be working with him on the Oscars,” said Mischer. “As a producer and director, I have always been inspired by the live broadcast of major, high-profile events and when it comes to that, it doesn’t get any bigger than the Academy Awards.”
The 83rd Academy Awards will be broadcast live on ABC on Sunday Feb. 27, 2011.
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