Image for Teen stars invade Os

The 82nd Annual Academy Awards, the biggest night in Hollywood, didn’t look a day over 20. All thanks to a number of teenage stars who had a dominant presence at the ceremony which was held in Los Angeles on Sunday. It was clear sign of acceptance of the next generation, as teenage favourites like Kristen Stewart, Amanda Seyfried, Anna Kendrick, Taylor Lautner, Zac Efron and Miley Cyrus walked the red carpet and even presented awards. This was Zac’s second time as presenter.

“It shows that Zac Efron is consciously trying to break out from his High School Musical image, so it was great seeing him present the Best Sound Editing award. He’s being pegged as the next Spider-Man too and is trying to do more grown-up roles rather than just teen movies. He’ll still always be popular among my generation no matter what he does or how old he gets,” said Sana Batliwala, 17, who woke up on Monday morning to watch the Oscars. 23-year-old Zac was wearing Calvin Klein and his co-presenter and Oscar nominee; Anna Kendrick (Twilight saga and Up In the Air) was dressed in a soft pink Elie Saab gown. “She looked gorgeous and sophisticated,” Sana added.
Miley, who was dressed in a gold Jenny Packham dress, looked quite nervous on the red carpet. “She was presenting the award for Best Original Song with Amanda Seyfried and she just rattled off her lines while reading the teleprompter. She even had a slip up in the end and excused herself saying they were both nervous. For a 16-year-old, she did well. I would have had a panic attack,” said 19-year-old movie buff Girish Mistri.
Garima Sood, 16, was very excited about seeing Taylor Lautner and Kristen Stewart present the horror movie tribute. “Twilight wasn’t really a horror movie so I didn’t understand that part, but who cares when two of my favourite actors in the world were together? Taylor looked so scared but he did well and he looked very mature in a suit. Kristen was very composed, considering this was her Oscar debut and her deep blue gown looked great too,” said Garima.
Another memorable Oscar moment was the homage to director John Hughes, who passed away last August. He directed timeless teen favourites like Home Alone, Weird Science and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. “It was a very touching tribute with former teen stars like Matthew Broderick, Macaulay Culkin and Molly Ringwald. I’m no longer a teen, but his movies are still so relevant,” said J.P. Prasad, a 24-year-old translator.

Edlyn G D’souza  
The Asian Age