Oscar ‘Trophy Girls’ replaced by aspiring film students

The Oscars are mixing things up this year and replacing the tall, leggy models who usually hand the Oscar statuettes to the presenters.

Six aspiring filmmakers have been chosen to do the honors instead of the usual 'trophy girls', reports AP.

"This tradition of the buxom babe that comes out and brings the trophy to the presenter to give to the winner seemed to be very antiquated and kind of sexist, too," Neil Meron, co-producer of this year's Academy Awards told AP. 

"They're just there to be objectified. Why can't we have people who actually care about film and are the future of film be the trophy presenters?"

Meron and his co-producer Craig Zadan launched a nationwide contest asking film students "how will you contribute to the future of film?"

They chose six winners out of more than 1,100 entries.

UCLA film student Tatenda Mbudzi, 25, was one of the lucky winners.

He told KPCC that he wasn't that nervous about appearing in front of millions of viewers.

"It's almost unbelievable," he said. "I've moved from disbelief to excitement to a little bit of nervousness but it just comes back to excitement again. It's an honor."

Oscar host Seth MacFarlane told USA Today that he completely supportive of the change.

"I actually felt it was a great idea," MacFarlane says. "It was the kind of thing that when I was in college I would have thought was really cool. And it sends a really good message."

The winners of the contest and 85th Oscar trophy presenters are:

* ChaRon Brabham – SUNY Potsdam (N.Y.) – Hometown: Brooklyn, N.Y.

* Jennifer Brofer – University of Texas at Austin – Hometown: Austin, Tex.

* Abe Diaz – DePaul University (Ill.) – Hometown: Duluth, Minn.

* Hearin Ko – Emerson College (Mass.) – Hometown: Shanghai, China

* Tatenda Mbudzi – UCLA (Calif.) – Hometown: Harare, Zimbabwe

* AJ Young – Columbia College Chicago (Ill.) – Hometown: Mesa, Ariz.

The winners' videos can be seen at http://bit.ly/OscarExp13