China blocks real-time coverage of Oscars

BEIJING • China has told local media not to broadcast next month's Oscars ceremony in real time and to play down coverage of the awards, according to sources.

The directive comes after a documentary on the Hong Kong protests was nominated, and amid concern over the political views of Best Director contender Chloe Zhao.

The Chinese Communist Party's propaganda department issued the order to all media outlets, said the sources, who declined to be identified, given the sensitivity of the issue.

Outlets were told that Oscars coverage should focus on awards that are not seen as controversial, according to the sources.

The order was also reported by other media, including Radio Free Asia and Hong Kong's Apple Daily, late on Tuesday.

Do Not Split, nominated for Best Short Documentary, chronicles the anti-Beijing demonstrations that took hold in Hong Kong in mid-2019 and China's growing power and influence in the former British territory.

Directed by Norwegian video journalist Anders Hammer, it has barely been covered in China, which keeps an iron grip on local and social media platforms within the country.

While initially lauded in the Chinese press for the success of her naturalistic film Nomadland, Zhao, who won the Golden Globe for Best Director last month, has since attracted criticism for a 2013 interview where she is said to have described China as "a place where there are lies everywhere".

The director, whose father reportedly was a top executive at a large state-owned steel company and whose stepmother is a famous comic actress in China, has also been criticised by local social media users.

Zhao, who grew up in the United States, has mainly made movies about America.

Over the past two years, at least two Chinese streaming platforms - 1905.com and Mango TV - showed the Oscars ceremony live.

The platform 1905.com is run by a subsidiary of state broadcaster China Central Television, known as CCTV, according to its website.

Rising tensions with the US, particularly during the Trump period, has fuelled nationalism in China, which is also smarting from international criticism of its handling of the initial stages of the coronavirus pandemic.

That has added to challenges for Hollywood, which already has a mixed track record gaining traction for American films in what is now the world's largest movie market.

The Oscars, a nickname for the Academy Awards, are due to take place in Los Angeles on April 25.

BLOOMBERG