SINGAPORE - Last year, in a last-minute save, broadcaster Mediacorp picked up the rights to telecast the Oscar ceremony after the usual pay television channels passed.
It has announced that it will once more carry the show.
The 93rd Academy Awards will air live on Monday, April 26, on Channel 5. The show will begin at 6.30am with the traditional red carpet event, which ends at 8am, after which the ceremony will be aired, till 11am.
There will be an encore telecast of both events the same evening, at 6pm for the red carpet and 10.30pm for the awards ceremony.
An international (edited and shortened) version will air at 11.30am on Saturday, May 1, and at 1.45am on Sunday, May 2.
There will also be a live simulcast of the event on Mediacorp's streaming platform meWatch, with free on-demand catch-up access until May 19.
The show's producers, which include Oscar-winning director Steven Soderbergh, have said they will strive to have as much of the show done in-person as possible. Video links will be avoided. This is in contrast to the recent Golden Globes awards show, which featured a mix of in-person and video guests.
There will be two locations for the show, both in Los Angeles, at Union Station and the Dolby Theater, and safe distancing will be practised at both places, said organisers.
This year's Oscars is notable for its Asian representation. Actors of Asian descent from the drama Minari, Steven Yeun (nominated for Best Actor) and Youn Yuh-jung (Best Supporting Actress) are in the race, as is British-Pakistani actor Riz Ahmed (Best Actor), who played a rock drummer struggling with deafness in the drama Sound Of Metal.
Minari's writer-director, Lee Isaac Chung, will compete with Chloe Zhao, the China-born director of the drama Nomadland, for the Best Director prize, making this the first time that two persons of Asian descent have been named in that category.
In a year marked by cinema closures in Europe and America, leading to films being released on online platforms, it came as no surprise that the streaming service Netflix led in overall nods. Its 35 nominations, the most of any studio, were led by the biographical drama Mank. The biopic of legendary Hollywood screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz garnered 10 nominations, the most of any film.
