The 91st Academy Awards are back, taking place at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. While the Academy has always been in the news forefront for various reasons, the changes that it brought out last year in August did create havoc in many sectors and beyond. From removing Kevin Hart as the host to introducing a new category of 'Best Popular Film', the Academy has been under critical scrutiny since then.
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ABC FREE : http://awards.liveustv.org/
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In fact, this time the Academy, for the first time does not have a host in 30 years. Along with this several other changes were brought where the ceremony was set to be cut to three hours only due to viewership and there the rest of the awards would be announced during commercial breaks, however, it was much criticised. The Academy has now brought it back to the original time and all the 24 categories will be aired.
This time Lady Gaga will be performing including all the nominations of the original soundtrack category after much debate when the Academy asked only Lady Gaga and Kendrick Lamar, SZA to perform to reduce the timing of the ceremony. This time, The Favourite and Roma are among the top contenders with 10 nominations. Black Panther is the first superhero movie nominated for Best Picture.
Who is hosting?
Initially, the Academy asked actor and comedian Kevin Hart to host, however, due to a series of homophobic tweets, he was asked to step down. "I just got a call from the Academy and that call basically said, 'Kevin, apologise for your tweets of old or we're going to have to move on and find another host.' I'm talking about the tweets from 2009 and 2010," the comedian wrote in an Instagram video posted on December 7, 2018.
Later, in January the Academy announced that they would forgo a host and only let presenters give away the awards.
When do the Oscars 2019 start?
This year, the Oscars will take place in Hollywood on February 24, 5 pm in the US. But if you are watching in India, you can watch it on February 25 at 6:30 am. However, the pre-event interviews and red carpet will start 90 mins before the actual event.
Where can I stream the Oscars 2019 online?
If you are watching the Oscars from India, then you can stream LIVE from YouTube TV, or you can see all the events on the Twitter official account of the Academy here. The ceremony can be watched on Star Movies, Star Movies HD, and Star Movies Select HD.
