When The Oscars 2020 are on TV - how to watch the ceremony live in the UK
Hollywood's most famous award ceremony is finally here and you can watch all the action in the UK too
The Oscars 2020 awards ceremony is being held this weekend bringing award season to an end.
Last year’s Academy Awards was a host-less event for the first time, British favourites like Olivia Colman took home the gold and the event sparked huge speculation around Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga’s relationship, following their romantic performance of Shallow, (which won Best Original Song) from A Star is Born.
Who knows what the 2020 ceremony will bring? There are a few things do we know so far, such as how to watch the Oscars in the UK. But what time will the Oscars start? Where are the Oscars held? And which films have been shortlisted?
Find out all the answers to your 2020 Academy Awards questions as we go through everything we know about the ceremony so far.
Watch The Oscars 2020 for free with a seven day NOW TV trial
How to watch the Oscars in the UK
The Oscars 2020 will be broadcast on Sky Cinema in the UK. Red carpet coverage will begin at 10pm UK time and the ceremony will start at 1am UK time. You can access it with a Sky Cinema Pass with NOW TV. They offer a free trial for seven days so if you time it right you can watch the Oscars live for free on the night. If you’d rather not stay up that late, you can catch the Oscars ceremony when it’s repeated on Monday evening in the UK.
Just in time for the Oscars, Now TV have also launched a flash sale on their Entertainment & Sky Cinema pass. You can save over 75% with a one month pass for £4.99 or sign up for a three month pass for £24.99.
Get a one month NOW TV Entertainment & Sky Cinema pass for £4.99.
When is the Oscars?
This year the Oscars will take place on Sunday 9th February 2020. This is slightly earlier than usual, as The Academy Awards have traditionally been held towards the end of February or even early March.
What time does the Oscars start in the UK?
As the ceremony takes place in the US, the awards will air late Sunday night (9th February) and into the early hours of Monday morning. Coverage will begin live from the red carpet as the stars arrive for the main event.
Last year, this kicked off at 10pm on the Sunday night with the actual ceremony commencing at 1am. You can access the Sky coverage through a NOW TV pass.
Where are the Oscars held?
2020 marks the 92nd Oscars ceremony which will take place at the same location as last year's event, the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles.
Will the Oscars 2020 have a host?
After much speculation about whether the 2020 awards will have a host or not, The Academy announced that this year will once again be host-less. On its official Twitter account, The Academy tweeted about what we can expect from this year’s ceremony. “Stars”, “Performances” and “Surprises” get green ticks, but there's a red cross next to “Host”.
In the past, whoever is selected to host the Oscars ceremony has usually been announced months ahead of the event, certainly before the new year. As there had been no host announcement more than a week into January, it was suspected that the 2020 event would be going ahead without a host once again.
The 2019 Oscars was unexpectedly host-less after comedian Kevin Hart stepped down following controversy surrounding homophobic tweets, which resurfaced online. Despite this, viewing figures saw an 11.5% increase from the previous year with an average of 29.6 million tuning in to watch, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Who are the 2020 Oscar nominees?
The Oscar nominees were announced on Monday 13th January and have caused controversy from the off.
Although there were surprises around who missed out on nominations, some of those tipped to be up for the awards did make the final shortlist. Leonardo DiCaprio (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood), Joaquin Phoenix (Joker) and Adam Driver (Marriage Story) are all up for best actor in a leading role.
Scarlett Johansson was listed in both the lead actress (Marriage Story) and supporting actress (JoJo Rabbit) categories with Margot Robbie (Bombshell) and Florence Pugh (Little Women) also up for supporting actress awards. For best supporting actor, both Al Pacino and Joe Pesci (The Irishman) feature alongside Tom Hanks (A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood).
Renee Zellweger (Judy), Saoirse Ronan (Little Women) and Cynthia Erivo (Harriet) were among those listed in the leading actress category while Lupita Nyong’o (Us), Awkwafina (The Farewell) and Jennifer Lopez (Hustlers) missed out on nominations for best actress. This came as a surprise to many and attracted criticism about lack of diversity around the actor and actress categories overall (Erivo is the only person of colour to have been nominated in any acting category).
The backlash against this year’s Academy Awards nominations comes four years after the 2016 #OscarsSoWhite criticism. The Oscar nominations for Best Director have also caused controversy. All five nominees are men, including Martin Scorsese (The Irishman), Sam Mendes (1917) and Bong Joon Ho (Parasite), despite there being recent acclaimed films directed by women. Greta Gerwig (Little Women), Lulu Wang (The Farewell) and Marielle Heller (A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood) were all missed off the director shortlist.
The film with the most nominations overall (and now of all time) is Joker with 11, including for Best Picture alongside Little Women, Ford vs. Ferrari and 1917 among others. Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood also makes the Best Picture list and is up for 10 nominations, as is The Irishman and also 1917. Parasite and JoJo Rabbit then come joint third place for most nominations, boasting six apiece.
Will there be an Oscars Best Popular Film category?
Although the Best Popular Film category hasn’t been ruled out for the future, it won't be making an appearance for the 2020 ceremony.
Back in 2018, The Academy announced it would be introducing the new category. The idea was to celebrate the kind of blockbuster viewers love to watch but would be unlikely to make consideration for prestigious awards like Best Picture.
Following controversy, this decision was reversed as the new award category proved unpopular and wasn’t taken to by the board of governors.
Who won the major awards at the 2019 Oscars?
Last year saw a number of surprising wins including Brit Olivia Colman who scooped the award for Best Lead Actress with a charming speech. Colman played Queen Anne in Yorgos Lanthinos’s The Favourite which co-starred Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone.
Also portraying a real figure, Rami Malek won Best Leading Actor for his performance as Queen frontman Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody (despite the film not being as much of a hit with critics as it was with viewers).
The coveted Best Picture award and for Writing (original screenplay) went to Green Book for which Mahershala Ali also won Best Actor in a Supporting Role. Alfonso Cuarón cleaned up with the Best Director award for Roma as well as for Best Foreign Language film and Best Cinematography.
Perhaps one of the most memorable events of the evening was Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga's Best Original Song win for Shallow from A Star is Born. The pair performed the song live on the night and looked so loved up that the internet exploded with speculation that they were together.
Lady Gaga has since said the performance was deliberate and that she and Cooper intentionally tried to fool people into believing they were in love.
There is a full list of 2019 Oscars award winners for the 91st ceremony is available and the 2020 nominees are due to be announced on Monday 13th January. Watch this space for further Oscars news.
