Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

Oscars Show to Include Longer Speeches


Sun 18 Apr 2021 | 10:27 AM
Yara Sameh

The 93rd Academy Awards, also known as Oscars, is set to take place on April 25.

The producers of the Oscars revealed Saturday that the ceremony will have the look and feel of a movie as well as give the winners more time for speeches, noting that the coronavirus masks will play a major role.

The coronavirus pandemic and the new producers have reinvented the traditional show. Much of the ceremony will take place in-person show held at the Art Deco Union Station in downtown Los Angeles, where a stage is being built.

“It is not going to be like anything that’s been done before,” director Steven Soderbergh, who is producing the show along with Stacey Sher and Jesse Collins, said in a news conference.

Soderbergh, who directed the 2011 movie “Contagion”, stated that the pandemic had opened up an opportunity to try something that hasn’t been tried.

He added that said the ceremony would be shot like a movie, with presenters such as Brad Pitt, Harrison Ford, and Halle Berry will be "playing themselves, or at least a version of themselves.”

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The stars participating in the ceremony also include Reese Witherspoon, Renee Zellweger, Joaquin Phoenix, Don Cheadle, Regina King, Rita Moreno, Laura Dern, Zendaya, Angela Bassett, Bryan Cranston, Marlee Matlin, and last year´s best director winner Bong Joon Ho.

Oscar winners' speeches were previously limited to 45 seconds, this year, they were given space and encouraged to tell a story and to say something personal.

The producers disclosed that strict testing and coronavirus protocols would be in place, much of the standards developed last year to get movie and TV production running again.

Nominees unable to attend the ceremony can participate through satellite hookups from venues around the world but there will not be Zoom appearances.

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A 90-minute pre-show will be screened before the ceremony, which will feature performances of the five original song contenders that were previously recorded at the new Academy Museum in Los Angeles, and in Iceland.

From L.A., H.E.R. will perform “Fight For You” from Judas and the Black Messiah, Celeste and Daniel Pemberton  “Hear My Voice” from The Trial of the Chicago 7, Laura Pausini and Diane Warren will collaborate for the Italian-language “Io Si (Seen)” from The Life Ahead, and Leslie Odom Jr is set to sing “Speak Now” from One Night In Miami.

Molly Sanden will be performing from Iceland song “Husavik” from the "Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga".

The Oscars will be broadcast live on ABC at 8:00 PM (Eastern Time).