2021’s Oscars at a train station? 4 big ways in which the 93rd Academy Awards will be very different this year.

by Thinus Ferreira

Hollywood's 93rd Academy Awards taking place Sunday night in Los Angeles and broadcast globally from Monday morning very early will be taking place from the train station in the City of Angels but that is not the only way that the Oscars will be done differently and look different from previous years.

1. Starting earlier and later

The 93rd Academy Awards will be broadcast live from Los Angeles on Monday morning as a simulcast event at 02:00 South African time on M-Net Movies 1 (DStv 104) and not 03:00 - an hour earlier than usual. 

The live red carpet coverage on E! (DStv 124) will also start an hour earlier at 23:00 on Sunday night, instead of midnight as usual.

Blame it on the Oscars ceremony that is usually done and dusted by late-February but that was shifted to a later and later date due to the Covid-19 pandemic this year. Then America's daylight saving time kicked in during mid-March.

M-Net is also not broadcasting the Oscars during prime time for the first time in decades but doing so much later. 

Instead of 20:00 or 20:30 as in previous years, the recorded broadcast of the 93rd Academy Awards for DStv subscribers is only scheduled to start on M-Net (DStv 101) at 22:30 on Monday night, 26 April.

2. A more cinematic look

Action! Chase scenes! Explosions! Well, maybe not explosions and the only chasing happening will be nominees hoping to bag a golden statuette, however, the action thriller filmmaker Steven Soderbergh is one of the Oscar producers this year, alongside Jesse Collins and Stacey Sher.

Their plan is to bring a more cinematic look to the 93rd Academy Awards.

They want to make it look less like a TV show and more like a movie, filmed at a rate of 24 frames a second and widescreen with cinema shots and panoramic scenes that will include the train station's art deco architectural style.

"Our plan is that this year's Oscars will look like a movie, not a television show," the producers said in a press release. "In keeping with our awards-show-as-a-movie approach, we've assembled a truly stellar cast of stars. There's so much wattage here, sunglasses may be required."

2. A stop at the station

While some parts of the Oscars this year will be done and have been pre-recorded from The Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles where the awards ceremony has been done from since 2002, the Oscars is relocating to a train station ...Union Station in LA.

But why? Again blame Covid-19.

Since the Oscars is about film, it's another part of Steven Soderbergh's vision to try and bring a much more cinematic look to this year's Academy Awards. The old ticket-counter room at Union Station will house the main stage of the Oscars this year, with the jacaranda-filled north and south patios that will also be used for the official pre-show.

To include Europe and Britain, Sunday's awards show will include links to locations in those countries as well.

3. No host but it won't be virtual

The Oscars is going hostless again - only the third time in its history on Sunday night but the producers learnt from the Golden Globes and what didn't work.

This year's Oscars will have a rotating group of presenters as well as an "in-studio" audience of people physically present.

People have been invited and a nominee - who is allowed to bring along a guest - will be seated at little tables and alcove seating in so-called "pods" inside Union Station. Attendees will be wearing masks but won't be wearing masks on camera.

Some of the presenters include Brad Pitt, Renee Zellweger, Joaquin Phoenix, Laura Dern, Halle Berry, Harrison Ford, Reese Witherspoon, Angela Bassett, Bong Joon Ho, Don Cheadle, Bryan Cranston, Regina King, Marlee Matlin, Rita Moreno, Zendaya and Viola Davis.

4. Best song nominees in the pre-show special

In another big change, all of this year's Best song nominees will have their songs performed in their entirety during the 90-minute pre-show that is entitled Oscars: Into the Spotlight - including one done from Iceland!

South African viewers will be able to see Oscars: Into the Spotlight on M-Net Movies 1 (DStv 104) from 00:30 until 02:00.

Ariana DeBose and Lil Rel Howery are the two presenters of this official pre-show special that will "highlight the nominees' journey to Hollywood's biggest night to give fans around the world the ultimate insiders' sneak peek to the party, and, for the first time, bring Oscar music to the festivities" the Academy said.

Molly Sandén will sing the song "Husavik" from the film Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga recorded in Húsavík, Iceland.

Celeste and Daniel Pemberton, Diane Warren and Laura Pausini, H.E.R. and Leslie Odom Jr. will all perform the other four nominated songs at Los Angeles' Dolby Family Terrace of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.

These songs include "Hear My Voice" from the film The Trial of the Chicago 7, "Io Sì" from The Life Ahead, "Fight for You" from Judas and the Black Messiah and the song "Speak Now" from the film One Night in Miami.

ALSO READ: As time runs out M-Net will now stop at Sunday’s 2021 Oscars train station to broadcast the 93rd Academy Awards on MultiChoice's DStv for Africa.

Your 2021 Golden Globes broadcast snack pack with M-Net and E! scheduling details.

by Thinus Ferreira

M-Net will once again bring America's 78th Golden Globe Awards to viewers in South Africa and across sub-Saharan Africa as a live broadcast very early on Monday morning 1 March, and again later during prime prime, with live pre-coverage shown on E!

The 78th Golden Globe Awards, as chosen by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) and hosted by Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, will award statues to the American television of 2020, as well as film in 2020 and early 2021, and will be shown as a live broadcast on M-Net Movies 1 (DStv 104) on Monday morning from 03:00 (South African time).

The 78th Golden Globes will again be shown during late prime time on M-Net (DStv 101) on Monday night at 22:30. 

This year's Golden Globes - smaller and more "intimate" than before due to the Covid-19 pandemic will be the first "bi-coastal ceremony" with Tina Fey anchoring and hosting from the Rainbow Room in The Rockefeller Center in New York, and Amy Poehler anchoring the ceremony from the Golden Globes' usual eat-laugh-drink-and-be-merry home of The Beverly Hilton hotel in Los Angeles.

It will be the 4th time since 2013 that Tina Fey and Amy Poehler are co-hosting the Golden Globes, but this time they won't share a stage. 

This year The Golden Globes and the HFPA received criticism over some controversial nominations and its absence of any black members over the past two decades that it said it would correct.

The 2021 Golden Globes pre-coverage will start on E! (DStv 124) at 01:00 on Monday morning until 03:00 when the ceremony starts on M-Net Movies 1.

Giuliana Rancic will be hosting E! Live from the Red Carpet: The 2021 Golden Globes, produced by Den of Thieves on E! with co-host Karamo. Interviews will be done live from the Beverly Hilton. This coverage will repeat on Monday at 15:25 and 22:00.

Joining Giuliana will be E's style correspondent Zanna Roberts Rassi and Erin Lim, the presenter of E!'s The Rundown.

FIRST LOOK! New M-Net Movies 1 HD on-air promo set to start today: 'We tell the best stories'.

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Days after absolutely scooping the lion's share of awards at the PromaxBDA Africa Awards for best on-air promos and imaging , a beautiful and brand-new on-air promo for M-Net Movies 1 (DStv 103) and M-Net Movies 1 HD (DStv 175) will start on the various M-Net channels on DStv today.

The imaginative new promo for M-Net Movies 1 is mostly done in sepia coloured tones to fit in with the theme of slightly discoloured and well-worn book pages.

The new promo is built around the premise of stories and the imagination they hold as they literally leap and jump from story books - fairytales if you will - that come to life on screen. The promo will run for the next couple of months.

''Stories make up the pages of your imagination,'' proclaims the voice over, ''You can get lost in a million impossible dreams. They give you wings to journey to impossible dreams.''

The new M-Net Movies 1 promo share some elements with the opening intro sequence of Game of Thrones currently on M-Net - three dimensional objects rising from basically a two dimensional plane and ''coming to life'' illustrated by the way of dynamic movement.

''Stories change the way you think; they alter the way you feel, and they redefine your universe'' says the voiceover. ''M-Net Movies, we tell the best stories.''

M-Net Movies 1, M-Net Movies 1 HD adapt their schedule; films now only start at the top of the hour; only movies with true HD versions shown.

Two very interesting improvements have been made to the M-Net Movies 1 (DStv 103) and the simulcast M-Net Movies 1 HD (DStv 175) channels. Firstly the schedule of these channels have been modified so that all movies now only start at the top of the hour, making it very easy to know when a new movie will start, and secondly only movies with a true HD film version are shown with no further upscaling for the HD channel.

Once a movie on these two mirror channels ends, the remaining time left until the start of the new hour goes to filler programming - EPK, Hollywood Highlights and behind the scenes footage and interviews. Irrespective of what time of the day, viewers can now automatically assume that a new movie will only start at the top of an hour on the M-Net Movies 1 and M-Net Movies 1 HD channels.

It's now possible to immediately ascertain how much time is left before a new movie is going to start on M-Net Movies 1 and M-Net Movies 1 HD, or how much of a film has been shown already by simply looking at the time and how many minutes of an hour has already passed.

M-Net Movies 2 (DStv 104) does not (yet?) follow this simplified and easier to instantly understand schedule that was quietly introduced for M-Net Movies 1 and M-Net Movies 1 HD since the beginning of September.

Secondly it would seem that only only movies that has a true HD equivalent are now shown on M-Net Movies 1, so that no upscaling is required for M-Net Movies 1 HD. Although no official announcement about this has been made, the administrator of the movie channels that have their own grouping on Facebook, said a ''scheduling tweak from the 1st of September'' is introduced ''to provide all our movie fanatics with true HD content''.

BREAKING. M-Met Movies 2 changing its on-air look on Monday to look identical to M-Net Movies 1 from August.

I've just been told by M-Net Movies 2 (DStv 104) that the movie channel is getting an on-air revamp for its look coming into effect on Monday 1 August.

M-Met Movies 2 is changing to become in terms of its look identical to the look of M-Net Movies 1 (DStv 103). The on-air revamp includes bumpers, idents, PG advisories and next up boards. The Oscar statuette (and the accompanying music will be a thing of the past.

EXCLUSIVE FIRST LOOK! This is how the new M-Net Movies 1, M-Net Movies 2 and M-Net Movies HD logos will look from April.

In December I broke the news RIGHT HERE that the various M-Net channel logos will be changing this year to look more the same. Now I can not just break the news that M-Net Movies 1 (DStv 103), M-Net Movies 2 (DStv 104) and M-Net Movies 1 HD (DStv 175) will all change on 1 April this year, but I can exclusively show you first because I took (sorry for the quality!) pictures.

No official imagery has yet been released by M-Net but here it is for the very first time: It's clear that the ''M'' ribbon device, exactly as I said, will be made more prominent in M-Net's channel logos to make channels immediately much easier identifiable, visually, as M-Net channels.

In the case of M-Net Movies 1 and M-Net Movies 2 (as you can see in the photos of the new logos below and below the new one that was introduced towards the end of last year) the logo refinement for 2011 makes the ''M'' much bigger, bolder and more golden. The gold ''M'' is now the most important element in the logo. The ''M'' is lifted out of the graphic box it was in, dumps the jagged look and retakes it main M-Net logo ''flowing form'', while the ''M1'' and M2'' changes to silver to let the golden ''M'' shine.

In the case of the new M-Net Movies 1 HD logo which you will see below (and which is below the brand-new one that was introduced last year) the biggest change is once again the golden ''M'' so that all three channels now starts with the exact same ''M'' as the main M-Net channel. The word ''MOVIES1'' is now also reduced to ''M1'' and the HD inside lettering colour turns from gold to white and gets encapsulated in a gold bubble.

ALSO READ: Several M-Net channel logos set to change in 2011 (again) for a more uniform look using the ''M'' ribbon device.

Programming note: M-Net snags the Bafta Awards and will show it in high definition (HD) on M-Net Movies 1 HD.

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M-Net has snagged the broadcasting rights to the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (Bafta) Awards and will broadcast the British ceremony honouring the best in British film and television in high definition (HD) on M-Net Movies 1 HD (DStv 175).

The 2011 Bafta Awards will be shown on both M-Net Movies 1 (DStv 103) and M-Net Movies 1 HD on Monday, 14 February at 03:00. Two weeks after this M-Net Movies 1 HD will broadcast the Oscars live and in HD on 28 February also at 03:00.

ALSO READ: The Oscars LIVE and in HD! A plethora of choices on M-Net channels for watching the 83rd Annual Academy Awards in 2011.

BREAKING. The Oscars: LIVE! HD! Plethora of choices on M-Net channels showing the 83rd Annual Academy Awards live and in HD.

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I can be first to reveal exactly how and on what channels South African TV viewers will be able to watch this year's Oscars - with several choices available to watch the 83rd Annual Academy Awards across various M-Net channels either live; in high definition (HD); live and in HD; or in HD.

The 83rd Annual Academy Awards with James Franco and Anne Hathaway as the hosts this year will go out live on M-Net Movies 1 (DStv 103) on Monday, 28 February at 03:00 (South African time) as well as live and in high definition (HD) on M-Net Movies 1 HD (DStv 175) on the same date and 03:00 starting time.

Besides these 2 live broadcasts, the 83rd Annual Academy Awards will go out later on Monday, 28 February on M-Net (DStv 101) at 21:30, and in high definition (HD) on the same date and 21:30 starting time on M-Net HD (DStv 170).

BREAKING. M-Net set to broadcast Emmys again in high definition; will show 62nd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards live on M-Net Movies 1.

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I can reveal that South African viewers will once again be able to watch the Emmys live this year - as has been the case the past two years - with M-Net set to broadcast The 62 Annual Primetime Emmy Awards live on Monday morning, August 30 at 03:00 in South Africa on M-Net Movies 1 (DStv 103).

The pay broadcaster is not ready to make this official announcement yet and will probably do so next week some time after the exact starting time has been pinned down. I can tell you however that M-Net will show The 62nd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards on M-Net (DStv 101) on Monday night, August 30 at 21:30. Viewers will also be able to watch it in high definition (HD) on M-Net HD (DStv 170) at the same time on Monday night. M-Net doesn't have clarity yet on whether the broadcast will be going out both live and in HD on M-Net HD in the morning 03:00 timeslot.

And now a question for the higher grade children. Why is it possible to already say that The 63rd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards will definitely go out both live and in high definition in South Africa next year? Well, here's the answer. MultiChoice and M-Net will add M-Net Movies 1 HD (DStv 175) in October. MM1 HD will be an exact mirror channel of MM1, so if MM1 has the Emmy's on live at 03:00 in the morning, MM1 HD will have to show the high definition version.

BREAKING. MultiChoice confirms the new M-Net Movies 1 HD (MM1 HD) as a channel starting in October on DStv.

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MultiChoice just confirmed to me that the new high definition TV channel being added to DStv - just as I told you RIGHT HERE will indeed be M-Net Movies 1 HD (MM1 HD).

''MultiChoice would like to confirm that it plans to launch an additional HD channel, M-Net Movies 1 HD (MM1 HD) on 1 October,'' says Jackie Rakitla, MultiChoice's general manager for corporate affairs. ''Details of the channel will be communicated closer to launch.

I told you in the previous story that MM1 HD will be a HD ''mirror channel'' of M-Net Movies 1 (DStv 103), in effect showing a high definition version of the exact same schedule on a new HD channel. I found other sources and verified it and can now also break the new here exclusively that M-Net Movies 1 HD (MM1 HD) will debut on channel 175 on DStv in October.

BREAKING. MultiChoice, M-Net set to launch M-Net Movies 1 HD (MM1 HD) in October as a high definition mirror to M-Net Movies 1.

M-Net Movies 1 HD (MM1 HD) will launch in October as the latest new TV channel to be added by MultiChoice SA and M-Net to its DStv bouquet and as an exact high definition mirror channel to M-Net Movies 1 (DStv 103).

Various M-Net and MultiChoice insiders told me earlier the month about the coming launch of MM1 HD but even I wasn't willing to yet spill the beans. I deliberately mentioned RIGHT HERE earlier this month that DStv is set to add four new TV channels by the end of the year and said I know definitely what the one will be: a ***** channel in **** **********. Yep. A movie channel in high definition! (Several readers guessed correctly and emailed me the right answer. I smiled.)

Now MultiChoice has gone and used the words ''M-Net Movies 1 HD'' (which I was told and confirmed to be the channel's name) on its own DStv website - only to then make it worse by removing it, and then still even worse by not being able to remove it fully, since the term is still searchable and pops up if you Google it, indicating that its to be found on DStv's own website. And the new FHM has a full page DStv ad touting the start of M-Net Movies 1 HD in the September issue that's suddenly on sale (and it's not even August yet). HD might stand for high drama!

So, now I will tell you everything sources told me in Johannesburg and which I chose not to reveal yet until now, and didn't want to bother various publicist with and making things difficult for them by even asking. Basically M-Net Movies 1 (MM1 HD) will launch on one of the higher 170's DStv channels, probably 175 or 176 (currently SS HD2 resides at DStv 174 and will start on 13 August at 13:00).

M-Net Movies 1 HD (MM1 HD) will - according to several sources working on the scheduling and back-end set-up of the new high definition channel - be an ''exact mirror channel'' of the current M-Net Movies 1 (DStv 103). From October MM1 as well as MM1 HD will focus on procuring and broadcasting movies and TV material also available in high definition, since everything on the MM1 schedule will have to run as a HD equivalent on MM1 HD.

''Obviously not everything that we want to put on MM1 and that will be on MM1 after October will be in HD,'' a source quipped to me weeks ago. ''Therefore some movies on MM1 HD will be upscaled,'' said another source. ''There's fantastic and wonderful movies MM1 wants to show and will continue to show in future that don't have a HD version, so what will be shown on MM1 HD will be upscaled versions. Viewers will however be told that they're not watching a true HD movie on MM1 HD but that it's upscaled. Of course it will be absolutely a minimum of movies since the bulk of stuff will be true HD. Upscaled movies will be indicated with a small on-screen corner logo.'' A third source confirmed the October launch date of MM1 HD.

BREAKING. 82nd Academy Awards to be broadcast live on M-Net Movies 1.

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The 82nd Academy Awards ceremony, known as the Ocars and honouring the best films in 2009, will - as in previous years - again be broadcast LIVE in South Africa on M-Net Movies 1 (DStv 103) from 03:00 on Monday morning, 8 March.

M-Net will show the 82nd Academy Awards later the evening on Monday, 8 March, from 19:30. Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin will be the co-hosts of the show.