Oscar Live on Monday March 8 at 3am (UAE) on Fox Movies

FOX Movies set to air 82^nd Academy Awards, bringing drama and action of Oscar night live to Middle East’s movie lovers. Catch the event LIVE and exclusive only on Fox Movies on March 8^th 3.00 (UAE) and repeat telecast at 21.00 (UAE)

Fox Movies will be airing this year’s Oscars live and exclusive from Hollywood’s Kodak Theatre for the second year running. The channel, formed by a partnership between Rotana Media Services (RMS) and Fox International Channels is set to broadcast the event live on March 8 at 03.00 (UAE).

Movie lovers across the Middle East can tune into Fox Movies and be a part of the action and excitement of the 82^nd Academy Awards – all from the comfort of their sitting room – as the scores of nominated leading and supporting actors and actresses, directors, movies, writers, composers and other nominees, wait to see if 2010 brings Oscar success. Fox Movies viewers will also have the chance to enjoy the action again with a prime time repeat on March 8 at 21.00 (UAE).

This year, famed comedy actor and star of Father of the Bride and The Pink Panther, Steve Martin, will take to the microphone for the third time as host of the Oscars, alongside the oldest of the Baldwin brothers and star of The Aviator and 30 Rock, Alec Baldwin, for the first time.

To celebrate the Oscar season, Fox Movies has been creating visibility around the event through various programming initiatives, including airing a month-long weekend movie-marathon, bringing viewers three Oscar-winning movies back-to-back every Friday and Saturday. Viewers are being treated to a total of 27 Oscar-winning movie classics including Forrest Gump, Evita, Thelma & Louise, Saving Private Ryan, Forrest Gump and Memoirs of a Geisha, with each different film showing at 22.00, 00.00 and 02.00 (UAE). In addition, Fox Movies has been engaging the region’s viewers with print, radio, outdoors and online media to spread Oscar fever across the Middle East, as well as creating short-form programming especially in the region.

In line with the festivities, Movie lovers also have the opportunity to take part in an online competition to predict this year’s winners, by simply logging onto the Fox Movies website, www.foxmoviestv.com, as well as an interactive competition where participants act out scenes from their favourite movies and upload the content to the website.

“The Oscars is perhaps the biggest event in the world’s annual movie calendar and is an exciting occasion that celebrates the best movies of the past year, in one of the most glamorous red carpet events.” said Rohit D’Silva, General Manager of Fox International Channels Middle East.

“We are therefore thrilled to be bringing our viewers all the tears, drama and action of the night live, as well as a number of Oscar-winning classics in the run up to the event, which demonstrates our core commitment to providing the viewers across the Middle East with fantastic content straight from Hollywood.”

This year’s Oscars are expected to be even more action packed than usual with the Best Movie and Best Director awards being contended for by James Cameron for his multi-billion dollar blockbuster – Avatar, and by his ex-wife Kathryn Bigelow for her relatively low-budget film – The Hurt Locker. Hollywood megastars George Clooney, Colin Firth, Morgan Freeman, Jeremy Renner and Jeff Bridges are all nominated for the award of Best Actor in a Leading Role; while Sandra Bullock, Meryl Streep, Helen Mirren, Gabourey Sidibe and Carey Mulligan will be waiting to hear which one of them has won the Best Actress in a Leading Role award.