February 19th, 2014

As Hollywood gears up to the Oscars, CNN Kicks Off Oscar Programming

Thursday, February 20th  at 10pm ET, CNN Spotlight:  And the Nominees Are…  (encores at 1am, ET)

Hosted by Krista Smith, Senior West Coast Editor of Vanity Fair and CNN contributor, the hour will feature Smith’s interviews with Academy Award® nominees Amy Adams, Jared Leto, Lupita Nyong’o, and Jonah Hill. 

Amy Adams reveals that when she signed on to work with David O’Russell again for American Hustle they “didn’t have a script until like a week before. So you started to build not from the material, but from the character in such a true way.” Jared Leto tells Smith that he stayed in his Dallas Buyers Club character Rayon while filming: “I was walking through Whole Foods and I got looks from people…and it was a real look of condemnation, of judgment, of disgust.  And that was powerful to get, to understand…  Because I’m sure Rayon and the Rayons of the world get that look all the time– and have to deal with that in a much more real way than I did.” 12 Years a Slave’s Lupita Nyong’o was still a drama student at Yale when she auditioned for the role: “the one thing I discovered through playing Patsey and through just meditating on this time in history and her condition is that despite the fact that she didn’t– she wasn’t free one day in her life, she still had an instinct for freedom as does every person.  That freedom is a human instinct.” Jonah Hill, who earned his second Oscar® nomination by the age of thirty, tells Smith about the surreal morning he got his second nomination: “How am I on a phone call, you know– getting my second Oscar® nomination, and I’m with Leonardo DiCaprio conferencing in my hero, Martin Scorsese.”

Thursday, February 27th  at 9pm ET, CNN Films:  And the Oscar® Goes To…  (encores at 11pm, ET)

This film from Turner Classic Movies traces the history of the Academy Awards®, taking movie lovers on a journey through Hollywood lore as it tells the story of the little statuette that became the industry’s most coveted prize. The two-hour special is packed with great moments from 85 years of Academy Award® ceremonies and features extensive clips from Oscar®-winning and -nominated films, plus exclusive, behind-the-scenes ceremony footage from the archives of Hollywood Newsreel – much of it never shown before. 

 

Academy Award®-winners, historians, and past ceremony hosts describe their own storied moments – Steven Spielberg talks about his special relationship with composer John Williams, Liza Minnelli speaks of acting advice she received from her mother, Judy Garland, that informed her critically-acclaimed roles, and Billy Crystal, Helen Mirren, Whoopi Goldberg, Tom Hanks, George Clooney, Jennifer Hudson, and many more offer their personal reflections upon what Oscar® – and living their acting dreams – has meant to them.   Academy Awards® historian, Turner Classic Movies host and author Robert Osborne adds his incomparable insights and Academy Award®-winning actress Angelica Huston narrates this special look at Oscar®.  

 

February 27th  through March 2nd   

Throughout the week and leading up to Hollywood’s biggest night, CNN will air live reports, interviews, and take an inside look at all the big events in and around the industry’s crowning event. From the rolling out of the red carpet to the behind-the-scenes stories of the nominated films and stars, CNN Entertainment Correspondent Nischelle Turner reports on how Hollywood gears up for, and celebrates its biggest night of the year.

 

Friday, February 28th  at 10pm ET, CNN Spotlight:  Matthew McConaughey (encores at 1am ET.) 

McConaughey’s transformative portrayal of Ron Woodruff – an unlikely activist in the fight against AIDS – in Dallas Buyers Club has him short-listed to earn him the ultimate Hollywood accolade, an Oscar. The Best Actor nominee just may be at the top of his game— appearing in two Oscar nominated films and headlining a hit HBO series– but it’s all been 22 years in the making.  CNN’s Nischelle Turner will take viewers back to the actor’s Texas roots where an unlikely film student lands his first role and rides with him through his roller coaster career.

 

Sunday, March 2nd 

Piers Morgan will host Hollywood’s Biggest Night from 6-7:30pm ET live from the red carpet at Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre along with Nischelle Turner and Isaac Mizrahi. At midnight ET, Morgan will host And The Winner Is… A Piers Morgan Live Special from inside Hollywood’s famous Roosevelt Hotel. The special will feature celebrity interviews and an up close look at all the memorable moments from Hollywood’s biggest night of the year. 

 

CNN Digital

On Oscar night, CNN.com will feature interactive live Oscar coverage from the red carpet to backstage with the winners. On the CNN homepage, users can participate in the conversation on the Oscars live blog, and follow @CNNShowbiz on Twitter for additional social and video content. Leading up to the show, users can make their picks on who should take home the gold statues on CNN’s Oscar ballot and keep up with who has won awards so far this season on the Awards Tracker. Also, online will be original features, along with photo galleries of all the Academy’s best films, actors and actresses through the years. For more content related to the program, users can go to CNN.com’s specials page to find a gallery of all the best picture winners in the history of the Oscars®, a look at every best actress winner and best actor winner since 1927 as well as other original features. 

 

About CNN

CNN Worldwide is a portfolio of two dozen news and information services across cable, satellite, radio, wireless devices and the Internet in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide. Domestically, CNN reaches more individuals on television, the web and mobile devices than any other cable TV news organization in the United States; internationally, CNN is the most widely distributed news channel reaching more than 271 million households abroad; and CNN Digital is a top network for online news, mobile news and social media.  Additionally, CNN Newsource is the world’s most extensively utilized news service partnering with hundreds of local and international news organizations around the world. CNN is division of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner Company.

CNN Films brings documentaries beyond the small screen by developing strategic partnerships to leverage distribution opportunities at film festivals and in theaters.  Amy Entelis, senior vice president of talent and content development for CNN Worldwide, and Vinnie Malhotra, senior vice president of development and acquisitions for CNN Worldwide, oversee the acquisition strategy of documentaries for CNN Films.  Malhotra manages the day-to-day operation of CNN Films, and works directly with filmmakers to develop original projects.