ASIA PACIFIC – January 17, 2014 – Nominations for the 86th Academy Awards were announced yesterday at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverley Hills, California. FOX International Channels Asia (FIC) received an incredible 23 nominations for 10 films that it has acquired the pay-TV rights to across Hong Kong and Southeast Asia. The nominations reinforce its position as Asia’s leading pay-TV network, FIC said in a press release.
The 86th Academy Awards will be held on March 2, 2014 and will mark both the culmination of the awards season, and also the most hotly-anticipated ceremony of the year. Internationally recognized as the most prestigious awards in the film industry, triumphs at the Academy Awards will ensure enduring success for the winners on a global scale.
The number of nominations earned by feature films that FIC has acquired the pay-TV rights for substantiates FIC’s efforts to deliver exceptional content to its fans and viewers.
Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave, established itself as a front runner after receiving an incredible nine nominations, including ‘Best Picture’ and ‘Director’, ‘Lead Actor’ for Chiwetel Ejiofor, ‘Supporting Actor’ for Michael Fassbender and ‘Supporting Actress’ for Lupita Nyong’o. This has proven a remarkable awards season for the historical-epic, which is certain to become one of the top films of the year. Other notable achievers include The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug, which picked up three nominations, and Wong Kar-Wai’s masterpiece broadcast on FIC’s leading Chinese movie channel STAR Chinese Movies (SCM), The Grandmaster, which picked up two nominations, demonstrating the ever increasing popularity of Chinese content globally.
“The Academy Awards are the highlight of the awards season and we are enormously proud that both FOX Movies Premium and STAR Chinese Movies are both well represented this year. 2014 will see the strongest line up yet on FMP with 9 out of the top 15 movies of 2013, which we expect will once again place FMP as the #1 Hollywood movies channel in Malaysia and Singapore, as it was in 2013,” said Brian Lau, Senior Vice President of Content and Communications at FIC Asia. “Our strong Chinese portfolio which includes SCM, SCM Legend and STAR Chinese Channel coupled with our premier Hollywood channel line-up of FMP, FOX Action Movies, FOX Family Movies and online catch-up service FOX Movies Play puts FIC at the top of the industry in terms of delivering the very best premium content on offer.”
The Academy Awards nominations for films to which FIC has acquired the pay-TV rights for in HK/SEA (23):
STAR Chinese Movies (SCM)
The Grandmaster (2 nominations):
Cinematography – Philippe Le Sourd
Costume Design – William Chang Suk Ping
FOX Movies Premium (FMP)
12 Years a Slave (9 nominations):
Best Picture
Director – Steve McQueen
Lead Actor – Chiwetel Ejiofor
Supporting Actor – Michael Fassbender
Supporting Actress – Lupita Nyong’o
Costume Design – Patricia Norris
Film Editing – Joe Walker
Production Design – Adam Stockhausen (Production Design), Alice Baker (Set Decoration)
Adapted Screenplay – John Ridley
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (3 nominations):
Sound Editing – Brent Burge
Sound Mixing – Christopher Boyes, Michael Hedges, Michael Semanick and Tony Johnson
Visual Effects – Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton and Eric Reynolds
Frozen (2 nominations):
Animated Feature Film
Original Song – “Let It Go”
The Lone Ranger (2 nominations):
Makeup and Hairstyling – Joel Harlow and Gloria Pasqua-Casny
Visual Effects – Tim Alexander, Gary Brozenich, Edson Williams and John Frazier
The Croods (1 nomination):
Animated Feature Film
Prisoners (1 nomination):
Cinematography – Roger A. Deakins
The Book Thief (1 nomination):
Original Score – John Williams
Saving Mr. Banks (1 nomination):
Original Score – Thomas Newman
Iron Man 3 (1 nomination):
Visual Effects – Christopher Townsend, Guy Williams, Erik Nash and Dan Sudick
