Mark Rylance accepts the Best Supporting Actor award for 'Bridge of Spies' from Patricia Arquette onstage during the 88th Annual Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California. (Photo : Getty Images/Kevin Winter)
While millions of people around the world in 200 countries are awaiting the live broadcast of the Oscars to see if Leonardo DiCaprio would win the Best Actor trophy for “The Revenant,” not for Chinese viewers.
Global Times reported that iQiyi, an online streaming site, would no longer broadcast the 88th Academy Awards on early Monday. Prior to the announcement, there were speculations that the live Web broadcast would be cancelled, although the reason has not been stated.
iQiyi initially planned to air the awards night in a bilingual broadcast. However, it seems that the China’s censor are again behind the broadcast cancellation, similar to the decision of China Central Television and Tencent not to air the awards night of the yearly Hong Kong Film Awards on April 3.
The culprits are two movies that depicts China in a bad light, the same reason for the April 3 broadcast cancellation. In the case of the Hong Kong filmfest, it is the movie “Ten Hours” that looks at how the Special Administrative Region would be like if Beijing takes more active control in ruling the former Crown Colony.
For the Oscars, what the Chinese censors did not like, according to a Sina Weibo user who claims being an ex-staff of mtie.com, a popular film review site, are two movies, the first dealing with Ukraine and the second with rare species.
The Web user cited “Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom” and “Racing Extinction.” The movie on Ukraine, a nominee for the Best Documentary Feature, is about the Ukrainian revolution seen from the eyes of diverse groups of people. The second film, a nominee for Best Original Song, “Manta Ray,” is directed by Louie Psihoyos, known for another movie, “The Cove,” which is also about rare species. “The Cove” was given in 2010 the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
iQiyi’s withdrawal contrasts with the 2014 Oscars which was broadcast in China by several streaming video services, including iQiyi, Sina and Sohu.
The Conversation highlighted the importance of the Oscars in Hollywood movies penetrating the Chinese film market, now the second-largest in the world and soon to be number one. That’s because China has opened its doors to foreign-made movies and local audience are wary of film awards in Taiwan, Hong Kong and mainland China.
