Oscars 2015 Latest News: Neil Patrick Harris Will Host Awards Ceremony
The planning for Oscars 2015 has started with the recent announcement that Neil Patrick Harris will be hosting the ceremony on Feb. 22, 2015.
Harris had previously performed in the Oscars but this will be the first time he will be hosting the glamorous event. He has hosted several other awards ceremonies including last year's Tony Awards and the Emmy Awards, where he has served as host for two years. Harris also recently won a Tony Award for playing the lead role in "Hedwig and the Angry Inch." He has already won five Emmy awards over the years.
The 2014 Oscars was hosted by Ellen DeGeneres, and it saw over 45.4 million people tuning in to watch the show. It went on to become the highest rated Oscar ceremony in 14 years. The rating for the show was a strong 13.7 in the coveted adults' 18–49 category which is a top choice for advertisers. DeGeneres' hosting received a lot of acclaim from critics and viewers alike. However, according to Variety, she declined an offer to host the Oscars in 2015.
Among the successes of the show hosted by DeGeneres was the impromptu pizza order she sent out. Then several A-Listers including Brad Pitt helped distribute the pizza to the celebrities present. DeGeneres was also the mastermind behind the selfie that featured her and many of the stars who were present. The selfie ultimately went on to become the most re-tweeted image on Twitter, getting more than two million re-tweets by the time the award show wound up.
As for the films and the stars who may walk away with the awards, there is still a long way to go before the nominations, which are expected to come out on Jan. 15, 2015.
So far around 83 countries have put up films for consideration in the foreign language film category. BBC has a list of candidate films, including the Turkish film "Winter's Sleep," which was awarded the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival held earlier this year.
