Sunday night’s Oscars are shaping up to be one of the most turbulent and politically charged ceremonies in recent memory. The three-hour-plus telecast, which begins at 8:30 p.m. on ABC, is expected to resemble one very glitzy protest against President Donald Trump, whom award-winners _-like Meryl Streep at the Golden …

Ahead of Sunday’s 89th Academy Awards, Associated Press film writers Lindsey Bahr and Jake Coyle share their predictions for a ceremony many expect will be a “La La Land” sweep.   Best Picture   The Nominees: “Arrival,” “Fences,” “Hacksaw Ridge,” “Hell or High Water,” “Hidden Figures,” “La La Land,” “Lion,” …

The 2017 Oscar nominations were a banner year for black nominees both in front of and behind the camera, but other nonwhite groups and women were largely left out of the running. As #OscarsSoWhite creator April Reign said, her hashtag was never about just black actors, but all communities marginalized …

Hollywood honors its best Sunday February 26 when Oscar statuettes are distributed for excellence in film.  One of the most watched moments of the evening is the red carpet arrivals. Here is a sample of what some of the top stars wore. …

VOA entertainment reporter Penelope Poulou spent the year reporting on Hollywood films and interviewing the actors and directors about their works of art. Here are her picks for who will win the coveted Oscar statuette in the major categories on Sunday. Penelope says she thinks this year’s ceremony will be …

Olympic gold medal-winning distance runner Mo Farah said on Sunday that he is “a clean athlete” after a leaked report suggested his American coach may have broken anti-doping rules when he gave Farah and other athletes performance-enhancing drugs. The Somali-born Farah won gold medals in the 5,000 meters and 10,000 …

Neither Batman nor Dinesh D’Souza could finagle their way out of a Razzie.    The annual Golden Raspberry Awards bestowed a tying four “honors” to both D’Souza’s documentary Hillary’s America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party and the superhero blockbuster Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.   D’Souza’s film …

Each year, the European Union names two cities as European Capitals of Culture, and they sponsor a year-long series of cultural events. Aarhus, Denmark is one of those cities, where a sculpture exhibition portrays real-life women from different cultures. …

This is Black History Month in the U.S. A dance school in the nation’s capital has been making history for more than 75 years with its commitment to high-quality dance training. The school, which started at a time when African-American dancers had few opportunities to study classical ballet, is thriving. …

“I wanted something that looked like a fairy tale,” says German-born Canadian filmmaker George Mendeluk, describing what compelled him to tackle one of the darkest chapters in Ukrainian-Russian relations. Opening with a picturesque scene of a Ukrainian village in the 1930s, the historical juxtaposition is stark: Bitter Harvest, a historical drama …

Please excuse singer Phillip Sweet if he gets a little emotional when Little Big Town performs Friday night during the first-ever residency in the 125-year history of the Ryman Auditorium, a venue that helped popularize Country music.   “I know I am going to get so choked up that it’s …

Sunidhi Chauhan, one of India’s biggest pop stars, wants to collaborate with megastars like Justin Timberlake and Usher as she looks to push her career beyond Bollywood. “Collaborations excite me. The whole blend of two cultures coming together is a beautiful thing,” Chauhan told Reuters in London ahead of her …

As riots convulsed the city of Baltimore, Maryland, in 2015, Carla Hayden kept a library in the heart of the chaos open. She says people in the neighborhood lined up outside the library to get in, even as a drugstore across the street was being looted and burned. “The people …

Revelers all over Brazil were getting Carnival celebrations started Friday, taking to the streets to dance samba, drink beer and other spirits, and blow off steam at a time of economic angst and fury with politicians over a sprawling corruption scandal. In Rio, home to the world’s most famous Carnival …

The Librarian of Congress wants to upgrade its technology to make the eclectic mix of materials from books and photos to sheet music and baseball cards – available to people around the world. Carla Hayden became the new director of the world’s largest library five months ago, becoming the first …

When the Academy Awards are handed out Sunday evening at Hollywood’s Dolby Theater, there’s a good chance that at least one of the honored films will have a protagonist of color. Four of the nine Best Picture contenders fall in that camp: “Fences,” “Hidden Figures,” “Lion” and “Moonlight.” That’s different …

The New York Times will air its first TV ad in seven years on Sunday’s broadcast of the Academy Awards on ABC, as the 166-year old newspaper looks to highlight independent journalism amid U.S. President Donald Trump’s attacks on the media as “fake news.” The Oscars are among the pricier …

When people think of Cape Canaveral, Florida, they usually associate it with America’s space program. The Kennedy Space Center is where NASA launched the Saturn V rocket that put the first men on the moon in 1969. The real Florida Since then, the area has been the site of many …

At 21, Shagofa Alikozay is a bright woman who isn’t far removed from childhood in Afghanistan, which she illustrates with her photos, sketches and poetry. Her goal is to bring to light the challenges, problems and miseries of living in one of the world’s poorest countries, a place riven by …

We’re interacting with the five most popular songs in the Billboard Hot 100 Pop Singles chart, for the week ending February 25, 2017. When an artist performs at the Super Bowl and the Grammy Awards one week apart, good things tend to happen on the chart. Number 5: Machine Gun …

La La Land is up for a total of 14 Academy Awards on Sunday. The film has two chances of taking home the best original song award: for Ryan Gosling’s performance of “City of Stars” and for Emma Stone’s showpiece, “Audition (The Fools Who Dream).” Damien Chazelle, who is nominated …

The Brit Awards recognized big international stars, including Drake and Beyonce, and a cross section of homegrown talent Wednesday, but the ceremony was overshadowed by the much-missed David Bowie and George Michael.   Bowie, who died in January 2016 at age 69, was crowned British male artist of the year …

French artist Abraham Poincheval embarked on a new feat Wednesday by enclosing himself inside a block of stone for a week, adding to the two weeks he previously spent inside a sculpture of a bear. Poincheval is to live entombed in a body-shaped slot carved out from a limestone boulder …

Britain’s music industry saluted chart-topping talent and departed icons at Wednesday’s Brit Awards, where nominees included Drake, Beyonce and David Bowie. Bowie, who died in January 2016, was named British male artist of the year and was also nominated in the album of the year category for valedictory release Blackstar. …

Traditional South African beer, brewed for centuries by peoples such as the Xhosa, is in danger of “disappearing.” That’s according to Slow Food International, an organization trying to revive local food cultures. It says growing numbers of South Africans are abandoning the brew — made from ingredients such as corn …