Sky is to launch a dedicated Oscars channel in the UK which will broadcast award-winning films and live coverage of the 85th Academy Awards.

From Feb 11, Sky Movies Showcase will become Sky Movies Oscars, with a 24/7 schedule of award winners up to the day of the ceremony.

The channel will show 10 of last year’s 12 Oscar-winning features including Best Film The Artist, and will also schedule previous winners including Forrest Gump, Girl, Interrupted, Philadelphia, Kramer vs. Kramer, Pulp Fiction, Boys Don’t Cry and The King’s Speech.

Sky Movies has held UK broadcast rights to the Academy Awards for nine consecutive years but this is the first time it will have been granted a dedicated channel.

On the big night [Feb 24], The Oscars 2013: Red Carpet Live will air from 11.30pm to 1.30am on Sky Living and Sky Movies Oscars, hosted by presenter Alex Zane in Sky’s London studio and Sky News correspondent Lucy Cotter at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

The 85th Academy Awards will air live exclusively on Sky Movies Oscars from 1.30am to 4am. This year’s ceremony will be hosted by Ted and Family Guy star Seth MacFarlane and will feature performances from Barbra Streisand and Adele, who will sing Oscar-nominated song Skyfall as part of a wider 50th anniversary tribute to James Bond.