Oscar News

Despite having only two previous, supporting feature film roles to her name ('Pride & Predjudice' and 'When Did You Last See Your Father?') before landing the lead in tjhe coming-of-age drama 'An Education,' the spry 24-yr-old Carey Mulligan has become an odds-on favorite to pick up an Oscar nod in the Best Actress category when the nominations are announced on the morning of Feb 2.

After making a splash at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival with her astute portrayal of the naively precocious schoolgirl Jenny, Mulligan has ignited a frenzy of Oscar talk, with critics noting her stand-out performance as "remarkably nuanced" and "star-making." Roger Ebert wrote in his review, "You're pretty sure this is the birth of a star.

If a color photograph existed showing reporters gathered around Barbra Streisand in the press room of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion after she'd won the Oscar for Best Actress in 1969, you'd see a young man in a brown suit sandwiched among a crowd in black tuxedos and elegant gowns. That misfit would be me.

I was a sportswriter for a suburban southern California newspaper then, but if there was one thing I knew I would enjoy more than watching an athlete set a world record, it would be seeing a movie star receive an Academy Award. I'd been watching the Oscars on television as far back as I could remember, and had been betting on their outcomes for about as long. It occurred to me during my first year in newspapers that I might wrangle a press pass to the show itself.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences released the shortlist of 15 nonfiction films that will contend for the documentary Oscar this season, and as is often the case, the biggest docs of the year aren't even on it.

Other notable omissions included James Toback's critically acclaimed boxer profile 'Tyson,' as well as rock docs 'Anvil! The Story of Anvil' and 'It Might Get Loud.' The latter was made by Davis Guggenheim, who won the documentary category in 2006 for 'An Inconvenient Truth.'

Will we see an edgier Oscars ceremony this year? We have to wonder with the choice of Hamish Hamilton as director. The 43-year-old Brit is known for directing videos for such musicians as Christina Aguilera, the Rolling Stones, U2, Motley Crue and Whitesnake. He also directed the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, as well as the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show in 2008.

Mo'Nique's come a long way since 'Phat Girlz.'

The amiable actor-comedian-talk show host (and yes, headliner of that infamous 2006 bomb) is the talk of Tinsletown these days thanks to her harrowing dramatic turn in the Oscar favorite 'Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire.' The indie has steadily gained steam since winning big at Sundance in January, subsequently winning the endorsement of media heavies Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry, who signed on as producers.

'Precious' features the year's most unlikely heroine -- Clareece "Precious" Jones (Gabourey Sidibe), an obese Harlem teen twice impregnated by her father. For her portrayal of Mary, the girl's callous, abusive mother, Mo'Nique is a virtual lock for an Academy Award nomination.

There's been a lot of discussion this year over Oscar's decision to increase the field of Best Picture nominees from five to 10, but there's another category quietly experiencing it's own expansion: Best Animated Feature Film.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, a record 20 animated features have been submitted for consideration, which likely will lead to five pictures being in contention this year as opposed to the usual three.

If Oscar buzz were directly proportional to the length of a film's title, then the success of 'Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire' would be a foregone conclusion. Of course awards season predictions are never quite that simple, and it's a good thing, too. If the winners were that foreseeable, what would become of our office Oscar pools?

In fact, the film's onerous title is one of the few flaws many critics have found with 'Precious'. After wowing the festival circuit earlier this year -- receiving a standing ovation at Cannes and winning the Audience awards at both Sundance and Toronto, (the first film ever to win both) -- 'Precious' is garnering raves again as it opens this week in theaters nationwide.

Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin will host the 82nd Annual Academy Awards, Variety is reporting. Last year's host, Hugh Jackman, recently opted not to return.

This will be Martin's third time hosting the Oscars. He was last seen on the Kodak stage in 2003, which went on to become the lowest-rated Oscar telecast ever to that point (it was later "topped" by Jon Stewart in 2008). Baldwin has never hosted, although he did receive a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for the 2003 film 'The Cooler.'

Baldwin and Martin can also be seen in the upcoming Nancy Meyers comedy, 'It's Complicated,' due in theaters this December.

It's a bit early to be talking Oscars, but we already know that we won't be seeing Hugh Jackman at next year's show -- unless he gets nominated for 'X-Men Origins: Wolverine' or (much more likely) is tapped as a presenter. The Aussie hunk has told the Academy he's not interested in hosting the awards show two years in a row, Variety reports.

You might imagine Academy Award voters as old film buffs, tucked away in a locked room somewhere, closing their eyes and pointing to pick the winners of each category.

We're not saying you're not right, but now they'll have to do a lot more than just pick a favorite for Best Picture. This year, not only will the top category include 10 nominees, but instead of selecting the one film they think should win, voters will be ranking all 10, similar to the way they select those nominees early on in the voting process.

So what does this mean for the night's biggest award? And, in its 82nd year, why change now? Simple. With more nominees than ever allowed, the traditional voting process would open up a chance for a longshot to win. It's also very likely that it could narrow the margin between the winning movie and its closest also-ran by just a few votes.