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I thought I would include this satire of the Oscar nominations that appeared on last week’s Saturday Night Live with Ashton Kutcher.

Yes, I have no idea why certain movies get nominated, and why they don’t. There are times that I think the Academy just puts all the movies that people thought were good in a hat and pull out the first five.

Watch as you can see that the Academy is already nominating sequels that have yet to be released, along with films in the past that aren’t even worth mentioning in the same sentence as the Academy.

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The 37^thannual Annie Awards were handed out Saturday with Pixar’s Up taking the top prize as well as directing honors for best director to Pete Doctor.

The other winners were Coraline and Disney’s hand-drawn film The Princess and the Frog led feature wins with three each, while Wes Anderson’s stop-motion animated Fantastic Mr. Fox  picked up writing honors for Anderson and Noah Baumbach.

Click here for more details about the winners.

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Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences president Tom Sherak and talented actress Anne Hathaway announced the 82nd Academy Awards nominations this morning.

Avatar and The Hurt Locker both were honored with nine nominations as 10 films will compete for the best picture of the year — the first time since 1943 (when Michael Curtis’ Casablanca won) that we’ve had so many nominations in that category.   

The other best-film nominees include The Blind Side, District 9, An Education, Inglourious Basterds, Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ By Sapphire, A Serious Man, Up and Up in the Air. 

The best-actress nominations include Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side, Helen Mirren in The Last Station, Carey Mulligan An Education, Gabourey Sidibe in Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire and Meryl Streep in Julie & Julia.

The best-actor nominations include Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart, George Clooney in Up in the Air, Colin Firth in A Single Man, Morgan Freeman in Invictus and Jeremy Renner in The Hurt Locker.

The best-supporting actress nominations include Penélope Cruz in Nine, Vera Farmiga in Up in the Air, Maggie Gyllenhaal in Crazy Heart, Anna Kendrick in Up in the Air and Mo’Nique in Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire,

The best-supporting actor nominations include Matt Damon in Invictus, Woody Harrelson in The Messenger, Christopher Plummer in The Last Station, Stanley Tucci in The Lovely Bones and Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds.

Some wonderful choices to mention are Christopher Plummer being nominated for best-supporting actor for The Last Station.  He plays the famed Russian author Leo Tolstoy.  Plummer is a very generous actor who starred in three  other movies this year: Shane Acker’s 9 as 1, Up as Charles Muntz and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus as Doctor Parnassus.  The other nomination, which I am excited about, is Nine’s “Take it All” for original sound. I love Nine’s soundtrack.  It very upbeat and whimsical.

The winners will be announced and the awards handed out on March 7, 2010 at the Kodak Theatre with hosts by Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin.

For a complete list of nominations,  click here to go to the Oscars website.

Here is the announcement of the nominations via Livestream.

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One of my favorite singers, Taylor Swift, won four Grammies last night. The stand out award was for album of the year for Fearless, the bestselling album with 5.4 million copies sold.

Swift is a very funny and natural performer. Her film career is taking a nice climb, too, with a starring role in the ensemble comedy Valentine’s Day, directed by Gary Marshall, which opens this month.

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Last night Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman to win the DGA award for directing a feature in 62 years for her prestigious movie The Hurt Locker.  

Bigelow shot the gritty drama in Jordan. She was only the seventh female to be nominated for the DGA feature film trophy. 

Does that mean she has a good chance of winning the Oscar for best director?

Apparently the DGA award is viewed as a reliable gauge of the Academy Award for best director. The same director has won both in all except six years since 1948, counting last year, when Danny Boyle won both trophies for Slumdog Millionaire.

But Danny Boyle is a man and I wonder if the odds are in favor or against if the DGA winner is woman.

For more details and list of the winners, click here.

(Source)

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Entertainment Weekly put together a nifty chart on the awards season.  We also have the DGA awards, which isn’t listed on the chart yet. So, the chart will be going through some changes. 

With the Oscar nominations coming up this Tuesday, you might want to take a look and see if you can guess the nominations.  In the meantime, it’s kind of fun to be able keep the award season straight.

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The Hurt Locker was awarded the Producers Guild of America award for best feature. Four producers — director Kathryn Bigelow, screenwriter Mark Boal, Nicholas Chartier and Greg Shapiro — took the Darryl F. Zanuck award Sunday night at the end of the PGA’s ceremonies. 

Up won the animated feature award and The Cove won the documentary trophy.

For more details about the winners and ceremonies click here.

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Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds took home the Screen Actors Guild ensemble cast award. The top acting awards went Sandra Bullock and Jeff Bridges for The Blind Side and Crazy Heart.

Tarantino’s movie just increased it’s chances of taking home the Oscar. SAG’s choice for ensemble award has matched the Best Picture Oscar in seven of the 14 years, including last year when Slumdog Millionaire won both trophies.

Mo’Nique and Christoph Waltz took home the supporting categories. Mo’Nique won the award for her intense portrayal of an abusive mother in Precious. Waltz for his work as a conniving Nazi officer in Inglourious Basterds.

For more information and a complete list of award winners, which includes television, click here.

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The BAFT awards were announced very early this morning.  I like what I see.  BAFT nominations are like going to a candy store.  I like what I see – the best of dark chocolate.

Avatar, The Hurt Locker and An Education each scored eight nominations. South Africa-set sci-fi movie District 9 was honored with seven nominations. Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds and Up in the Air both were honored with six nominations.

For best actor nominations we start with Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart, Clooney, Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker) and British actors Colin Firth (A Single Man) and end with Andy Serkis (Sex, Drugs and Rock & Roll).

Best actress nominations start with popular and rising British star Carey Mulligan in An Education, Saoirse Ronan (The Lovely Bones), Gabourey Sidibe (Precious), Meryl Streep (Julie and Julia) and end with Audrey Tautou (Coco Before Chanel).

For the outstanding British Film category BAFT honors Lone Scherfig’s An Education, Andrea Arnold’s Fish Tank, Armando Iannucci’s In the Loop, Duncan Jones’ Moon and Sam Taylor-Wood’s Nowhere Boy.

Another fun category that I really enjoy is the rising star category that includes Jesse Eisenberg, Nicholas Hoult, Carey Mulligan, Tahar Rahim and Kristen Stewart.

The winners will be handed their awards February 21, 2010. For a complete list of nominations and details visit BAFT site.

(Source)

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Folks, we’ve got some great news for you today–a complete rundown of Golden Globe award winning movies.  Check this list out:

Best Motion Picture – Drama

Avatar

Best Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical

The Hangover

Best Director

James Cameron: Avatar

Best Performance By An Actor In A Motion Picture

Jeff Bridges: Crazy Heart

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture

Sandra Bullock: The Blind Side

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical

Robert Downey Jr: Sherlock Holmes

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical

Meryl Streep: Julie & Julia

Best Performance by a Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture

Christoph Waltz: Inglourious Basterds

Best Performance by a Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture

Mo’Nique: Precious

Congratulations to all the winners; I admit I take issue with a few of the winners, but still–everyone on the list did deserve their honor.

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