WATCH "SENSOLOGY" - OSCAR SHORT CONTENDER

WATCH "THE LOST THING" - OSCAR SHORT CONTENDER

WATCH "LET'S POLLUTE" - OSCAR SHORT CONTENDER

WATCH "DAY & NIGHT" - OSCAR SHORT CONTENDER

WATCH "COYOTE FALLS" - OSCAR SHORT CONTENDER

ACADEMY ANNOUNCES LIVE ACTION SHORTLIST

Beverly Hills, CA – The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced that 10 live action short films will advance in the voting process for the 83rd Academy Awards®. Seventy-six pictures had originally qualified in the category.

The 10 films are listed below in alphabetical order by title, with their production company:

"Ana’s Playground," Eric D. Howell, director (StoryForge, LLC)
"The Confession," Tanel Toom, director (National Film and Television School)
"The Crush," Michael Creagh, director (Purdy Pictures)
"God of Love," Luke Matheny, director (Luke Matheny)
"Na Wewe," Ivan Goldschmidt, director-producer (CUT!)
"Seeds of the Fall," Patrik Eklund, director, and Mathias Fjellstrom, producer (Direktorn & Fabrikorn)
"Shoe," Nick Kelly, director, and Seamus Byrne, producer (Zanita Films)
"The Six Dollar Fifty Man," Mark Albiston and Louis Sutherland, directors (Sticky Pictures Ltd.)
"Sma Barn, Stora Ord (Little Children, Big Words)," Lisa James Larsson, director and Andreas Emanuelsson, producer (Bob Film Sweden AB)
"Wish 143," Ian Barnes, director, and Samantha Waite, producer (Swing and Shift Films/Union Pictures)
The Short Films and Feature Animation Branch Reviewing Committee viewed all the eligible entries for the preliminary round of voting in screenings held in New York and Los Angeles.

Short Films and Feature Animation Branch members will now select three to five nominees from among the 10 titles on the shortlist. Branch screenings will be held in Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco in January 2011.

The 83rd Academy Awards nominations will be announced live on Tuesday, January 25, 2011, at 5:30 a.m. PT in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater.

Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2010 will be presented on Sunday, February 27, 2011, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center®, and televised live by the ABC Television Network. The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 200 countries worldwide.

ACADEMY ANNOUNCES ANIMATED SHORTS NOMINEES

Beverly Hills, CA – The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced that 10 animated short films will advance in the voting process for the 83rd Academy Awards®. Thirty-three pictures had originally qualified in the category.

The 10 films are listed below in alphabetical order by title, with their production company:

“The Cow Who Wanted to Be a Hamburger,” Bill Plympton, director (Bill Plympton Studio)
“Coyote Falls,” Matthew O’Callaghan, director and Sam Register, executive producer (Warner Bros. Animation Inc.)
“Day & Night,” Teddy Newton, director (Pixar Animation Studios)
“The Gruffalo,” Jakob Schuh and Max Lang, directors (Magic Light Pictures)
“Let’s Pollute,” Geefwee Boedoe, story-design-animation (Geefwee Boedoe)
“The Lost Thing,” Shaun Tan and Andrew Ruhemann, directors (Passion Pictures Australia)
“Madagascar, Carnet de Voyage (Madagascar, a Journey Diary),” Bastien Dubois, director (Sacrebleu Productions)
“Sensology,” Michel Gagne, director-producer (GAGNE International LLC)
“The Silence beneath the Bark,” Joanna Lurie, director (Lardux Films)
“Urs,” Moritz Mayerhofer, director (Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg)
The Short Films and Feature Animation Branch Reviewing Committee viewed all the eligible entries for the preliminary round of voting in screenings held in New York and Los Angeles.

Short Films and Feature Animation Branch members will now select three to five nominees from among the 10 titles on the shortlist. Branch screenings will be held in Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco in January 2011.

The 83rd Academy Awards nominations will be announced live on Tuesday, January 25, 2011, at 5:30 a.m. PT in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater.

Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2010 will be presented on Sunday, February 27, 2011, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center®, and televised live by the ABC Television Network. The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 200 countries worldwide.

JOHNNY DEPP COVERS VANITY FAIR 2011

ANNE HATHAWAY AND JAMES FRANCO WILL HOST THE OSCARS

From Deadline: I've just learned that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences has asked James Franco and Anne Hathaway to host the Academy Awards, and it "looks like" both young stars have accepted the offer. There is always the chance that one of them might back out because of prior commitments. But my sources say the host announcement could be made as soon as this week. Both are starring in Fox movies out in theaters now: Franco in Fox Searchlight's 127 Hours, and Hathaway in 20th Century Fox's Love And Other Drugs. Hathaway did a major dance and musical number with then host Hugh Jackman at the Academy Awards two years ago. Franco is also a multitalented actor. Both are equally adept at comedy and drama. Their selection, if true, is an inspired choice and demonstrates how much current Academy president Tom Sherak wants to improve Oscar ratings.

LISTEN TO THE MANY VOICES OF MERYL STREEP

COLIN FIRTH ON "THE KING'S SPEECH"

WE HAVE A NEW HOME!

We have a new home! Check www.oscarcountdown.com We need to change. When the blog started, two years ago, I always want it to be OSCAR COUNTDOWN. The domain was not available. So, we had to change it to COUNTDOWN OSCAR. The last site: countdownoscar.blogspot.com was very hard to memorize. OSCAR COUNTDOWN is much easy. We hope you like and thank you for reading us!

DANIEL DAY-LEWIS WILL BE ABRAHAM LINCOLN

From EW: Finally! Steven Spielberg’s long-gestating biopic of President Abraham Lincoln has got a start date — and its star. Two-time Oscar winner Daniel Day-Lewis will play the man on the five dollar bill in Lincoln, based on Pulitzer Prize-winning author Doris Kearns Goodwin’s best-selling biography of Lincoln’s presidency, Team of Rivals. Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner (Angels in America) has penned the screenplay, which in a release DreamWorks said will likely focus on “the political collision of Lincoln and the powerful men of his cabinet on the road to abolition [of slavery] and the end of the Civil War.” The film is scheduled to begin filming in the fall of 2011, with an anticipated release in the fall of 2012. In August, Liam Neeson announced he’d dropped out of playing the iconic president in the project, which briefly threw the film’s future in doubt.

WHY NOT? TOY STORY 3 WANTS TO WIN BEST PICTURE

ANNE AND JAKE COVER "EW" (THREE TIMES!)

From EW: Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway’s new romance, Love & Other Drugs, is arguably the sexiest movie of the year. Throughout the R-rated comedic drama (in theaters Nov. 24), they reveal nearly every inch of their enviably toned bodies. So it makes sense that their photo shoot for this week’s cover of EW would be equally steamy. In fact, the duo’s flesh-baring photo session was so sensual that we decided to put out three separate covers.

Photographer James White, who shot Gyllenhaal and Hathaway in New York, says the costars had an easy rapport. “I thought they’d be a little more tense about it than they were, but it was surprisingly low-key.” he says. “I guess after making a movie like that with each other, it’s not too big of a deal.”

During our interview, Gyllenhaal and Hathaway (who played husband and wife in 2005′s Brokeback Mountain), dish on their intense sex scenes in the film. “There is that revoltingly embarrassing moment when you have to take your clothes off in front of strangers,” says Hathaway. “I mean, I don’t go to the beach in a bikini for a reason. So I thought, ‘Okay, I’m going to be in control. I’m going to do everything properly, disrobe at the last minute, and in between shots get the clothes back on.’ But then I found that every time I put my robe back on, it rubbed all the body makeup off, and that added 20 minutes to filming. As with all things in life, the second you stop making it about you and you make it about everyone else, it just got, dare I say, fun.” Gyllenhaal also spilled one interesting bit of trivia about the tape that kept certain modesty-preserving patches from falling off: “It supposedly was the same tape that they used on Pirates of the Caribbean to keep everybody’s wigs on.”

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: THE CONTENDERS

We don't have a lock like Waltz last year, which make this much more interesting. Here are my early Oscar picks:

Christian Bale, THE FIGHTER
If you are a Bale's fan, this can be the year for you. A lock for a nod is sure. For an Oscar? Almost. Not only he lost some pounds (again), it seems that he gave another great performance. Besides a great actor, Bale is Batman, the king of box office. It's amazing but it will be his first Oscar nod (and he doesn't care...)

Geoffrey Rush, THE KING'S SPEECH
He has an Oscar and he is one of our best actors. The movie seems a strong contender and his costar, Colin Firth, is the best actor frontrunner. Can Rush beat Bale, the Oscar newcomer?

Michael Douglas, WALL STREET 2
I still think that Douglas has a strong chance. Forget his cancer. He deserves a nod! Gordon Gekko is a legendary character and, again, Douglas make us feel that greed is good. ok, let's not ignore the fact: many Oscar voters can put here the sentimental vote. Which is not necessary and seems unfair.

Jeremy Renner, THE TOWN
THE TOWN is one of the best reviewed movies of the year. Renner was the breakout star last year. Not a lock for a nod, but a sure beat.

Andrew Garfield, THE SOCIAL NETWORK
Very difficult choice. We have serious contenders, but if THE SOCIAL NETWORK wants to be considered a strong best picture lock, they have to promote the actors. Andrew Garfield gave the best performance. I don't understand why someone is still writing Justin Timberlake in the shortlist.

STILL POSSIBLE:
Mark Rufallo, THE KIDS ARE ALLRIGHT
Ed Harris, THE WAY BACK
Bill Murray, GET LOW
Sam Rockwell, CONVICTION

Check best supporting actress early picks here.

JAMES FRANCO AND JEFF BRIDGES: GQ MEN OF THE YEAR

ESQUIRE PREDICTS OSCAR FOR CHRISTIAN BALE

Christian Bale covers ESQUIRE December. The magazine writes: "Christian Bale who reluctantly talks with us to promote his (prediction alert!) Oscar-winning performance in THE FIGHTER".

From JustJared: On not wanting to talk about his family or personal life: “Look, I’ve got incredible pride for my family. I’ve absolutely fallen into that cliché of a dad who could just happily talk about my daughter endlessly. But it’s not what I’m about in terms of being an actor. I don’t want people to know about that…I don’t want people to know me….Because that buggers up my job. Because if you know something about somebody, it gets in the way of just watching the guy as the character.”
On an actor he admires: “Chris Farley was just phenomenal. Beverly Hills Ninja will always remain one of my tops. I have watched that movie. One time I sat down and watched it two nights in a row, and cried with laughter both times. The guy just was a phenomenon, and is missed dearly in my household.”
On what he would’ve done if he weren’t an actor: “I think I probably would have tried to experience my own stories in the way my father did — the sort of travel, the randomness of life, educating himself through experiences. I think I get that partially through acting, but you have to make an effort to be in an unprotected environment because everyone thinks you’re a completely incapable idiot who couldn’t possibly brush his teeth without an assistant. You have to make an effort in order to be able to actually experience the country that you’re in.”

Read more: http://justjared.buzznet.com/#ixzz15NIHPBwm

HONORARY OSCARS 2010

From Huffington Post: LOS ANGELES — A few honorary Oscar winners are getting a jump on next year's Academy Awards.

Film historian and preservationist Kevin Brownlow, director Jean-Luc Godard and character actor Eli Wallach are to receive Oscar statuettes Saturday evening at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' second annual Governors Awards.

Director-producer Francis Ford Coppola is also to be presented with the academy's Irving G. Thalberg award at the private black-tie dinner at Hollywood & Highland's Grand Ballroom, which is adjacent to the Kodak Theatre, home of the Academy Awards.

Winners were chosen by the governors of the academy's 15 branches.

The academy established its Governors Awards last year to pay tribute to winners of honorary Oscars and the Thalberg bust – prizes previously presented during the Academy Awards telecast. Academy President Tom Sherak said the new, non-televised Governors Awards allow the academy to honor more artists with more in-depth presentations.

Last year's inaugural celebration "was a night where celebrities came, members came who aren't celebrities and celebrated the careers of four people," Sherak said. "Not only were all their friends able to attend – which doesn't always happen at the Academy Awards – those people were able to talk and toast them individually."

Sherak said he expects the event to remain untelevised, though highlights will be available online at Oscars.org and will also be included in the Academy Awards telecast on Feb. 27, 2011.

Live updates from Saturday's event will also be featured on the academy's Twitter feed.

"We purposely have not let the outside in just yet," he said. "We want it to be a night where you can say anything you want."

EW COVER: ANGELINA AND JOHNNY TOGETHER

DINO DE LAURENTIIS DIES AT 91

Laurentiis, the son of Italian pasta makers who became a prolific movie producer, with films including Serpico, Dune and War and Peace on his resume, has died, according to Italian news reports. He was 91.

De Laurentiis worked with many famous folks. Among them: Directors Federico Fellini and Milos Forman and actors Al Pacino, Audrey Hepburn and Arnold Schwarzenegger, who credited De Laurentiis's Conan movies with making him an international superstar.

De Laurentiis, who died in Los Angeles, lived in Beverly Hills with his third wife, Martha.

GWYNETH PALTROW SINGS "COUNTRY SONG"

BETTE DAVIS, ALWAYS

JILL CLAYBURGH: 1944-2010

Shocking news from imdb.com : Beautiful and talented Jill Clayburgh died today at the age of 66 from chronic leukemia.

Jill Clayburgh, the Oscar-nominated actress whose portrayal of suddenly single women in the 1970s helped define feminism in movies and reshape the role of leading lady, died today at her home in Lakeville, Conneticut; she was 66.

A stage actress who started appearing onscreen in the 70s, she suddenly became the "It Girl" -- or rather, "It Woman" -- with her acclaimed performance as an upper-class Manhattan wife suddenly left by her husband in the comedy-drama An Unmarried Woman. For a brief time one of Hollywood's most recognizable actresses in both comedy and drama, her career took a rapid decline in the 80s before she resuscitated her career with a number of television and film roles. Still, despite her career ups and downs, she remained one of the most important actresses of the 70s, alongside Jane Fonda, Glenda Jackson, Diane Keaton, and the young Meryl Streep (with whom she was friends) -- women whose films were marked by their portrayals of strong, independent women who didn't need a man to complete their lives and were prepared to take a stand by doing so.

Born in New York City to a manufacturing executive father and a mother who was the production secretary for theatrical producer David Merrick, Clayburgh had a privileged Upper East Side upbringing, attending the noted Brearley Academy and then Sarah Lawrence College. After joining the Charles Street Repertory Theater in Boston, she worked primarily onstage, moving to Broadway for such shows as Pippin and The Rothschilds.

After sporadic film and TV appearances (including a stint on the soap opera Search for Tomorrow), Clayburgh nabbed her first big role in 1972's Portnoy's Complaint. Roles in TV shows such as Medical Center, Maude, and The Rockford Files followed (she received an Emmy nomination for the 1975 TV movie Hustling), before she essayed the role of Carole Lombard opposite James Brolin's Clark Gable in the critically lambasted Gable and Lombard (1976). The lavish biopic was soundly drubbed and might have marked the end of her career had it not been for a number of acclaimed performances and box office hits in rapid succession. Clayburgh earned acclaimed opposite Peter Falk in the TV cancer drama Griffin and Phoenix: A Love Story (1976) and that same year co-starred opposite Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor in the blockbuster hit comedy Silver Streak. She held her own against two other high-profile, wildly popular leading men--Burt Reynolds and Kris Kristofferson--in the football comedy Semi-Tough (1977) before landing the role that would make her a superstar of the decade: Erica in Paul Mazursky's An Unmarried Woman.

The story of a well-to-do wife and mother who is left by her husband for a younger woman, and attempts to reclaim her identity as a single woman in a world marked by the rise of feminism, the film was a lightning rod for many of the issues of the late 70s, from divorce to sexual liberation. With its message that it was okay not to be married, the film was a box office and critical hit, winning Clayburgh the Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival. An Unmarried Woman would receive three Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Actress, but lost both awards to Vietnam-themed dramas The Deer Hunter and Coming Home (Jane Fonda was the Best Actress winner).

Anointed as the screen's quintessential liberated woman, Clayburgh followed that film in 1979 with two wildly disparate roles, as an opera singer who seduces her 15 year old son in Bernardo Bertolucci's Luna, and as a slightly ditzy kindergarten teacher who falls in love with a recently divorced Burt Reynolds in the comedy Starting Over. The former film was reviled by critics, while the latter earner her a second Academy Award nomination (surprisingly, she received Golden Globe nominations for both films).

The early 80s saw Clayburgh play two more independent women in the comedies It's My Turn and First Monday in October, as well as a Valium addict in the adaptation of the bestselling memoir I'm Dancing As Fast As I Can. But as the 80s came under the influence of the Reagan administration and lost interest in the burgeoning feminist movement, roles for Clayburgh became less easy to attain, and a string of film flops followed throughout the decade. Roles in low-budget movies and telefilms followed, though it was through a number of television appearances in the late 90s and early 2000s that Clayburgh revitalized her career on the small screen: there were acclaimed but failed sitcoms Everything's Relative and Leap of Faith, and a well-received turn as the mother of Calista Flockhart's titular character in the hit show Ally McBeal.

After appearances on The Practice and Nip/Tuck (the latter earning her a second Emmy nomination), she co-starred in the TV series Dirty Sexy Money opposite Donald Sutherland as the matriarch of a wealthy New York family. In the mid-2000s Clayburgh also starred on Broadway in Richard Greenberg's A Naked Girl on the Appian Way and in the 2006 revival of Barefoot in the Park. Her most recent roles include the upcoming comedy-drama Love and Other Drugs, as well as next year's Bridesmaids.

Clayburgh married acclaimed playwright David Rabe (Hurlyburly, Streamers) in 1979; she is survived by Rabe and their daughter, actress Lily Rabe, who will be appearing opposite Al Pacino, with whom Clayburgh was involved in the early 70s, in the new Broadway production of The Merchant of Venice, which has currently been delayed.

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION: ANDREW GARFIELD

THE SOCIAL NETWORK is one of the best pictures of the year. No doubt and everybody is talking about that. Some praise Jesse Eisenberg's performance (and he absolutely deserves recognition - great perf) and some loved Justim Timberlake (I don't understand why some critics even consider the possibility of an Oscar nod for Timberlake - are they crazy???)
Andrew Garfield, the future Spider Man, is the one who should get everyone's attention. He gave the best performance of the movie. And he doesn't need that fabulous scenes - turned Oscar clips in the ceremony - to prove that he gave a great performance. I hope the studio understands that Andrew Garfield has a better shot of an Oscar nod. Justin Timberlake is still a musician who can host Saturday Night Live.

CHER IS BACK AND COVERS "VANITY FAIR"

The diva is back. Cher is the cover of VANITY FAIR. Read it here.

OSCAR CONTENDERS COVERS "HOLLYWOOD REPORTER"

I can't explain why Hilary Swank is there. Poor Annette Bening...