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Exclusive: Paul Ashton to lead film department at UK creative industries outfit.

Creative England has appointed Paul Ashton to the role of head of film.

Ashton, who has recently served as acting head of film following the departure of Brek Taylor in January, becomes the outfit’s third head of film in the last 12 months.

Ashton’s executive producer credits at Creative England include Rachel Tunnard’s Bifa-winning feature debut Adult Life Skills, Justin Edgar’s upcoming feature The Marker and upcoming Jack Lowden-Martin McCann thriller Calibre.

Since joining the agency in 2013, he has also worked on a host of successful shorts such as Emotional Fusebox, Real Gods Require Blood and Ernestine And Kit.

Prior to joining Creative England, he was a development producer at the BBC where he worked on Riz Ahmed drama Shifty and shorts including Wish 143 and Turning.

Ashton told Screen: “I’ve been working for nearly four years as part...

Vol. I Issue 10 February 2013

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As this last weekend approached I was faced with marking my Academy Award ballot. This process is always really difficult. How does one sort out the “best” film or accomplishment of five or nine in the case of the Best Picture? For me it has been over 30 years of screenings. Thousand of films. Some really great films and many not so great. I also try to think what it means to be one of the nominees. What was the off-screen story but always more importantly what their contribution was to the work and how the film compares to others. What’s great about short films is that they can be made for almost nothing by a few filmmakers without a large budget, crew or cast.

The Academy has three nomination categories for films less than 41 minutes in length: short fiction, documentary and animation. Once nominated, there are public screenings and panels to celebrate the nominated films at the Academy in Beverly Hills. A group photograph of all the nominees is taken with a large Oscar in the lobby of the Academy headquarters. It is really a wonderful experience.

It wasn’t always like that. There were no special celebrations for the short or documentary films until the l980s. While the Foreign Language films had their seminar, nothing was done for these films. We tried to remedy that in the 1980s and started the Direct Cinema receptions and screenings with UCLA, USC and, a few years later, the Ida sponsored “Docuday” and the Academy started doing an annual reception for the shorts and documentary filmmakers. Today the Academy’s evening receptions for the short films, animated features (a relatively new Oscar category) and the documentaries are annual sell-out events. The filmmakers and their works are celebrated and it has become a highlight of the Oscar week for the filmmakers and those associated with the films.

When I first became a member of the Academy the short films and animation branch was headed by a number of extraordinary talents: T Hee, Saul Bass and June Forey. These three remarkable artists represented classic Disney animation (T. Hee), fiction and narrative short films (Saul Bass), and the television and theatrical films (June Forey, who voiced hundreds of characters.)

Saul Bass articulated the branch’s membership policy, “We want them to be part of our branch.” This liberal interpretation allowed documentary filmmakers like Ken Burns as well as voice artists and creatives like Stan Friedberg (and June Forey) to be part of a group that included IMAX filmmakers as well as classic character animation directors, colorists, layout artists, producers and other key short film and animation filmmakers. The animation filmmakers represent both the studio animators and the independent animators who work globally doing personal work as well as studio work. Other governors from 1979 to the present have included Hal Elias, who served on the Academy board for 37 years and was a short film publicist for MGM among other things; Bill Littlejohn, who worked on over 90 films as an animator ranging from Charley Brown, Peanuts Christmas Specials to working with the Hubleys’; Bill Scott, who acted and wrote over a hundred animated films, and Carl Bell, who worked on over 35 films at Disney in its animation department.

Unlike most of the other branches, the Short Films branch screens all of the submitted films in 16mm and 35mm and now in Digital Cinema, in an effort to find and nominate the best short films produced in the world. The branch rules allowed films to qualify in an effort to encourage more international entries in the 1990s by taking a first prize at key festivals in addition to the method that all Academy films can use to qualify, a theatrical week long (now three day for shorts) run in a theater in Los Angeles County. Branch screenings were expanded to New York to permit more members to participate in the nomination process in the 1990s. The final short listed screenings are in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Over one-third of the branch participates in the voting. The best change took place this year, sending DVD screeners to all Academy members of the short live action and animated nominated films. While this still won’t force members to watch them, members can’t claim they can’t see them. This is not only great for the branch but great for the nominated filmmakers. Who would not want to screen their short film for Academy members?

The process of the branch for selecting Nominees has remained unchanged for years—members screen the films in a theater rather than on DVDs, which is how the Documentary branch is dealing with the flood of feature docs and their unwillingness to trust committees. Nothing beats seeing films projected on a large screen with perfect sound and that is now lost. In a two step process, a committee (self selected from the branch membership) screens the films and the 15 films with the highest scores are short listed. The short listed films are then screened again and members vote.

The current Short Film Branch governors are Jon Bloom (pictured with the 2007 nominees), a 1983 fiction short nominee, filmmaker, editor and producer who chairs the branch, animator and Disney Creative Head and multi-Oscar winner, John Lasseter, and William "Bill" Kroyer,an award-winning director of animation and computer graphics commercials, short films, movie titles and theatrical films and faculty member Chapman College.

One of the challenges for the branch is how to grow live action producing members. With the addition of feature animation to the awards and the large number of feature animation films being released, the branch would like to have the most qualified animators to become members. The number of animators grows at a far faster rate than that of the live action filmmakers since only a few live action filmmakers can qualify for membership. The commercial success of animated features, the long production schedules and the large number of animators who work in qualifying positions allows for six plus individuals per picture to be eligible for membership. With five nominees a year, the number of individuals who can play a key role in two or three features becoming eligible for membership can easily approach 30 plus individuals annually. Add in the short animation nominees and competition for the limited new slots allocated to the branch can be brutal. The talent pool of animators is both astonishingly strong and suggests that Hollywood can easily double production from the 15 or so films made annually to 25 or 30 without having to compromise on talent.

Many of the filmmakers in the branch who make their Oscar nominated or winning live action short have made or are interested in making feature length works. A number of recent nominees or winners have made that transition. The following list looks at all of the live action nominees from 2001 to 2011, using the Internet Movie Database I looked up each nominee and listed what they reported they were doing professionally. Obviously, this is not intended to show everything. In each case, I listed credits or summarized credits shown in the IMDb listing.

Some observations about 11 years of Live Action Short Film Academy Award Nominees:

There were 86 nominations (out of a possible 110) This is because in some years only three films were nominated and in some cases only one filmmaker from a film was eligible for a nomination. Non-us based filmmakers dominate this category. Despite the huge number of short films being made annually in the Us, a majority of the nominated films come from filmmakers based abroad. In part this is due to the government subsidies available, but it is also due to the strong training programs, commercial support for the short films and a rich tradition of theatrical shorts. This year (2012) four of the five films in the live action category are from Us filmmakers. This is an unusual year. Few filmmakers have more than one nomination, only a handful of the nominees have made multiple Academy worthy short films. As one might expect, many of the filmmakers have continued their film work in television, some in features. The European Oscar winners (vs nominees) have done better at snagging features after a win than have their American counterparts. Again, this is likely a function of government support for entry features. Perhaps one of the short films seem to have been turned into a feature (or television) film. Some of the short films are intended to be sizzle reels for features, but it is not clear why so few of the nominated short films have been turned into features. A number of the Oscar winners have not continued working in film. No record of future productions are shown on IMDb. It would be interesting to see what they are doing now. Two of the Oscar winners have written critically award winning screenplays, one received two Academy Award nominations for his screenwriting. None of these nominees have gone on to win Oscars in directing or producing for feature films.

The data is from the Academy and the IMDb databases.

Apologies in advance, if credits were missed or other factual errors were made. In a week we’ll be able to add this year's winner.

2001 (74th)

Short Film (Live Action) (* won Academy Award)

*the accountant -- Ray McKinnon: Two Features: Randy and the Mob 2007 and Crystal 2004 Lisa Blount: Produced these features. Copy Shop -- Virgil Widrich Gregor's Greatest Invention -- Johannes Kiefer A Man Thing (Meska Sprawa) -- Slawomir Fabicki, Two Features: Loving 2012, Retrieval 2006 (Also wrote) Bogumil Godfrejow Has shot multiple features Speed for Thespians -- Kalman Apple, Shameela Bakhsh

2002 (75th)

Short Film (Live Action)

Fait D'Hiver -- Dirk Beliën, Anja Daelemans produced Comrade Kim Goes North I'll Wait for the Next One... (J'Attendrai Le Suivant...) -- Philippe Orreindy, Thomas Gaudin Inja (Dog) -- Steven Pasvolsky Feature, Deck Dogz Joe Weatherstone, produced episodic television. Johnny Flynton -- Lexi Alexander, directed 3 features: Lifted, Punisher: War Zone and Green Street Hooligans Alexander Buono as a Dp has shot series and features *This Charming Manon (Der Er En Yndig Mand) -- Martin Strange-Hansen, Mie Andreasen produced both features, series and documentaries.

2003 (76th)

Short Film (Live Action)

Die Rote Jacke (The Red Jacket) -- Florian Baxmeyer Multiple television films and series Most (The Bridge) -- Bobby Garabedian, William Zabka Mr. Zabka has appeared as an actor in numerous films and television shows Squash -- Lionel Bailliu Features: Fair Play and Denis (in post) (A) Torzija [(A) Torsion] -- Stefan Arsenijevic Directed: Lost and Found, Love and Other Crimes, and Do Not Forget Me Istanbul *Two Soldiers -- Aaron Schneider,Asc (Cinematographer numerous credits) and feature, Kiss the Girls, Andrew J. Sacks Series The Closer (98 episodes) and Major Crimes.

2004 (77th)

Short Film (Live Action)

Everything in This Country Must -- Gary McKendry Directed Killer Elite, Joseph and the Girl Little Terrorist -- Ashvin Kumar Produced and Directed features (2) and documentaries (2) 7:35 in the Morning (7:35 de la Mañana) -- Nacho Vigalondo Directed and written multiple films, series, shorts Two Cars, One Night -- Taika Waititi, Acted and directed and written multi television and films Ainsley Gardiner Nz based producer of multiple shorts, television and feature films *Wasp -- Andrea Arnold Actor, director and writer of numbers films, television programs

2005 (78th)

Short Film (Live Action)

Ausreisser (The Runaway) -- Ulrike Grote Ms. Grote has acted in over 42 programs, features, television series and films Cashback -- Sean Ellis, Director/Writer Metro Manila, The Broken Lene Bausager Producer, The Broken, Ginger and Rosa The Last Farm -- Rúnar Rúnarsson, Director/Writer Volcano, Thor S. Sigurjónsson Produced multiple features Our Time Is Up -- Rob Pearlstein, Director/Writer multiple television and a feature Pia Clemente Producer, documentaries *Six Shooter -- Martin McDonagh Writer/Director Seven Psychopaths, In Bruges

2006 (79th)

Short Film (Live Action)

Binta and the Great Idea (Binta Y La Gran Idea) -- Javier Fesser, no other credits shown Luis Manso Produced multiple features Éramos Pocos (One Too Many) -- Borja Cobeaga Writer, multi films and television series Helmer & Son -- Søren Pilmark no other credits, Kim Magnusso Producer over 100 film, television films (4 Best Short Film Academy Award nominations) Won for Ernst & Lyset The Saviour -- Peter Templeman, no other credits Stuart Parkyn, Producer, multi-short film credits *West Bank Story -- Ari Sandel Director, one short, one documentary

2007 (80th)

Short Film (Live Action)

At Night -- Christian E. Christiansen, Directed, Features and television series Louise Vesth Producer, multi features Il Supplente (The Substitute) -- Andrea Jublin

*Le Mozart des Pickpockets (The Mozart of Pickpockets) -- Philippe Pollet-Villard Actor and director short films, a television film

Tanghi Argentini -- Guido Thys, Director, Multiple television series Anja Daelemans, nominated for 2 Short Film nominations (Gridlock, 2002) Producer/Pm various The Tonto Woman -- Daniel Barber, Directed The Keeping Room, Harry Brown Matthew Brown Produced 2 shorts

2008 (81st)

Short Film (Live Action)

Auf der Strecke (On the Line) -- Reto Caffi Manon on the Asphalt -- Elizabeth Marre, Director, Television series Olivier Pont Director, Television series New Boy -- Steph Green, Director Run and Jump Tamara Anghie Producer Run and Jump The Pig -- Tivi Magnusson, Producer Over 64 titles many short films, Dorte Høgh Writer multiple series, (Directed The Pig) *Spielzeugland (Toyland) -- Jochen Alexander Freydank Producer of multiple television series

2009 (82nd)

Short Film (Live Action)

The Door -- Juanita Wilson, Director As If I Am Not There James Flynn Multiple Producer credits for over 50 titles, television and theatrical Instead of Abracadabra -- Patrik Eklund, Director, Television film and feature Mathias Fjellström Kavi -- Gregg Helvey Miracle Fish -- Luke Doolan, Multiple credits as editor Drew Bailey Multiple credits as Assistant Director *The New Tenants -- Joachim Back, no other credits shown as a director, Tivi Magnusson This is Mr. Magnusson’s first Academy Award and second nomination. See 2008.

2010 (83rd)

Short Film (Live Action)

The Confession -- Tanel Toom The Crush -- Michael Creagh *God of Love -- Luke Matheny Feature Love Sick and multiple Television series episode Na Wewe -- Ivan Goldschmidt Wish 143 -- Ian Barnes, Multiple directing credits Television Samantha Waite Credits as production coordinator on multiple titles

2011 (84th)

Short Film (Live Action)

Pentecost -- Peter McDonald, Credits as actor Eimear O'Kane Credits as Producer on The Shadows and on television programs. Raju -- Max Zähle, Director, Television series Stefan Gieren Producer-Writer credit on feature film, Kunduz: The Incident at Hadji Ghafur *The Shore -- Terry George, Writer Two Oscar nominations for screenplays In the Name of the Father and Hotel Riwanda Producer and director on films and television series Oorlagh George Numerous credits as Assistant on features, documentaries and television shows Time Freak -- Andrew Bowler Writer and actor in a short film Gigi Causey Production manager, producer shorts, series and films

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Credits: Editing by Jessica Just for SydneysBuzz

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Mitchell Block specializes in conceiving, producing, marketing & distributing independent features & consulting. He is an expert in placing both completed works into distribution & working with producers to make projects fundable. He conducts regular workshops in film producing in Los Angeles and most recently in Maine, Russia and in Myanmar (Burma).

Poster Girl, produced by Block was nominated for a Documentary Academy Award and selected by the Ida as the Best Doc Short 2011. It was also nominated for two Emmy Awards and aired on HBO. He is an executive producer of the Emmy Award-winning PBS series Carrier, a 10-hour series that he conceived & co-created. Block is a graduate of Tisch School and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business. He is a member of Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, the Television Academy, a founding member of BAFTA-la and has been teaching at USC School of Cinematic Arts since 1979. Currently Block teaches a required class in the USC Peter Stark Producing Program.

______________________________________________________________________

©2013Mwb All Rights Reserved All Rights Reserved. All information and designs on the Sites are copyrighted material owned by Block. Reproduction, dissemination, or transmission of any part of the material here without the express written consent of the owner is strictly prohibited.All other product names and marks on Block Direct, whether trademarks, service marks, or other type, and whether registered or unregistered, is the property of Block.

Back in July, Screenterrier announced the casting of a new comedy drama coming to E4 based on the novel  by Rae Earl, My Fat Mad Teenage Diary. Here's a first look at the new series, My Mad Fat Diary which will launch on E4 in January 2013.

Set in the mid-90s at the height of cool Britannia, My Mad Fat Diary takes a hilarious and honest look at teenage life from the perspective of Rae - a funny, music-mad 16-year-old who, despite an eccentric mother and her own body image and mental health issues, has a huge lust for life, love and trying to get laid.

Sharon Rooney, in her first major TV role, leads the cast as Rae, and is joined by a raft of fresh young talent for the six hour long episode series. Rae's friendship group includes best friend and popular girl Chloe played by Jodie Comer,...

A brand new series is coming to E4 this autumn adapted from the novel by Rae Earl, My Fat Mad Teenage Diary.

Scottish actress Sharon Rooney (represented by Mark Jermin Management) leads the cast, starring as 16 year old Rae, a a fat, funny girl from Lincolnshire who, despite an eccentric mother and her own mental health issues, has a huge lust for life, love and trying to get laid.

Sharon, in her first major TV role after an early career of comedy theatre and stand-up, is joined by a raft of fresh young talent, many of them newcomers.

Jodie Comer (represented by Independent Talent) from Liverpool, who last year appeared in BBC drama series Justice, plays Rae's best friend, the beautiful and popular Chloe.

Major lust interest Archie is played by newcomer Dan Cohen (represented by Galloways), who graduated from Arts Ed drama school in 2010.

Nico Mirallegro from Manchester, who...

BBC Three has announced that it has ordered two new comedy pilots. The channel asked for an episode of comedy drama Eggbox, which focuses on life in a teenage cancer ward. The series has been written by Tom Bidwell, who had cancer when he was 15. Bidwell previously worked on Wish 143, an Oscar-nominated short film about a teenager with the illness. Meanwhile, BBC Three has also ordered a pilot of Ied, which focuses (more)...

Rick Baker. Friend of apes. Maker of monsters. Seven time Oscar winner. And that lucky number seven was for The Wolfman, shared with fellow Efx maestro Dave Elsey. Their on-stage speech was great, but the extended Thank You Cam was even better. Both Baker and Elsey thanked Jack Pierce and Dick Smith for inspiring them. Though there were grumblings online that the Academy clip showed the CG transformation rather then the make-up. It is always a treat to see our own getting the gold.

In the best original music category, Trent Reznor won for The Social Network. But who could forget his rivethead contributions to Class of 1999, Se7en, and Tetsuo: The Bullet Man? And Danny Boyle’s nominated 127 Hours didn’t win for Best Picture, but we will always love him “best” for his bloody crazies in the 28 Days series.

Rounding out the highlights in horror cred are nods to Jason X,...

My short film Wish 143 was nominated for an Oscar. This is a diary of my trip to the ceremony: Danny Boyle, paparazzi, ceramic frogs and all

• Read Simon Hattenstone's interview with Tom Bidwell

Day 1

I have always loved the sensory overload one experiences during the first 15 minutes in a new country. La is sprawling and unapologetic – an eerie haunt I have visited so often in my imagination with Philip Marlowe. My agent Lindsey and I sit in traffic in the torrential rain and try to shake off the long-haul. There are more cars here than people, more billboards than cars. They all sell an impossibly beautiful future.

A quick shower and off to my first Oscar party. I meet some of my rivals in the category of best live action short. Lovely people. We all agree that anyone could win, but each secretly think that our own films will.

Did the Oscars surprise anyone? Sci-Fi fans, we are of course still sore over Christopher Nolan’s snub for Best Director, but Inception still was recognized with four Oscars. Genre highlights from the 83rd Academy Awards also include Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland sweeping away the two coveted design awards in Art Direction and Costume Design and The Wolfman won for Best Makeup. Pixar‘s Toy Story 3 took home Best Animated Film and Best Song.

This Sunday’s broadcast of the 83rd Academy Awards on ABC attempted to reach out to a “younger crowd” with its choice of hosts, Anne Hathaway and James Franco, but the live broadcast dropped 9% in overall ratings compared to last year’s broadcast and down 12% in the 18-49 adult demographic. Still, the show entertained 37.6 million viewers with a show full of exposition to educate new viewers about the history of past Oscar winners.

Check...

… And so another year of the most boring and predictable awards ceremony on planet Earth has passed. There were cheesy speeches, somebody said the ‘f’ word and Colin Firth won an Oscar. The 83rd Annual Academy Awards were presented by James Franco and Anne Hathaway to what looks like very mixed reviews judging from responses this morning.

Below is a full list of winners and losers… since, like Highlander, there can only be one! Nice to see The Wolfman and Inside Job pick up major awards and Natalie Portman bag an Oscar. She was ace in Black Swan.

Best Picture

Black Swan

The Fighter

Inception

The Kids Are All Right

The King’s Speech

127 Hours

The Social Network

Toy Story 3

True Grit

Winter’s Bone

Best Director

David O. Russell – The Fighter

Tom Hooper – The King’s Speech

David Fincher – The Social Network

Joel And Ethan Coen – True Grit

Darren Aronofsky...

A full list of winners and nominees for the Oscars 2011

Best motion picture of the year

Winner: The King's Speech

Black Swan

The Fighter

Inception

The Kids Are All Right

127 Hours

The Social Network

Toy Story 3

True Grit

Winter's Bone

Performance by an actor in a leading role

Winner: Colin Firth (The King's Speech)

Javier Bardem (Biutiful)

Jeff Bridges (True Grit)

Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network)

James Franco (127 Hours)

Performance by an actress in a leading role

Winner: Natalie Portman (Black Swan)

Annette Bening (The Kids Are All Right)

Nicole Kidman (Rabbit Hole)

Jennifer Lawrence (Winter's Bone)

Michelle Williams (Blue Valentine)

Achievement in directing

Winner: Tom Hooper (The King's Speech)

Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan)

David O Russell (The Fighter)

David Fincher (The Social Network)

Joel Coen and Ethan Coen (True Grit)

Art direction

Winner: Alice in Wonderland - Robert Stromberg (production design), Karen O'Hara (set decoration)

Harry Potter and the...

If you missed the broadcast of the 83rd Academy Awards, or you can't remember who won what, here is a list of all the winners in their categories. The King's Speech and Inception both tied for the most Oscars won, which was four statues each. However, whereas Inception took home awards for technical categories (Best Visual Effects, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound and Best Cinematography), The King's Speech won three of the top four categories (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Original Screenplay).

Best Picture:

Black Swan (Fox Searchlight Pictures), Mike Medavoy, Brian Oliver and Scott Franklin, Producers The Fighter (Paramount Pictures), David Hoberman, Todd Lieberman and Mark Wahlberg, Producers Inception (Warner Bros. Pictures), Emma Thomas and Christopher Nolan, Producers The Kids Are All Right (Focus Features), Gary Gilbert, Jeffrey Levy-Hinte and Celine Rattray, Producers The King's Speech (The Weinstein Company), Iain Canning, Emile Sherman and Gareth Unwin,...

In a surge reminiscent of its late-breaking Oscar season momentum, The King’s Speech triumphed at the 2011 Academy Awards, winning three of the final four categories including Best Picture, Best Actor (Colin Firth), and Best Director (Tom Hooper). The magnificent British drama took home four golden statues on Sunday, tieing Christopher Nolan’s Inception for the most Oscars, and narrowly beating critic favorite and three-time winner The Social Network.

Hosted by a smug, sleepy James Franco and a cheery, happy-to-be-there Anne Hathaway, the 3+ hour ceremony felt like an eternity. The next-generation actors were supposed to liven what is traditionally a stuffy telecast, but their monologue and subsequent appearances lacked the classy zingers of Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin’s banter or the pep of Hugh Jackman’s show.

Further attempts to appeal to a populist crowd, such as autotuning some of 2010’s big blockbusters or quipping about Charlie Sheen, fell flat,...

Well I certainly don't think 2011 will go down as one of the more memorable years in Oscar history; not only were the winners fairly predictable, but the ceremony itself seemed dull and uninspired. Despite an attempt to add a "youthful edge" to the Oscars this year, it was almost completely lacking in comedy, excitement or entertainment. Hosts James Franco and Anne Hathaway seemed to be dreadfully unprepared and lacking material, leaving Franco to put up a facade of aloof detachment while Hathaway simply attempted to win everyone over with cuteness. The King's Speech went on to secure most of the major awards including Best Picture, Director, Actor and Original Screenplay, reinforcing the stuffy British Oscar stereotype. For the second time David Fincher was denied Best Director, but The Social Network did end up getting awards for Film Editing, Original Score and Adapted Screenplay. Natalie Portman still managed to snag Best Actress for Black Swan,...

Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role Javier Bardem in "Biutiful" (Roadside Attractions) Jeff Bridges in "True Grit" (Paramount) Jesse Eisenberg in "The Social Network" (Sony Pictures Releasing) Colin Firth in "The King’s Speech" (The Weinstein Company) James Franco in "127 Hours" (Fox Searchlight) Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role Christian Bale in "The Fighter" (Paramount) John Hawkes in "Winter’s Bone" (Roadside Attractions) Jeremy Renner in "The Town" (Warner Bros.) Mark Ruffalo in "The Kids Are All Right" (Focus Features) Geoffrey Rush in "The King’s Speech" (The Weinstein Company) Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role Annette Bening in "The Kids Are All Right" (Focus Features) Nicole Kidman in "Rabbit Hole" (Lionsgate) Jennifer Lawrence in "Winter’s Bone" (Roadside Attractions) Natalie Portman in "Black Swan" (Fox Searchlight) Michelle Williams in "Blue Valentine" (The Weinstein Company) Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role Amy Adams...

Thanks for visiting the SpoilerTV Oscar Post for 2011, and joining in the Chat, Red Carpet & Ceremony. The chat is still available below for people wanting to discuss the results.

Live Results of Winners

Winners in Bold

Best Motion Picture of the Year

127 Hours

Black Swan

The Fighter

Inception

The Kids Are All Right

Winner: The King's Speech

The Social Network

Toy Story 3

True Grit

Winter's Bone

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role

Javier Bardem for Biutiful

Jeff Bridges for True Grit

Jesse Eisenberg for The Social Network

Winner: Colin Firth for The King's Speech

James Franco for 127 Hours

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role

Annette Bening for The Kids Are All Right

Nicole Kidman for Rabbit Hole

Jennifer Lawrence for Winter's Bone

Winner: Natalie Portman for Black Swan

Michelle Williams for Blue Valentine

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role

Winner: Christian Bale...

Yesterday – we were too occupied with our Oscar 2011 “predictions.”

Today – we’re here for the real thing!

So, one last check before we start our Oscar chat – are you watching the ceremony? Ok, ok, I know you are, but then, what are you doing here, at Filmofilia? Oh, wait, I know that one, too! You’re watching a live stream right here! Nice decision.

So how does it look? I love these kids singing Katy Perry’s “Firework.” Really great, and that little girl is quite serious when she says that it’s not all about being famous, it’s about feeling special… Man, I love Oscar…sometimes…

Tom Hanks handed the first Oscar to Robert Stromberg and Karen O’Hara for Alice in Wonderland in Best Art Direction Category. It’s the second Oscar in the category for Stromberg, who won last year along with Rick Carter and Kim Sinclair for Avatar.

The night has finally arrived — Oscars. So will Christian Bale finally take home gold? Will The King’s Speech live up to the massive expectations? All are revealed here and now.

The 83rd Academy Awards winners (refresh the page for real-time updates):

Best Supporting Actor

Winner: Christian Bale, The Fighter

John Hawkes, Winter’s Bone

Jeremy Renner, The Town

Mark Ruffalo, The Kids Are All Right

Geoffrey Rush, The King’s Speech

Best Foreign Language Film

Hors la Loi (Outside the Law) (Algeria)

Incendies (Canada)

Winner: In a Better World (Denmark)

Dogtooth (Greece)

Biutiful (Mexico)

Best Original Screenplay

Another Year,...

The 83rd Annual Academy Awards are finally here. Keep this URL handy; we'll be updating the list as each winner is announced.

Best Picture

"The King's Speech" (winner)

"The Social Network"

"Black Swan"

"The Fighter"

"Inception"

"True Grit"

"The Kids Are All Right"

"Winter's Bone"

"Toy Story 3"

"127 Hours"

Best Actor

Colin Firth, "The King's Speech" (winner)

Jesse Eisenberg, "The Social Network"

James Franco, "127 Hours"

Javier Bardem, "Biutiful"

Jeff Bridges, "True Grit"

Best Actress

Natalie Portman, "Black Swan" (winner)

Annette Bening, "The Kids Are All Right"

Nicole Kidman, "Rabbit Hole"

Jennifer Lawrence, "Winter's Bone"

Michelle Williams, "Blue Valentine"

Best Director

Tom Hooper, “The King’s Speech” (winner)

Darren Aronofsky, “Black Swan”

Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, “True Grit”

David O. Russell, “The Fighter”

David Fincher, “The Social Network”

Music (Original Song)

"We Belong Together" from "Toy Story 3" (winner)

"Coming Home" from "Country Strong"

I See the Light" from "Tangled"

"If I...

It’s Oscar time as the 83rd Academy Awards are about to start in Los Angeles and though the whispers on the wind blowing through Hollywood are telling us that these are the most easily predicted Oscars in years I’m still holding out for one or two surprises.

Our man Ian Gilchrist offered his views on the big awards and whatever happens in the event the world and his dog will be liveblogging and twitter is almost certain to groan worryingly under the weight of the #oscar discussion, we’ll be doing our bit and updating this page with the winners as they are announced, but why not join in the fun and head on out to Twittersville and follow along with @heyuguysblog. Seriously, those cool kids? It’s where they are.

So, while the red carpet is cleansed of paparazzi and our attention is drawn inside, keep your...

The 83rd Academy Awards are now over and "The King's Speech" beat out nine other movies for Best Picture. The film went on to also win the Best Actor Oscar for Colin Firth, the Best Director Oscar for Tom Hooper, and the Best Original Screenplay Oscar for David Seidler. Natalie Portman won her first Oscar for playing a neurotic ballerina in "Black Swan." Meanwhile, "The Fighter" actors Christian Bale and Melissa Leo took home the Best Supporting Actor and Actress Oscars. "Toy Story 3" won the Best Animated Film Oscar, and "Inception" cleaned up the awards for Best Cinematography, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing and Visual Effects. Check out the full list of nominees and winners (marked in red) below. Best Picture: * The King's Speech * Black Swan * The Fighter * Inception * The Kids Are All Right * 127 Hours * The Social Network * Toy Story 3 * True Grit * Winter's Bone Directing: * The King's Speech (Tom Hooper) * Black Swan...

After what seems like an eternity, the Oscar race is finally coming to an end. The 2011 Academy Awards are presented tonight on ABC starting at 8Pm Est and hosted by James Franco and Anne Hathaway. We will update the winners live below, bumping up the latest wins to the top of the page. For more commentary follow us on Twitter: @TheFilmStage.

Best Motion Picture of the Year

Black Swan

The Fighter

Inception

The Kids are All Right

The King’s Speech

The Social Network

127 Hours

Toy Story 3

True Grit

Winter’s Bone

Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role

Javier Bardem (Biutiful)

Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network)

Colin Firth (The King’s Speech)

James Franco (127 Hours)

Jeff Bridges (True Grit)

Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role

Annette Bening (The Kids are All Right)

Nicole Kidman (Rabbit Hole)

Jennifer Lawrence (Winter’s Bone)

Natalie Portman (Black Swan)

Michelle Williams...

The complete list of the 83rd Academy Award nominations and winners:

Best Picture

"127 Hours"

"Black Swan"

"Inception"

"The Fighter"

"The Kids Are All Right"

"The King's Speech" -- Winner!

"The Social Network"

"Toy Story 3"

"True Grit"

"Winter's Bone"

Best Actor

Javier Bardem, "Biutiful"

Jeff Bridges, "True Grit"

Jesse Eisenberg, "The Social Network"

Colin Firth, "The King's Speech" -- Winner!

James Franco, "127 Hours"

Best Actress

Annette Bening, "The Kids Are All Right"

Nicole Kidman, "Rabbit Hole"

Jennifer Lawrence,...

Football has the Super Bowl, baseball has the World Series, soccer has the World Cup and movies have the Academy Awards. Each year, Hollywood's schedule more or less culminates with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences handing out Oscars for the year's best films and Sunday, for the 83rd straight time, it happened again. Hosts James Franco [1] and Anne Hathaway [2] helped some of the most famous actors and actresses [3] in the world hand out the hardware for the best of 2010. Leading the pack with twelve total nominations [4] was The King's Speech, followed by True Grit with ten, Inception and The Social Network with eight, The Fighter with seven, 127 Hours with six, Black Swan and Toy Story 3 with five and The Kids Are all Right and Winter's Bone with four. And those just so happen to be the 10 films nominated for Best Picture. Did your favorite film take home an Oscar?...

Thank you for visiting ScottFeinberg.com for live coverage of the 83rd Academy Awards! Keep refreshing your browser for all the latest stats/developments — new updates will push down older updates so that you won’t have to scroll down.

* * *

The show ends movingly — if somewhat randomly — with the Ps-22 Staten Island Chorus performing “Over the Rainbow” as all of the evening’s winners join them on-stage, with many singing along. Franco and Hathaway wind up bringing in the show only 10 minutes late (most years run way over), and although it was far from the funniest or most dramatic production, it wasn’t as bad as some are making it out to be (Roger Ebert just Tweeted that it was “the worst Oscarcast I’ve ever seen!”). Franco seemed like he didn’t want to be there (it must have been brutal trying to prepare for this only on the...

The Oscars: an annual tribute to the excesses that have made Hollywood what it is, a glorified and overdone celebration of all things fantastic in film. Tonight the 83rd annual Academy Awards comes from the Kodak Theater in Hollywood, California, and will be hosted by the tandem of James Franco and Anne Hathaway. During its (roughly) three-hour-long telecast, 24 different winners will be announced as the year's best in all facets of film production.

A few front-runners have emerged come Oscar time this year. The King's Speech leads the pack with 12 nominations, followed by True Grit with 10. Inception and The Social Network also garnered eight nods apiece. The King's Speech is widely perceived to have the momentum leading into tonight's ceremony, believed by most to be a heavy favorite to win Best Picture, among other Oscars. Will another early favorite, such as The Social Network or Inception, regain its impetus and upset The King's Speech?...

'King's Speech' rules the night, with 'The Fighter' and 'The Social Network' also winning big.

By Eric Ditzian

Colin Firth in "The King's Speech"

Photo: Weinstein Company

Here's the full list of winners and nominees for the 83rd Academy Awards.

Best Picture

Winner: "The King's Speech"

"Black Swan"

"The Fighter"

"Inception"

"The Kids Are All Right"

"127 Hours"

"The Social Network"

"Toy Story 3"

"True Grit"

"Winter's Bone"

Check out backstage photos of the big Oscar winners.

Actor in a Leading Role

Winner: Colin Firth in "The King's Speech"

Javier Bardem in "Biutiful"

Jeff Bridges in "True Grit"

Jesse Eisenberg in "The Social Network"

James Franco in "127 Hours"

Actor in a Supporting Role

Winner: Christian Bale in "The Fighter"

John Hawkes in "Winter's Bone"

Jeremy Renner in "The Town"

Mark Ruffalo in "The Kids Are All Right"

Geoffrey Rush in "The King's Speech"

Actress in a Leading Role

Winner: Natalie Portman in...

'King's Speech' rules the night, with 'The Fighter' and 'The Social Network' also winning big.

By Eric Ditzian

Colin Firth in "The King's Speech"

Photo: Weinstein Company

Here's the full list of winners and nominees for the 83rd Academy Awards.

Best Picture

Winner: "The King's Speech"

"Black Swan"

"The Fighter"

"Inception"

"The Kids Are All Right"

"127 Hours"

"The Social Network"

"Toy Story 3"

"True Grit"

"Winter's Bone"

Check out backstage photos of the big Oscar winners.

Actor in a Leading Role

Winner: Colin Firth in "The King's Speech"

Javier Bardem in "Biutiful"

Jeff Bridges in "True Grit"

Jesse Eisenberg in "The Social Network"

James Franco in "127 Hours"

Actor in a Supporting Role

Winner: Christian Bale in "The Fighter"

John Hawkes in "Winter's Bone"

Jeremy Renner in "The Town"

Mark Ruffalo in "The Kids Are All Right"

Geoffrey Rush in "The King's Speech"

Actress in a Leading Role

Winner: Natalie Portman in...

It’s that time of year once again, the crème de la crème of Hollywood are pressing their gowns and tuxedos as we speak in preperation for the 83rd Academy Awards ceremony! We’ll be reporting on the event live right here, updating this post as the night develops. We’ll also be tweeting live too so be sure to follow @FilmShaft on Twitter to be kept up to date with tonight’s festivites!

Below the live update section is the full nomination list for The Oscars 2011, as they are announced they will be highlighted Red and I’ll be providing my feedback in the live update section. So put the wine in the fridge, get the corn popping and get ready for another night of glitz and glamour!

Live Updates

01:22Pm – After frequent attempts to get my wireless up to speed (quite literally) the stream is no longer...

This Sunday night, all of America will convene into our metaphoric “Lady Caves” to watch the 83rd Annual Academy Awards, hosted by James Franco and Anne “No Seriously” Hathaway.. Before we even continue, you should be following BWEtv, Me and Dan on Twitter, as we will be Livetweeting the festivities this Sunday night. The Oscars are looking to shape up to be one of the most predictable Oscars ever!! So predictable, in fact, that our minds have braintraveled over to the offices of PricewaterhouseCoopers and seen the winners list! Kind of like the aliens in Independence Day, only the only resources we’re stealing are Hollywood answers. Here are your winners!! This is like getting the Sports Almanac in Back to the Future II before the games, people. Fill those ballots out now. Actor in a Leading Role * Javier Bardem in “Biutiful” * Jeff Bridges in “True Grit” * Jesse Eisenberg in...

Nitv's Derry O'Brien has confirmed that his company's catalogue is now home to two Oscar nominated shorts including Michael Creagh's 'The Crush' and Ian Barnes' 'Wish 143'. Both shorts will compete this Sunday for an Academy Award in the category of Best Live Action Short. The 83rd Academy Awards winners will be announced on Sunday, February 27th. For a full list of nominees visit www.oscars.org...

A decade ago, Tom Bidwell was a poetry-loving Lancashire teenager facing an uncertain future. This weekend, he could win an Oscar for his short film Wish 143. So how did that happen?

It's 11 years since I first heard from Tom Bidwell's mother. Barbara Bidwell said I might be interested in her son's poems. He was 15 years old, had a cancer in his shoulder the size of an orange, and didn't know what the future held, if anything at all. The poems were funny and bitter, some fizzed with anger, others ached with longing and hurt.

When people think they know,

How you feel deep down inside,

And you say you're not afraid,

When you're really petrified.

When you think there is no heaven,

And feel like you're in hell,

When you can't recall at all

What it feels like to be well.

When everyone has left you,

Except a certain few.

Greetings, all! I've put together what I hope you will find to be a fun quiz. We're doing this the low-tech way. Leave your answers in the comments section, and I'll score them. (If a ludicrous number of people participate, I request that you be extremely patient.)

What's the prize? Your choice between an Oscar-winning DVD (title to be determined) or -- should you be in the La area anytime in the near future -- my treating you to one of the guided tours of the Kodak Theatre, home of the Oscars. (As many times as I've gone past Hollywood and Highland since living in Los Angeles, it would give me an excuse finally to check it out.) Of course, the real prize in these parts is bragging rights, isn't it?

If you have inside knowledge of the Oscar ceremony you are ineligible to compete, unless your name is James Franco or Anne Hathaway,...

So much for the Oscars being predictable.

A year after the David vs. Goliath slugfest between "Avatar" and "The Hurt Locker," this year's theme appears to be Young Hollywood vs. Old Hollywood, with "The Social Network" (the movie that defines a new generation?) battling against "The King's Speech" (the more traditional Oscar crowd-pleaser for the 40-and-over set).

We see some similar contests in the acting races, with Natalie Portman ("Black Swan") against Annette Bening ("The Kids Are All Right") for Best Actress and heavy Best Actor favorite Colin Firth ("King's Speech") likely fending off James Franco ("127 Hours") and Jesse Eisenberg ("The Social Network").

And since you just never know, even in the tightest of races, we've broken down our predictions into three categories (where applicable): Smart Money (the undisputed favorite), Don't be Surprised by (a close second in tight races), and Our Pick (self-explanatory, and occasionally risky).

(Note that,...

You can know a lot about movies and still know very little about the Academy Awards. The Oscars are a specialized skill, sort of like scouting in baseball: you can be the best baseball mind on the planet, but if you can't predict who has the talent and drive to become a great player (or the desire to spend 250 days of the year on the road -- a trait that, admittedly, does not hold up in this analogy), that's not the job for you. I know a lot about baseball and movies, but I wouldn't be a great scout and there's a reason I don't run one of those Oscar all-the-time websites.

But making Oscar predictions is an essential part this job, like creating a top ten list at the end of the year or making fun of Rob Schneider movies. It's not that I don't enjoy it -- I...

Oscar Week kicked off with .Shorts!,. featuring screenings of all the Oscar-nominated films in the Animated and Live Action Short Film categories, plus an onstage discussion with the filmmakers. This popular event began in 1997 and has sold out every year since then. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences screened of all 10 of the Oscar-nominated animated and live-action short films on Tuesday, February 22, 2010 at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. Pictured here prior to the screenings the directors of the animated shorts (left to right): Geefwee Boedoe, “Let’s Pollute,” Bastien Dubois, “Madagascar, Carnet de Voyage,” Shaun Tan, “The Lost Thing,” Teddy Newton, “Day and Night,” Max Lang and Jakob Schuh, “The Gruffalo.

The 2010 Nominees Are: Short Film (Animated) .Day & Night. - Teddy Newton .The Gruffalo. – Jakob Schuh and Max Lang .Let’s Pollute. - Geefwee Boedoe .The Lost Thing. – Shaun Tan and Andrew Ruhemann .Madagascar, carnet de voyage (Madagascar,...

This year's Oscar nominees include three British directors who cut their teeth in TV. So why are American directors still so wary of the small screen?

In the history of cinema, the word "television" has traditionally been used as an insult. Directors or actors who failed to make the expected impact in Hollywood would be whisperingly dismissed as box-fodder. And, in the UK, even though broadcasters such as the BBC and Channel 4 have been a major source of movie funding since the 1980s, it remains a damaging insult for a critic to say that a cinema release has a "made for television" look.

Such attitudes, though, are increasingly challenged by the Oscar nomination lists, and especially by the British talent involved. Strikingly, graduates of two of our leading TV soap operas – EastEnders and Casualty – are packing their tuxedos for the ceremony this Sunday. Although The King's Speech will dominate...

Let’s make predicting the Oscars even more fun: share your predictions for all 24 categories (the nominees are listed below for your reference) in the comments section beneath this post, and whoever scores the highest will be mailed the following assortment of swag from this awards season…

DVDs of the movies “Babies,” “City Island,” and “Solitary Man” “Red,” the graphic novel by Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner that inspired the major motion picture of the same title “The Art of ‘Toy Story 3′,” a book about the making of “Toy Story 3” by Charles Solomon the screenplays of “127 Hours,” “Black Swan,” “The King’s Speech,” and “Toy Story 3” a booklet promoting “Inception” a matted 8×10 photo of the title horse pulling away from the competition in “Secretariat”

Pick one nominee from each category (and remember to provide your email address when prompted so that we know how to contact you if you win)…

Best Picture

“127 Hours” (Fox Searchlight,...

Serious Film's Michael C. back for Part 2 of our trip through the short film categories. This time it's the Live Action nominees. Your cheating yourself out of some Oscar night drama if you don't check out these contenders. This year there is an even a small scale Shakespeare vs. Private Ryan, comedy/drama showdown happening. While the majority of the country is making popcorn I'm going to be on the edge of my seat.

The nominees are...

The Confession – UK, 26 minutes, Dir: Tanel Toom

This is a quietly somber short about a 9-year-old boy who is nervous to make his first confession. What if, he worries, he doesn’t have anything to be sorry about? So he is and his friend decide to pull an innocent prank that will serve the purpose, but things quickly spiral out of control.

For It: Toom shows an impressive control of tone and manages...

Short films can be potent little nuggets of gleeful chaos. It's a crying shame that the short form flick doesn't get enough respect -- it's the gold standard for film schools and festivals, but outside of that, they get virtually no exposure. This year's crop is particularly brutal humor -- the best examples of how you can do a lot with 20 minutes worth of film. Like the best pictures themselves, it's s nice five off of horror, comedy, drama, war, unrequited love and a whole lot of wicked, wicked youngsters. In fact, of the five there's only one that fulfills the requisite hipster black and white clown flipping a pancake piece -- and that's not even that bad. It's a damn fine batch of short films, and it'll be difficult to choose a favorite.

The Confession

For those among us who knelt our way to salvation through the Catholic sacraments,...

Ever apparent in this year’s Oscar Nominated Live Action Shorts selections is that the dominant force in filmmaking (Hollywood) and various governmental entities in the United States have not been providing the structure for young filmmakers to practice and advance their craft. The United States is represented by God of Love, a strong short that I doubt is the best American short film of the year. To be fair, I disclose this list doesn’t represent just new filmmakers; many professional filmmakers receive grants to make short films, particularly in the UK. Perhaps this is why they have two films nominated this year.

Amongst the others are films from Ireland, Belgium (set in Burundi) and the United States. Missing from the equation are the consistently strong shorts from Canada (which are asymmetrically on display at Tiff’s various Short Cuts Canada programs – perhaps with too much support they fall...

It's probably safe to assume that most people aren't thinking about the Academy Awards when they make low-budget short films. But it'd be a mistake to assume that about the director and producer of "Wish 143," the British short now in the running in the Best Live-Action Short category. "We always wanted to aim at the Oscars," director Ian Barnes (left) admitted to TheWrap this week, after coming to Los Angeles for the Nominees Luncheon. "Whether we could get there was a different situation – but it's the number one award...

The Oscar Shorts start at Alamo Ritz on Feb 11th!

You can get tickets for the Animated Shorts Here and the Live-Action Here.

The Oscar’s are coming, we’ve talked about it, we agree with some things, and we’re not having a Red Carpet Bash this year. These are all things we know. What we also know is that it’s hard to win in an Oscar betting pool if you haven’t seen all the things up for an award! We can help with that!

We can’t help with Everything, mind you — we don’t have anything slated for the best foreign film (although our pick, Greece’s Dogtooth, is now on Netflix instant watch) — but we can definitely hook you up with the live-action and animated shorts! These gems are hard to find unless you go to every festival ever for a full year and watch every shorts program.

Every year the Academy Awards recognizes short films giving young as well as established filmmakers a chance to compete for the Best Animated and Live Action short film. Short films have become more widespread in the past decade as shorter form content is in high demand on the web. If you are like me you will be interested in watching clips since these films are usually indicators of who the next big talent in the film industry is.

This year’s nominations include 5 animated shorts and 5 action short films including entries from Walt Disney and the UK’s National Film and Television School.

Short film 2011 Oscar nominations full list

Best animated short film

• Day & Night (Walt Disney), A Pixar Animation Studios Production, Teddy Newton

• The Gruffalo, A Magic Light Pictures Production, Jakob Schuh and Max Lang

• Let’s Pollute, A Geefwee Boedoe Production, Geefwee Boedoe

• The Lost Thing, (Nick Batzias...

The Lost Thing

The Lost Thing is an Australian animated film.  A boy is out searching for additions to his bottle cap collection when he stumbles across the lost thing. The boy befriends the lost thing but he doesn.t understand why no one else is interested in helping it.  He travels far and wide trying to find out to whom to or where the lost thing belongs.  The boy feels sorry for the lost thing but can.t explain why he feels that way.   The artwork is very interesting, reminds me of Salvador Dali.  The film is a coming of age journey for the boy, as he grows older he feels it is becoming more difficult for him to see lost things. The short has won numerous awards.  The Lost Thing will be available for viewing the week of February 11 at the Tivoli Theater.

4 out of 5 stars. The Gruffalo...

Wish 143 deals with an uncomfortable topic.  It is about a 15 year old boy who is dealing with terminal cancer.  The film is about this boy.s wish.  The wish is totally inappropriate according to the granting charity.  What David wants is one hour alone with a naked girl. The twists and turns that he takes with the help of the hospital priest are touching and poignant.  The film is exceptional. The acting is superb.   This UK film was directed by Ian Barnes. It won awards for Best Short Film in the British Independent Film Festival and Best Short Film (Longform) in London Rushes Film Festival and Audience Awards from the Palm Springs Shortsfest 2010. Wish 143 will be available for viewing the week of February 11 at the Tivoli Theater.

5 out of 5 stars...

Let’S Pollute, One of the Animated Nominees

Starting next Friday February 11, we’ll be opening the Academy Award Nominated Short Film Programs. Short films are the place to find some of the most daring ideas and promising talents in film. We get so few chances to see short films in a theatrical context which is why we’re proud to present these shows every year. There are two separate programs: Animated and Live Action. We will alternate the screening times.

Here are the programs:

Best Animated Short Film

Day & Night (D. Teddy Newton for Pixar)

When Day and Night meet, their mutual suspicion and jealousy give rise to an escalating competition.

The Gruffalo (D. Jakob Schuh and Max Lang)

A tiny mouse goes for a walk in the forest and must outwit a fox, an owl, and a snake.

Let’s Pollute (D. Geefwee Boedoe)

The time-honored tradition of...

None of the films listed below has big-name stars or high budgets or running times longer than 40 minutes. But they’ve still got one thing in common with blockbusters like Inception and The Social Network: They’re nominated for the 2011 Academy Awards. You’ll be able to catch them all in the theater when Magnolia releases each category as a feature-length program on Feb. 11. Until then, take a look at the clips below, then head to the comments to let us know which ones you think will take home the gold on Oscar night.

Live Action

God of Love...

The Oscar nominations have been announced and it’s great to see Inception, Toy Story 3, Alice in Wonderland, Harry Potter, How to Train Your Dragon, Iron Man 2, Tangled, Tron, and Wolfman being honored this year. This year’s nominations hit the familiar marks that the sci-fi genre is most associated with in the categories of special effects, art direction, animation, costuming, and make-up.

Inception is the most visibly well-rounded in achievements in film-making and leads the sci-fi/fantasy pack with eight nominations, though director Christopher Nolan was snubbed in the Best Director nominations. Toy Story 3 follows with an impressive five nominations, and both films garnered nominations in the Best Picture category.

Check out the breakdown of the nominations by film, followed by a listing of all nominations by category. [Sci-fi nominees in bold]

Sci-fi / Fantasy Nominations By Picture

“Alice in Wonderland,” a Walt Disney Pictures Production (Walt Disney) (3 nominations)

Art direction...

Casualty director Ian Barnes has said that he is "incredibly pleased and proud" over the news that he is in the running for an Oscar. Earlier this week, Barnes's short film Wish 143 made the list of nominations for this year's Academy Awards, appearing in the 'Live Action Short' category. Barnes worked on Wish 143 back in 2009. The project was filmed in Bristol and tells the story of a young boy who is desperate to come of age before his time runs out. Discussing the moment he heard about his Oscar nod, Barnes recalled: "I was in the middle of a planning meeting for Casualty and we all trooped out to watch the nominations on the internet. When news of the nomination came through, the whole Casualty office went berserk - it was like England had won (more)...

Tom Hooper’s The King’s Speech lead the Oscar nominations this morning with twelve mentions, making the regal drama the film to beat at the 83rd Annual Academy Awards on February 27.

The Coen brothers’ True Grit followed closely with ten nominations and early frontrunner The Social Network finished with eight. “Ten seems like an awful lot,” the Coen brothers said in a joint statement Tuesday. ”We don’t want to take anyone else’s.”

All three were included in the “Best Picture” category, as expected, along with several other awards shoo-ins like The Kids Are All Right and Toy Story 3 (only the third animated film ever in the category). Winter’s Bone was the only surprise in the field of ten, possibly edging out Ben Affleck’s critically-acclaimed The Town or Mark Romanek’s Never Let Me Go, which were both snubbed from the ceremony entirely.

Several surprises...