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The Oscars On The Inside In A Daily TwitPic From 'Toy Story 3' Director Lee Unkrich

Posted 3/8/10 9:00 am EST by in Daily TwitPic, Oscars

The 82nd Annual Academy Awards happened last night. Let's not make a big thing of it. Wait... you want to? Oh all right. GO "THE HURT LOCKER"!!!! YOU RAWK, KATHRYN BIGELOW!!!!

Better? In all seriousness, it was a solid awards show. There were relatively few surprises, and those few were all welcome (like "Hurt Locker" taking Best Picture AND Director over "Avatar"). The new format mostly worked. Canning the musical numbers left a lot more time for lengthy clips and classy presentations, like the previous collaborator-presenting-nominee format for the Best Actor/Actress categories.

Of course, the real bummer about watching a show like this on TV is not actually being there. It's great to see the winners in hi-def closeups as they deliver their acceptance speeches, but actually feeling the energy in the room takes things to a whole new level. Luckily, "Toy Story 3" director and Twitter-lover Lee Unkrich came prepared with a camera. And he snapped a pic of his seated view of the stage, which wasn't half-bad considering he wasn't actually nominated for anything. You can see for yourself after the jump. Read More...

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Ben Stiller Bonds With The Na'vi For 'Avatar' Oscar Moment

Posted 3/7/10 11:51 pm EST by in Oscars, Video

Leave it to Ben Stiller to breath some legitimate humor into the normally dry award presentations. Trotting out to dole out honors for the Best Makeup category, the erstwhile sketch comedian took a page from James Cameron's "Avatar" and trotted out in full Na'vi regalia. Clad in blue make-up, yellow contact lenses and a very long tail, Stiller rattled off a string of incomprehensible alien sounds, and then admitted to the audience that the idea sounded better in rehearsal.

So without further ado...

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James Cameron And Kathryn Bigelow Oscar Rivalry Is Just One Of Many Feuds Between Famous Former Flames

Posted 3/4/10 3:00 pm EST by in Oscars

While vengeful grudges are more often seen in Hollywood's fictional output, there is the occasional awkward scrap between the industry's creative minds — and it only gets more awkward when former flames are involved.

At this year's Academy Awards, filmmakers James Cameron and Kathryn Bigelow will go head-to-head in the Best Director category. It's a tight showdown between two deserving nominees to be sure, but it's made all the more interesting by the fact that Cameron and Bigelow were once married to one another.

They're hardly the first celebrity couple to have competed directly with one another following a separation, however. After the jump, we've listed some other famous couples that have professionally squared off following a break up. Read More...

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Thank-You Cam Be Damned: 'Avatar' Producer Plans to Top His Infamous Oscar Speech

Posted 2/17/10 3:00 pm EST by in News, Oscars

As you may have heard, Oscar is planning a new technique this year to streamline the annual awards show: stars are encouraged to give the TV cameras their excitement and “You like me! You really like me!” A-list material, but are supposed to save their name-dropping thank-you’s for a behind-the-scenes webcam. Well, one of this year’s sure-to-be-big-winners is “Avatar,” and when producer Jon Landau stopped by our studio recently, he couldn’t help but get a laugh out of the fact that he was one of those bad apples who had created the need for a “thank-you cam.” (Editor's note: It should be mentioned that our Landau interview came before the change in procedure was announced.)

America, meet the man responsible for this year’s lack of thank-you’s. Read More...

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Oscar Nominees Asked To Prepare Two Acceptance Speeches For The Academy Awards

Posted 2/16/10 12:30 pm EST by in Commentary, News, Oscars

If you think the Academy Awards should be more entertaining and less introspective, the producers of this year's Oscars telecast have made another favorable change to the big show. Fearing that viewers at home tune out during lengthy acceptance speeches with numerous thank yous, with winners sounding off on professional and personal names that few of us know or care about, the nominees have been asked to prepare something more ratings friendly.

Basically the winners will be allowed 45 seconds with which to tell the world what the award means to them. As for shout-outs to agents and parents (and spouses if they're remembered), there will be a separate forum for such gratitude backstage via a "Thank You Cam." These videos will be available online afterward for anyone to see, rather than aired during the television broadcast of the ceremony. Read More...

'Precious' Director Lee Daniels Describes His 'Crazy' Oscar Nomination Morning

Posted 2/3/10 11:30 am EST by in News, Oscars

FROM MTV.COM: Lee Daniels' "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire" has already received a slew of awards love, from film festivals and the Golden Globes to the Screen Actors Guild and the Independent Spirits. Its string of praise stretches back over a year, to when the film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, winning both the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award.

But none of that acclaim makes the morning of Oscar nominations any easier, as Daniels told MTV News just hours after the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences made its 2010 selections.

Continue reading Lee Daniels Calls 'Precious' Oscar Nominations 'Out-Of-Body Crazy'

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Weighing The Larger Academy Awards Best Picture Category With Kurt Loder

Posted 2/3/10 10:30 am EST by in Oscars

FROM MTV.COM: As per tradition, Oscar nominations were announced Tuesday (February 2) in a crack-of-dawn ceremony met with plenty of excitement. You may have noticed, however, that this year's Best Picture category felt a bit more ... well, crowded.

Ever since the Oscars announced last July that they'd be breaking with tradition and allowing twice as many movies to earn nominations, people have had heated opinions about the move. Of course, Tuesday's marathon announcement has reopened that golden can of worms.

Continue reading Oscar Best Picture Nominations: Is 10 Better Than Five?

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2010 Oscar Nominees Have Been Named And The List Is Here!

Posted 2/2/10 10:30 am EST by in News, Oscars

FROM MTV.COM: The 2010 Oscar nominations are in! "Avatar" and "The Hurt Locker" are the two leaders, each with nine nominations, including the big ones for Best Picture and Best Director. "Up" and "District 9" are among some of the surprises in the newly expanded Best Picture category, which now features 10 nominees. Expect to see plenty of opining in the days and weeks leading up to the March 7 awards show. But for now, here's your list of nominees!

Best Picture
"Avatar"
"The Blind Side"
"District 9"
"An Education"
"The Hurt Locker"
"Inglourious Basterds"
"Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire"
"A Serious Man"
"Up"
"Up in the Air"

Continue reading Oscar Nominations 2010: The List Is In!

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Telling The Difference Between 'Where the Wild Things Are' And 'Wild Things'

Posted 10/16/09 11:00 am EST by in Humor, Oscars

Entertainment, like life, can be pretty confusing. Marketing, whether it be televised commercials, print ads and posters, or viral campaigns, is so pervasive that a movie's basic premise and characters can be overwhelmingly familiar long before you even see the movie in question. Hell, one time I watched thirty minutes of "The Fisher King" thinking it was "Mrs. Doubtfire" before I realized that Robin Williams was playing a crazy drifter, not a cross-dressing divorcee. You can see how that would be an easy mistake to make, right?

This week, we're all excited. "Where the Wild Things Are", the Spike Jonze-directed live-action riff on the beloved children's book by Maurice Sendak, is finally hitting theaters. Finally! Let's not lose our heads though. Let's not let our excitement for "Where the Wild Things Are" lead us into watching other movies that we might easily confuse it with. For example, we must be especially wary of the late '90s mystery/thriller "Wild Things." Here's an easy guide to prevent media-induced dementia from directing you to the wrong movie. Read More...

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'The Matrix' To 'The Dark Knight': Oscar Best Picture Near-Misses Of The Past Decade

Posted 6/25/09 4:30 pm EST by in Commentary, Oscars

OscarsYesterday, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that the Best Picture category centerpiece at the yearly Oscar awards show will be expanded to include 10 nominees. We MTV Movies Team staffers were not amused.

In the wake of the announcement, many accusations surfaced that this move is nothing more than a ratings ploy. For many, the allegations spring from the fact that "The Dark Knight" -- a universally regarded hit and currently the fourth-highest grossing film of all time -- was snubbed for a Best Pic nomination. That got me thinking about all of the other incredible films which have fallen victim to Oscar politics over the years... Read More...

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