Oscars, Award Shows | featured news

The Oscars telecast was seen by 40.3 million people, a slight increase over last year's show....

Partial list of the 85th annual Academy Award winners announced Sunday in Los Angeles: 1. Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz, "Django Unchained." 2. Animated Short Film: "Paperman." 3. Animated Feature Film: "Brave." 4. Cinematography: "Life of Pi." 5. Visual Effects: "Life of Pi." 6. Costume: "Anna Karenina." 7. Makeup and Hairstyling: "Les Miserables." 8. Live Action Short Film: "Curfew." 9. Documentary (short subject): "Inocente." 10. Documentary Feature: "Searching for Sugar Man."

You think the Academy Awards are boring? Try the nominations. They only last a few minutes, but it's generally a sleepy academy suit and a sleepy starlet droning a list of names at 5:30 in the morning....

The folks behind Hollywood's glitziest night have imported some help this year - from Broadway....

The producing team that helped to create such musicals as "Chicago" and "Hairspray" is overseeing the next Academy Awards ceremony. Academy management announced Thursday that Craig Zadan and Neil Meron will produce the 85th annual Oscars that will air live Feb. 24 on ABC.

If the Academy Awards hate the best song category so much, why don't they just dump it completely? First, only two songs were nominated, and now Deadline.com is reporting that neither will be performed at the ceremony.

The nominations for the 84th Academy Awards are out and below is the full list. This year, nine films are contending for BEST PICTURE instead of the usual five. Hugo leads all contenders with 11 nominations; The Artist has 10 nominations; Moneyball and War Horse both have 6 noms; The Descendants and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo tie with five noms; The Help and Midnight in Paris have four each.

The rumors became a reality Tuesday: Eddie Murphy will host the 84th Academy Awards, which will be telecast Feb. 26 on ABC, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced.

The film academy has tapped Brett Ratner and Don Mischer (MIS'-sher) to produce next year's Academy Awards. This will be Ratner's first involvement with the Oscar show and Mischer's second: He produced and directed the 2011 Academy Awards telecast and was nominated for an Emmy for his work on the show.

It's a sea change at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.