Academy Awards, 84th Academy Awards | featured news

Meryl Streep isn't the only Hollywood star sitting on nearly three decades of Academy Awards losses. Woody Allen has been nominated nine times in the Best Original Screenplay category since his last Oscar win ("Hannah and Her Sisters" at the 1987 ceremony) and eleven times overall. If you take stock in the Writers Guild Awards, however, Allen may break his streak of futility at next Sunday's 84th annual Academy Awards.

An L.A. Times study of Oscar voters finds that their demographics are much less diverse than the moviegoing public. Academy leaders say they want to diversify. When the names of winners are revealed on Oscar night, months of suspense give way to tears, smiles and speeches.

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.

Jennifer Lawrence will help announce this year's Academy Awards nominees. The 21-year-old actress will join Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Tom Sherak at the nominations announcement on Jan. 24. Lawrence earned her first Oscar nomination last year for "Winter's Bone." She stars in the anticipated adaptation of "The Hunger Games," set for release in March.

'The Artist' gains momentum as critics' and indie groups hand out early citations. As the fall season's first wave of film awards and nominations roll in, the Oscar picture continues to be a murky mass of contenders and question marks.

One day after Eddie Murphy stepped aside as host, the Academy named a replacement with Oscar experience, moving quickly to fill another key role that had been vacated this week.

Brett Ratner is out as producer of the 84th Academy Awards show. It's been a tumultuous several days for Ratner, who, amongst several offenses, used a gay slur when asked a question about filmmaking. The director said that "rehearsing is for fags" in a Q&A session following a screening of his new film, "Tower Heist," at L.A.'s Arclight Cinemas.

France has chosen "La guerre est declaree" ("War is declared") to represent it at next year's Oscars.

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.