The Shortlist for Best Foreign Film comes out...

...and here are the finalists for a nomination:

• Argentina, “El Secreto de Sus Ojos,” Juan Jose Campanella, director;
• Australia, “Samson & Delilah,” Warwick Thornton, director;
• Bulgaria, “The World Is Big and Salvation Lurks around the Corner,” Stephan Komandarev, director;
• France, “Un Prophète,” Jacques Audiard, director;
• Germany, “The White Ribbon,” Michael Haneke, director;
• Israel, “Ajami,” Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani, directors;
• Kazakhstan, “Kelin,” Ermek Tursunov, director;
• The Netherlands, “Winter in Wartime,” Martin Koolhoven, director;
• Peru, “The Milk of Sorrow,” Claudia Llosa, director.

-Which 5 do you think will get nominated?

The contenders for the Makeup Oscar narrows...

...to now just these seven:

“District 9”
“Il Divo”
“The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus”
“Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian”
“The Road”
“Star Trek”
“The Young Victoria”

-Soon it will be just three...thoughts on which three it will be?

The BAFTA long list comes out!

And boy, is it ever long. The entire list can be found here, but here's one of the big ones:

Best Film
Avatar
District 9
An Education
Gran Torino
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Invictus
Moon
Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire
The Road
A Serious Man
A Single Man
Star Trek
Up
Up in the Air

-Thoughts on the long list?

7 Features Continue in VFX Oscar® Race

The Academy press release. Please share your thoughts on the likely nominees, winners, and what you think of the shortlist overall.

7 Features Continue in VFX Oscar^® Race

Beverly Hills, CA (January 6, 2010) — The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced that seven films remain in the running in the Visual Effects category for the 82nd Academy Awards^®.

The films are listed below in alphabetical order:

• “Avatar”
• “District 9”
• “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”
• “Star Trek”
• “Terminator Salvation”
• “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen”
• “2012”

On Thursday, January 21, all members of the Academy’s Visual Effects Branch will be invited to view 15-minute excerpts from each of the seven shortlisted films. Following the screenings, the members will vote to nominate three films for final Oscar consideration.

The 82nd Academy Awards nominations will be announced on Tuesday, February 2, 2010, at 5:30 a.m. PT in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater.

Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2009 will be presented on Sunday, March 7, 2010, 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.

The scores for Crazy Heart, The Lovely Bones, and Where the Wild Things Are turn out not to be eligible?

Apparently so, according to this article here. Read the whole article to find out what eligible scores are left, but here's part of the article:

As usual, several prominent scores have failed to qualify for or opted out of the original-score Oscar, with this year’s victims including Brian Eno, Karen O and T Bone Burnett.

Others whose music is ineligible include Carter Burwell, Erran Baron Cohen and moonlighting actor Jason Schwartzman.

Eno’s score for “The Lovely Bones,” a haunting and effective use of the composer’s music both new and old, was not submitted to the Academy for consideration. Neither was Burnett's and Stephen Bruton's score to "Crazy Heart," which had been singled out by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association.

Yeah Yeah Yeah’s frontwoman Karen O, and Burwell, who co-wrote the music for “Where the Wild Things Are,” both submitted their work to the Academy but were disqualified by the music branch.

Eno’s music to “The Lovely Bones,” which incorporates several older compositions by the pioneering rock and ambient musician (right), is ineligible by the composer’s own choice. According to a spokesperson for the film, Eno simply felt that he didn’t have time to submit the required paperwork and submit to the type of publicity campaign necessary. (Eno photo by Sergio Dionisio/Getty Images)

The scores to both “Where the Wild Things Are” and “Crazy Heart” make substantial use of music from songs that were written for the films. (Two songs from each film are eligible in the best original song category.)

Fox Searchlight did not include the "Crazy Heart" score in its “for your consideration” listing on the film’s screeners. Paramount and Warner Bros., however, did suggest nominations in the category on the "Lovely Bones" and “Wild Things” screeners, respectively.

In addition to “Wild Things” and “The Lovely Bones,” other ineligible scores that had been the subject of ads or FYC screener listings include “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” (Nicholas Hooper), “The Blind Side” (Carter Burwell again), “Precious” (Mario Grigorov), “Bruno” (Erran Baron Cohen) and “Funny People” (Michael Andrews and Jason Schwartzman).

Overall, only 81 film scores qualified, giving the category by far the smallest field among the 15 categories for which ballots went out last week. By comparison, 274 films qualified for best picture, best film editing, best cinematography and the two sound categories.

-Thoughts on the state of the Original Score race?

The Academy settles on 63 songs to duke it out for the Best Original Song nominations!

Some expected contenders were left out (the song from Precious, as well as additional songs from Crazy Heart and The Princess and the Frog), but overall, they sure have a varied list to choose from. Here they are:

• “All Is Love” from “Where the Wild Things Are”
• “Almost Over You” from “My One and Only”
• “Almost There” from “The Princess and the Frog”
• “AyAyAyAy” from “The Maid”
• “Back to Tennessee” from “Hannah Montana The Movie”
• “Being Bad” from “Duplicity”
• “Blanco” from “Fast & Furious”
• “Brothers in Arms” from “Brothers at War”
• “Butterfly Fly Away” from “Hannah Montana The Movie”
• “Cinema Italiano” from “Nine”
• “Colorblind” from “Invictus”
• “Depression Era” from “That Evening Sun”
• “Don’t Walk Away” from “Hannah Montana The Movie”
• “Dove of Peace” from “Bruno”
• “Down in New Orleans” from “The Princess and the Frog”
• “Fly Farm Blues” from “It Might Get Loud”
• “Forget Me” from “I Love You, Beth Cooper”
• “God Bless Us Everyone” from “Disney’s A Christmas Carol”
• “Here” from “Shrink”
• “Hideaway” from “Where the Wild Things Are”
• “Hoedown Throwdown” from “Hannah Montana The Movie”
• “I Bring What I Love” from “Youssou N’Dour: I Bring What I Love”
• “I See You” from “Avatar”
• “(I Want to) Come Home” from “Everybody’s Fine”
• “If You’re Wondering” from “The Lightkeepers”
• “Impossible Fantasy” from “Adventures of Power”
• “Innocent Child” from “Skin”
• “Invictus 9,000 Days” from “Invictus”
• “Legendary” from “Tyson”
• “Let Freedom Reign” from “Skin”
• “Loin de Paname” from “Paris 36”
• “Ma Belle Evangeline” from “The Princess and the Frog”
• “My One and Only” from “My One and Only”
• “Na Na” from “Couples Retreat”
• “Never Knew I Needed” from “The Princess and the Frog”
• “New Divide” from “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen”
• “New Jersey Nights” from “Adventures of Power”
• “New York Is Where I Live” from “Did You Hear about the Morgans?”
• “No Time for Love” from “Simon & Malou”
• “One Day” from “Post Grad”
• “Only You” from “The Young Victoria”
• “Other Father Song” from “Coraline”
• “Petey’s Song” from “Fantastic Mr. Fox”
• “Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea” from “Ponyo”“
• Possibility” from “The Twilight Saga: New Moon”
• “Raining Sunshine” from “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs”
• “Running Out of Empty (Make Ourselves at Home)” from “Lymelife”
• “Smoke without Fire” from “An Education”
• “Somebody Else” from “Crazy Heart”
• “Stu’s Song” from “The Hangover”
• “Take It All” from “Nine”
• “Through the Trees” from “Jennifer’s Body”
• “Trust Me” from “The Informant!”
• “Un Bouquet des Violettes” from “New York, I Love You”
• “We Are the Children of the World” from “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus”
• “We Love Violence” from “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus”
• “The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)” from “Crazy Heart”
• “When You Find Me” from “Adam”
• “Winter” from “Brothers”
• “The Word Is Love” from “Oy Vey! My Son Is Gay!”
• “You Got Me Wrapped around Your Little Finger” from “An Education”
• “You’ll Always Find Your Way Back Home” from “Hannah Montana The Movie”
• “You’ve Been a Friend to Me” from “Old Dogs”

-Thoughts on which songs have the best chances?

Curious who the contenders are for the Visual Effects Oscar?

Wonder no more:

“Angels & Demons”
“Avatar”
“Coraline”
“Disney’s A Christmas Carol”
“District 9”
“G-Force”
“G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra”
“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”
“Sherlock Holmes”
“Star Trek”
“Terminator Salvation”
“Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen”
“2012”
“Watchmen”
“Where the Wild Things Are”

-Which do you think will end up with the nominations?

Behold the 69 Foreign Films contending for a Golden Globe nomination!

The full list can be found here, but it's essentially similar to the Oscar shortlist, just, well...with more films. The Hollywood Foreign Press tend to be a little more lenient with things, so more movies are eligible.
-Thoughts on the films the HFPA shortlisted?

The 10 Live Action Short Films in contention for nominations at the Oscars are announced!

Sorry this didn't go up yesterday, but I was traveling most of the day. Without further excuses by me, here they are:

• “The Door,” Juanita Wilson, director, and James Flynn, producer (Octagon Films Ltd.)
• “The Ground Beneath,” Rene Hernandez, director, and Kristina Ceyton, producer (Passion Pictures)
• “Hotel,” Tim Conrad, director-producer (Oyster Films)
• “Instead of Abracadabra,” Patrik Eklund, director, and Mathias Fjellstrom, producer (Direktorn & Fabrikorn)
• “Kavi,” Gregg Helvey, director-producer (Gregg Helvey)
• “Miracle Fish,” Luke Doolan, director, and Drew Bailey, producer (Druid Films)
• “The New Tenants,” Joachim Back, director, and Tivi Magnusson, producer (Park Pictures)
• “The Response,” Adam Rodgers, director, and Sig Libowitz, producer (Look at the Moon Productions)
• “Short Term 12,” Destin Daniel Cretton, director-producer, and Michelle Steffes, producer (Destin Cretton)
• “Sidney Turtlebaum,” Tristram Shapeero, director, and Daniel Jewel, producer (Third Man Films Limited)

-Thoughts?