Win Seats for Oscar Red Carpet, Deadline Sunday

Every year the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gives tickets for bleacher seats along the Red Carpet at the Academy Awards.  The registration for the drawing closes at midnight ET, this Sunday, September 18, 2011. 

Enter for a chance to win a pair of seats along the red carpet at the 84th Academy Awards®, which will be held on February 26, 2012 in Hollywood, California. 

All entrants must be 18 years old or older. For compete information and to register, click the title of this post. Good luck!

You are Invited to Oscar® Gala with an All Access Pass

Get the All Access Pass for the Oscars®

Movie fans, your “All Access” pass for Oscar Night® is now available on Oscar.com (www.oscar.com/all-access), the official online home of the 83rd Academy Awards®.  This new interactive feature will provide an experience to the online audience during the live Oscar® show never before available.

Beginning at 3:30 p.m. PT, 6:30 ET, Sunday, February 27, all Oscar.com visitors will experience Oscar’s red carpet through multiple camera positions capturing celebrity arrivals, glamorous fashions, and press activity.  During the telecast, users may visit the show’s control truck, check out the backstage “Thank You Cam” at which winners continue their acceptance remarks, and watch and listen as the winners take questions from the world’s press in the interview room.

For a premium Oscar Night experience, users may register ($4.99) for additional, exclusive viewing opportunities.  Multiple “360 cams,” a groundbreaking technology that users control with the click/drag functionality of the computer mouse, will be positioned throughout the red carpet, the Kodak Theatre and the Governors Ball, the Academy’s celebration immediately following Academy Awards.

On the red carpet, users will be able to watch Oscar nominees and presenters mixing and mingling as they enjoy the pre-ceremony champagne reception. Inside the Kodak Theatre, viewers will see the presenters’ hair and makeup area, watch the guests interact during commercial breaks and see the Academy’s official winner portrait area.

The access continues at the Governors Ball, where users will be able see Oscar winners arriving at the party and having their statuettes being affixed with nameplates. Designed to be perfect companion to the Oscar telecast, over the course of the evening, “All Access” users will have the ability to choose from more than 24 strategically placed cameras throughout the venue.

iPad, iPhone and iPod touch users can also get their own ultimate insider’s view with the new Oscar Backstage Pass App.  Available for download at the App Store  for $0.99, the Oscar Backstage Pass app includes the same features as “All Access” without the “360 cam” technology. (www.itunes.com/appstore)

Click the title of this post for all the details. 

Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2010 will be presented on Sunday, February 27, 2011, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood and Highland Center®, and televised live by the ABC Television Network beginning at 5 p.m. PT, 8 p.m. ET.  The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 200 countries worldwide.

AMPAS® moves 82nd Oscar® Gala to early March!

Hugh Jackman, second from right, host of 81st awards.


Sid Ganis, president of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, announced yesterday that the 82nd Annual Academy Awards® (Oscars®) presentation gala will be held Sunday, 7 March 2010. Hooray!

As those of you who follow this blog know, I have posted that one of the contributing factors to the steep decline in ratings for the Oscar telecast over the past three years has been the early date. I maintained that March gives more time for the Academy to publicize the event.

Well, this past February, the rating for the 81st Oscar broadcast (2009) on the Walt Disney company's ABC network, was 12.1 in the key demographic group of adults 18-49, and the broadcast attracted 36.3 million viewers overall, up 4.3 million from last year. There was a gain of 13% in that demographic group from last year, which was the lowest since 1992. Last year, a combination of factors, including the writers strike, impacted the ratings.

No doubt the writers strike wounded a number of shows in 2008, and was one cause of the lowest Academy Award gala in at least a decade. The telecast drew about 33% of people watching television, a steep decline from 2007's 42%. For more 81st Oscar ratings analysis, click title of this post.

The ceremony will again take place at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center® in Hollywood, and will be televised live by the ABC Television Network.

Key dates currently scheduled are:

Tuesday, December 1, 2009: Official Screen Credits forms due.
Monday, December 28, 2009: Nominations ballots mailed.
Saturday, January 23, 2010: Nominations polls close 5 p.m., PT.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010: Nominations announced 5:30 a.m., PT, Samuel Goldwyn Theater.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010: Final ballots mailed.
Monday, February 15, 2010: Nominees Luncheon.
Saturday, February 20, 2010: Scientific and Technical Achievement Awards presentation.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010: Final polls close 5 p.m., PT.
Sunday, March 7, 2010: 82nd Annual Academy Awards Presentation.

Will the telecast ratings go up again this year? If so, how much? Sorry. I'm not going out on a limb to answer either question, except to say, "We shall see."

Awards Heat Up and New Festival Season Opens

The 2007 - 2008 movie awards season is now officially in high gear. It will culminate with the Academy Awards® in February. The 2008 film festival season opens tomorrow.

Nominations for movie and television awards have been stepping on each other's toes since November as they compete for media attention. In the meantime, the film festival season has been moving to earlier dates each year like the political nominations. The 2007 festival season closed in December. In California, the Palm Springs International Film Festival kicks off the 2008 season tomorrow, 3 January 2008, followed by the Santa Barbara festival on 24 January.

In between Palm Springs and Cannes in May, there are major festivals, including Sundance, Berlin, Tribeca, and San Francisco. Also, some specialty festivals such as Miami, Hot Docs, South by Southwest (SXSW) and the San Diego Latino festival. I cover them all, and others, on my Film Festivals Page.

The awards galas begin in earnest this month. The oldest active film critics association (begun in 1936), the New York Film Critics Circle (NYFCC) Awards will be presented at the Gala 6 January, in New York City, followed the next day by the Broadcast Film Critics Association (BFCA) - (Critics Choice Awards) at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, Santa Monica, CA (Broadcast live on VH1).

The awards are galloping toward their first international gala, the Golden Globes® scheduled for Sunday, 13 January, Beverly Hilton Hotel, Beverly Hills, broadcast live on NBC, 8:00 p.m., EST. Globes are sponsored by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA). Some say the Globes predict the Oscars®. Not so. They hint. The HFPA members tend to vote for the Hollywood star that is "hot" in looks and / or the gossip columns. The term used by some critics for the HFPA is "star wh _ _ _ s".

Notice that I wrote the Globes, "are scheduled". If you haven't heard, there's a big writer's strike hanging over the awards season this year, but the Oscar® nominations will be announced Tuesday, 22 January, at 5:30 a.m. PT, in the Academy of Motion Picture of Arts and Sciences' Samuel Goldwyn Theater. It remains to be seen if the AMPAS® presentation gala goes forth as planned on Sunday, 24 February. The latest word is that it will go, even if the show is missing some of the frills of recent years. That could be a good thing.

I'm doing my best to follow all this on my Awards Page 2008 and my Film Festivals Page 2008 (links on the right sidebar as well). You will find links for the 2007 pages on my 2008 pages in case you wish to refer back.

Please note that the Awards are listed in the alphabetical order of the organizations giving the awards. Film Festivals are listed in chronological order by date held. Again, I suggest you use your Browser's "Edit" button, scroll down to "Find in this document," click and type a key word such as GOYA or GLOBES, for awards; SUNDANCE or PALM SPRINGS for festivals, etc.

There are new posts as the momentum builds, so I suggest you visit often. You do want to be ready for that Globe and / or Oscar® contest, or your office pools don't you? Good luck!

Since you read this far, here's the skinny on the most-likely best motion picture of the year, which leads where various award nominations and winners have been announced so far: NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN.

Oscar nominations are 22 January. If NO COUNTRY is not on the Academy Awards best picture nominations list, I'll eat this blog.

Oscar® Nomination Ballots

The 80th Academy Awards® nomination ballots are scheduled to be mailed today, and must be returned by 12 January. The nominations for the 80th Academy Awards will be announced Tuesday, 22 January 2008, at 5:30 a.m. PT, in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater on Wilshire Boulevard, Beverly Hills.

Final ballots go out 30 January and are due back by 5:00 p.m., 19 February, less than a week before the Academy Awards ceremony. The 80th Academy Awards gala is 24 February 2008, and will be telecast on ABC TV.

Oscar® Feature Docs Short List

Originally, 70 documentary features qualified for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences'® Best Documentary Feature Film in this year's Oscar race. Under the rules, all were screened by the committees, and 15 films have advanced to the next step - - choosing five for nomination.

Here's the short list with a little extra (Docs with dirctor(s), USA productions and in color, unless noted):

AUTISM: THE MUSICAL - Tricia Regan (Music and autistic children).

BODY OF WAR - Phil Donahue and Ellen Spiro (Wounded vets).

FOR THE BIBLE TELLS ME SO - Daniel G. Karslake (Homosexuality and religion intersect).

LAKE OF FIRE - Tony Kaye (Abortion, B&W).

NANKING - Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman (1938 "Rape of Nanking, China, by Japanese").

NO END IN SIGHT - Charles Ferguson (Iraq - Special Jury Prize, Sundance IFF).

OPERATION HOMECOMING: WRITING THE WARTIME EXPERIENCE - Richard Robbins (Troops in Iraq & Afghanistan - Special Jury Award Florida FF; nominated for IDA* award).

PLEASE VOTE FOR ME - Weijun Chen, South Africa (Election, elementary class style).

THE PRICE OF SUGAR - Bill Haney, USA / D.R. (Exploitation of workers in Dominican Republic - Audience Award, SXSW FF).

A PROMISE TO THE DEAD: THE EXILE JOURNEY OF ARIEL DORFMAN - Peter Raymont, Canada (Memories of exile, longing and democracy in Argentina through the words of author /activist Dorfman).

THE RAPE OF EUROPA - Richard Berge, Bonni Cohen and Nicole Newnham (Chronicles struggle to keep Nazis from destroying centuries of western culture - Audience Award, RiverRun IFF).

SICKO - Michael Moore (Comparing U.S. health system to others - nominated for IDA* award).

TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE - Alex Gibney (Torture in Afghanistan, Gitmo, and Iraq - Best Doc, Chicago IFF; nominated for IDA* award).

WAR/DANCE - Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine (Children in displacement camp compete in Uganda music festival despite war - Directing Award, Sundance IFF; Audience Award, Wisconsin FF; nominated for IDA* award).

WHITE LIGHT/BLACK RAIN - Steven Okazaki (Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the horror they brought to children).

*International Documentary Association Finalist. Gala is 8 December 2007. Also, see my Awards Page.

The 80th Academy Awards nominations will be announced on Tuesday, 22 January 2008, at 5:30 a.m. PT, in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater, Wilshire Boulvard, Beverly Hills, CA. The awards gala is 24 February 2008.

Tribeca Film Festival Opens Tonight

6TH TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL
25 April - 6 May 2007, New York City

Many New Yorkers probably agree that the Tribeca Film Festival, opening tonight, has done wonders for Lower Manhattan, devastated by the attacks on the World Trade Center 9/11/2001, but the Festival has never shown a profit in it's five years. Founded in 2002 by Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal and her husband Craig Hatkoff as a response to the attacks on the World Trade Center, it was conceived to help foster the economic and cultural revitalization of Lower Manhattan through an annual celebration of film, music, and culture with the spirit of independent film as it driving force.

Since the inaugural festival, Lower Manhattan, once covered in rubble and shrouded in loss, has become a thriving cultural and economic center as Tribeca has become one of the largest and, certainly, respected film festivals in the U.S. Unfortunately, the Festival has run about a million-dollar deficit each year since it's opening and, according to Rosenthal, the same is projected for this year. That comes out of the pockets of De Niro, Rosenthal and Hatkoff.

No official figures are available on how much the festival costs, earns or loses because, since its second year, Tribeca has operated under the umbrella of the private, for-profit Tribeca Enterprises (De Niro, Rosenthal and Hatkoff). Some estimate the annual cost is probably about $13 million.

Unlike festivals such as Toronto and Cannes in Canada and France, and Sundance in the U.S., Tribeca gets no city or state funding, not even for free events. This year, ticket prices have jumped 50% to $18.00 each. The Festival probably would receive funds if it became non-profit but, then, the founding trio would lose most, if not all, of the control they now have. How long they can tolerate the loss remains to be seen.

If there are ever any Tribeca Film Festival profits, they will benefit the Tribeca Film Institute, which coordinates programs throughout the year. Currently, the institute runs the Tribeca All Access program, which assists minority filmmakers, and the Tribeca Film Fellows program, for aspiring teen directors.

Former Vice President Al Gore is the opening act at the 6th Tribeca Film Festival tonight, hosting the global warming-themed SOS Short Films Program. The SOS program will features seven shorts. Also featured at the opening, music performances by acts set to appear at the July 7th Live Earth, a worldwide 24-hour concert benefiting Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection.

Tribeca curtain will close May 6 with Antonio Ferrera and Albert Maysles' documentary about the art project that covered Central Park in orange drapes, THE GATES.

Between the opening and the closing, the slate boasts 157 films (down from 174 last year), with 73 world premieres and 28 North American premieres, including Curtis Hanson's romantic drama LUCKY YOU. The movie stars Drew Barrymore and Eric Bana, who are expected to attend. There is the popular Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival, and this year's Ambassador is Billie Jean King.

SPIDER-MAN 3, directed by Sam Raimi, will have its U.S. Premiere at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival, presented by American Express. Opening worldwide 4 May, "SPIDY" 3 (Columbia Pictures) will celebrate the first-ever star-studded gala premiere in Queens, Peter Parker’s hometown. Stars of the film, including Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst, will join a crowd of 3,000 people at the UA Kaufman Astoria 14 in downtown Astoria on Monday, 30 April.

Honorary Oscars® at Gala - Morricone and Lansing

Composer-conductor Ennio Morricone, who has composed more than 300 motion picture scores over a 45-year career, was voted an Honorary Award by the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences last December. The Oscar statuette, was presented at the 79th Academy Awards® Gala, 25 February 2007, by Clint Eastwood for "Morricone's magnificent and multifaceted contributions to the art of film music.” Eastwood translated into English as Morricone read his acceptance speech in Italian.

Morricone has never received an Oscar, although he has earned five Academy Award nominations for original scores, DAYS OF HEAVEN (1978), THE MISSION (1986), THE UNTOUCHABLES (1987), BUGSY (1991) and MALẺNA (2000).

It was fitting for the Oscar presentation was made by Eastwood, long associated with Morricone and director Sergio Leone in the so-called "spagetti westerns." Born in Rome, Morricone was hired in 1964 by Leone and began a long collaboration with him, although Morricone's career has spanned most film genres from comedy and romance to horror.

The bulk of his work has been on Italian films, including THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY; A FISTFULL OF DOLLARS; ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA; and CINEMA PARADISO. Yet, Morricone has composed memorable scores for such international titles as BULWORTH; IN THE LINE OF FIRE; LA CAGE AUX FOLLES; and TWO MULES FOR SISTER SARA. Due for a 2008 release is his current project, LENINGRAD. More about Morricone.

Also, the Board of Governors voted to honor Sherry Lansing, the former chairman of Paramount Communications Motion Picture Group, and first woman to head a major movie studio, with the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. Tom Cruise presented the golden statuette at the gala. The Hersholt Award is given to an individual in the motion picture industry whose humanitarian efforts have brought credit to the industry.

Lansing helped Dr. Armand Hammer form the nonprofit organization Stop Cancer and serves on its board. She is on the board of the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation, founded to honor excellence in basic and clinical science, and is a trustee of the American Association for Cancer Research. In addition, she serves on the Citizens’ Oversight Committee of the California Institute for Stem Cell Research, on the American Red Cross Board of Governors Advisory Committee and is a trustee of the Carter Center, the human rights organization formed by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn. She also serves as a regent of the University of California.

A graduate of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, Lansing got her feet wet in Hollywood as an actress, a career she quickly abandoned for production. She joined Talent Associates as an executive in charge of development in 1974, moving to MGM in 1975. Two years later, she became vice president in charge of production at Columbia Pictures.

She was named president of 20th Century-Fox Productions in 1980, and in 1983 formed Jaffe-Lansing Productions with Stanley Jaffe. After Jaffe was appointed president of Paramount Communications in 1990, Jaffe-Lansing Productions disbanded, and Lansing became chairman of the Motion Picture Group in 1992. Viacom became the parent company of Paramount Communications in 1993 after a hostile takeover fight with Barry Diller.

Under pressure from Viacom's Chief Executive Sumner Redstone, she resigned that position when her contract expired in 2000. While at Paramount, Lansing was responsible for the studio's biggest hit, FORREST GUMP, among others. More about Lansing.