Oscar® Performers and TV Show Revamp

James Franco

Anne Hathaway

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the nominated songs will be performed again this year. Bruce Cohen and Don Mischer, the producers of the 83rd Academy Awards® have announced some of the things to expect during Sunday's broadcast.

For instance, did anyone notice they were not performed last year? I did, and I did not like the omission.

Randy Newman will perform his "We Belong Together" from Toy Story 3. Mandy Moore and Zachary Levi, who sang the duet "I See the Light" on the Tangled soundtrack, will re-team with composer Alan Menken. Gwyneth Paltrow will sing "Coming Home," which she sang in Country Strong. The English singer known as Dido, who was nominated with Rollo Armstrong and A.R. Rahman for the song, "If I Rise" from 127 Hours, is not available. Florence Welch from Florence + the Machine will perform with Rahman.

Co-hosts Anne Hathaway, 28, and James Franco, 32,  will make double history at the broadcast. Not only are they two of the youngest hosts at the Oscars, there has never been a male/female duo carry the hosting duties together for the entire broadcast.

There will be no more presenter testimonials to the actors and actresses, and no more movie montages. Good riddance to both.

They are getting a bit cutie. For instance, some of the mothers and Franco's grandmother will tweet on their Twitter accounts during the show. Also, the producers have chosen an elementary school chorus, mostly 10-year-old students from P.S. 22 on Staten Island, N.Y., to sing "Over the Rainbow." Why? I have no earthly idea. We shall see.

The stage set will not be set. It will be projected, capable of constantly changing. This is very new. It should be interesting, but will it prove distracting?

Also, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ President Tom Sherak and Anne Sweeney, President of the Disney/ABC Television Group, announced yesterday that the ABC Television Network’s contract to carry the annual Academy Awards presentations has been extended for six more years, through 2020.

The 83rd Academy Awards, which will air live on Sunday, February 27, will be the 36th consecutive ceremony to air on ABC. Check local listings.

Oscar® Nominations on Internet and Mobile

  

Tomorrow morning, Tuesday, January 25, the 83rd Academy Awards® nominations announcement will be streamed live on the Internet, which will also be available for viewing on mobile devices. As usual, the nominations will be broadcast from the Academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theater.

According to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Web and Mobile cast will begin at 5:30 a.m. PT with “Road to the Oscars®,” featuring Chris Harrison, host of ABC’s The Bachelor and TV Guide Network’s Academy Awards red carpet show. His co-host will be Dave Karger, senior writer at Entertainment Weekly. Livestream.com will facilitate the stream on behalf of the Academy.

Harrison will introduce several brief segments that celebrate the year in movies as well as the upcoming Oscar® ceremony. Karger will join him in a discussion of movie trends from 2010 and how those trends might be reflected in the nominations.

Academy President Tom Sherak and last year’s Supporting Actress winner, Mo’Nique, will then take the stage in the Samuel Goldwyn Theater at 5:38:30 a.m. PT, to reveal the nominees for 10 categories: Leading Actor, Leading Actress, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, Animated Feature Film, Directing, Foreign Language Film, Adapted Screenplay, Original Screenplay and Best Motion Picture.

Immediately following the live announcement, Harrison and Karger will return to discuss interesting facts about the year’s nominees, Academy records that may have been broken, the movies receiving the most nominations and the races that look to be especially compelling.  Additionally, they will be revealing a new piece of information about the Oscar telecast.

In February, “Road to the Oscars” will return exclusively on Oscar.com, the official Web site of the Academy Awards (click title of this post). Harrison will host the 10-episode series, with Karger offering insights about each of the 10 movies nominated for Best Picture.

The January 25 nominations announcement edition of “Road to the Oscars” can be viewed on Oscar.com (click title of this post), Oscars.org, Facebook.com/TheAcademy and Livestream.com/AcademyAwards, as well as on other sites that choose to embed the stream.  The stream will also be enabled for mobile devices.

As usual, numerous television stations and networks will broadcast the 5:38:30 a.m. announcement live. However, the “Road to the Oscars” content before and after the announcement will be available exclusively online and on mobile devices.

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

Three Categories announce Oscar® Race Short Lists

 

The ballots are in for nominations for the 83rd Academy Awards® in the categories for which all Academy members voted. Committees are hard at work choosing the films submitted by certain guilds in the Academy considered having the knowledge to choose those nominees.

 The nominees will be announced live next Tuesday, January 25, 2011, at 5:30 a.m. PT, in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater. Making the announcement will be Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President, Tom Sherak, and Oscar-winning Academy member, actress Mo’Nique.

The committees choosing the nominees for the Best Foreign Language Film of 2010, the Best Special Effects, and Best Makeup have issued their short lists:

Nine Foreign Language Films Continue in Oscar Race

Sixty-six films originally qualified in this category and now there are nine. The films, listed in alphabetical order by country with director, are:

Algeria, Hors la Loi (Outside the Law), Rachid Bouchareb;

Canada, Incendies, Denis Villeneuve,

Denmark, In a Better World, Susanne Bier;

Greece, Dogtooth, Yorgos Lanthimos;

Japan, Confessions, Tetsuya Nakashima;

Mexico, Biutiful, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu;

South Africa, Life, above All, Oliver Schmitz;

Spain, Tambien la Lluvia (Even the Rain), Iciar Bollain;

Sweden, Simple Simon, Andreas Ohman.

Foreign Language Film nominations for 2010 are again being determined in two phases. The Phase I committee, consisting of several hundred Los Angeles-based members, screened the 66 eligible films between mid-October and January 13. The group’s top six choices, augmented by three additional selections voted by the Academy’s Foreign Language Film Award Executive Committee, constitute this shortlist.

In Phase II, this list will be winnowed down to the five nominees by specially invited committees in New York and Los Angeles. They will spend today, January 21, through Sunday, January 23, viewing three films each day and then casting their ballots.

Seven Features Vie in Special Effects (VFX)

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, AMPAS®, for short, announced seven films remain in the running in the Visual Effects category for the 83rd Academy Awards.

The films are listed below in alphabetical order:

Alice in Wonderland

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1

Hereafter

Inception

Iron Man 2

Scott Pilgrim vs the World

Tron: Legacy

All members of the Visual Effects Branch were invited to view 15-minute excerpts from each of the seven shortlisted films on Thursday, January 20. Following the screenings, the members voted to nominate five films for final Oscar consideration. Those five will be announced next Tuesday, January 25.

Seven Advance in Makeup Category

AMPAS has announced that seven films remain in competition in the Makeup category for the 83rd Academy Awards. The films are listed below in alphabetical order:

Alice in Wonderland

Barney’s Version

The Fighter

Jonah Hex

True Grit

The Way Back

The Wolfman

Tomorrow, Saturday, January 22, all members of the Academy’s Makeup Branch will view 10-minute excerpts from each of the seven shortlisted films. Following the screenings, members will vote to nominate three films for final Oscar consideration, and they will be announced with all the nominees on the 25th.

Oscar® Nomination Ballots Due January 14

Voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences must return their completed Oscar® nominations ballots to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) no later than 5 p.m. Friday, January 14. Ballots received after that deadline will not be counted.

 Mo'Nique

The 83rd Academy Awards^® nominations will be announced live Tuesday, January 25, 2011, at 5:30 a.m. PT, in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater, by Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Tom Sherak, and Oscar-winning actress and Academy member, Mo’Nique.

Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2010 will be presented Sunday, February 27, 2011, in the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood and Vine Highland Center^®. The gala will be televised live by the ABC Television Network, and also televised live in more than 200 countries worldwide.

Oscar® Nominees Announced Tomorrow

Nominations for the 82nd Academy Awards® will be announced tomorrow, Tuesday, 2 February, by Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Tom Sherak, and Oscar-nominated actress and Academy member Anne Hathaway.

Sherak and Hathaway will unveil the AMPAS® Oscar® nominations in 10 of the 24 categories at a 5:30 a.m. news conference in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater, Beverly Hills. Hundreds of media representatives from around the world will be gathered there. Nominations information for all categories will be distributed simultaneously to news media in attendance and via the Internet on the official Academy Awards Web site. Click title of this post to link to the site.

Last year, Hathaway received her first Oscar nomination for her leading role in RACHEL GETTING MARRIED. She first came to national attention in the 2006 sleeper hit, THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA, opposite Meryl Streep. Her other film credits include BRIDE WARS, GET SMART, PASSENGERS, BECOMING JANE, BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, and THE PRINCESS DIARIES. She can be seen now in VALENTINE'S DAY, and in the role of the White Queen in Tim Burton’s remake of ALICE in WONDERLAND and, soon in LOVE AND OTHER DRUGS opposite Jake Gyllenhaal.

Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2009 will be presented on Sunday, 7 March, in the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center®, and televised live by the ABC Television Network beginning at 5 p.m. PT. The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 200 countries worldwide.