Now that the Academy Awards have extended the best picture category to include ten nominees instead of five, you bet your bottom half we're going to start seeing some pretty bold claims when it comes to fan favorites, like Star Trek, Watchmen and the upcoming Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. With a couple weeks still to go before Half-Blood Prince finally hits theaters, Hollywood.com's Paul Dergarabedian looks to be the first to champion the film for a possible best picture nomination.

Having watched the movie at an advanced screening, he says, "... the Potter loving beast in me has been unleashed after having witnessed a film that was not only exquisite in its production values, but was also charming, funny, scary, enchanting, moving (stop me, the adjectives could go on and on) and dare I say, sexy. Brilliantly directed by David Yates (he directed 2007's "Harry Potter and the Order of The Phoenix"), "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" is a tour-de-force that combines style and substance, special effects and heart and most importantly great performances from all of the actors young and not-so-young. Not only that, half-way through I'm thinking the unthinkable - "ten academy awards nominations are available this year, hmm I wonder...."

Granted, the folks from Hollywood.com could be angling themselves for some Potter quotes in print and in future trailers, but seeing as Lord of the Rings had its time in the Oscar spotlight -- coupled with the fact that Potter is nearing his big-screen finale -- I wouldn't be surprised if Half-Blood Prince nabbed one of those ten spots. You?

In all the hullabaloo over the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' decision to increase the Best Picture Oscar nominees from five to 10 next year, something else has gotten lost in the shuffle: They tinkered with the Best Song category, too. And the new rules mean that there could be a year with no Best Song category at all!

Here's how it works (with thanks to The Hollywood Reporter for some of the details). During the nomination process, the 233 members of the Academy's music branch rate each eligible song on a scale of 1 to 10. The five songs with the top average scores get the actual nomination, with 8.25 as the cutoff. If only three or four songs rate 8.25 or higher, that's all the nominations there are. But the question has always been: What if fewer than three songs get an average score of 8.25? So far, it hasn't come up, although you can see that it almost did last year, when there were only three nominees in the category. That means those were the only three songs that rated 8.25 or higher -- sorry, fans of Bruce Springsteen's "The Wrestler."

The Academy has now answered this loophole very simply. If two or more songs score higher than 8.25, then everything's cool. If only one song scores high enough, then that song and whatever the next highest scorer was will be the two lone nominees (and no one will know which had the lower score, because of course that would influence the voting). And if no songs score above 8.25? Then the category is scrapped that year.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is going to pull a Sir Mix-A-Lot and "Uh! Double up, uh uh!" the Best Picture category next year with ten nominees instead of the usual five. That's twice as many nominations as before, although it seems to only be limited to the Best Picture category, which is a shame because opening up at least the major categories could make things a lot more interesting.

The announcement on Variety today was extremely short, but the Academy has a press release up already stating that they're hearkening back to Oscars roots when the Best Picture category sometimes contained ten films (or more -- 12 in 1934 and 1935), although that hasn't been the case since 1943. Despite the doubling, Academy president Sid Ganis wants to remind you, "The final outcome, of course, will be the same -– one Best Picture winner."

Gee, thanks Sid. For a minute there we thought you'd really just decided to shoot for the moon and feature three Best Picture winners in a publicity stunt. Now how about you guys get to work on the show for next year and get Stephen Colbert to host? That's worth doubling up for.

Which films do you think will now make the cut? Pixar's Up is a definite contender ... what else?

Well, well, well... it appears that May is on the horizon, and with its arrival, we seal the deal on the first third of 2009. Four out of twelve months -- this seems like as good a time as any to evaluate just how the movies have treated us to date. This time last year had stubs piling up for the likes of Cloverfield, 21, and Forgetting Sarah Marshall; what sticks out to you from this current season?

We asked our staff to chime in with some of their favorites, and we want you to name yours. If your pick isn't listed in the below poll, then do feel free to comment below that. Try and keep the titles to those which opened between January 1st and April 30th, though exceptions may understandably be made for those limited releases that took their sweet time leaving New York and Los Angeles for the other 48 states (and beyond!).

What would make your own top ten now? What would you most expect to make it all the way to year-end glory (critically, personally, and/or in terms of awards) by December? Let us know.

One thing about the Academy Awards' Best Foreign Language category that separates it from the acting, screenplay, director, and best picture categories is that in order to vote, Academy members must prove that they have actually seen all five nominees. In a way, this is good: it means there's less politicking and favoritism and more sincere praise for the film that voters actually believe is best. But on the other hand, the Academy members who have time to go to special screenings of the five nominees are liable to be the old, retired ones, and their tastes might not accurately reflect those of the Academy in general.

All of this was relevant this year, when a Japanese film no one had ever heard of, called Departures, won the Oscar when all the forecasts had been for either The Class or Waltz with Bashir (which, not coincidentally, were the only two nominees that had played in the U.S. at that point). The Academy voters had seen all five films. Had they, in their wisdom, chosen the film that truly was best?

The answer is: eh, maybe. Now that Departures is making the festival rounds in advance of its stateside release in May, we're able to see why it appealed to the voters. As it turns out, it's a perfect Oscar choice, a fine film that's gently funny and moving and not the least bit challenging or controversial. It tells its story with elegant simplicity and is aimed at neither the lowest common denominator nor the highbrow art-house crowd. Pleasantly in the middle is where it sits, and it's happy to be there.

Those damned Winter games. Due to the upcoming Winter Olympics, which will run from February 12-28, there's been a little re-jigging of next year's 2010 Oscar schedule. Rather than getting to curl up inside and watch stars frolic and applaud each other during a cold and bleak February, USA Today reports that the 82nd Annual Academy Awards ceremony will take place on March 7.

Academy spokeswoman Leslie Unger says: "It has been in February since then [2004], except for one year, in 2006, where the circumstances were the same as next year, to not coincide with the closing ceremonies of the Winter Olympics." Under this schedule, nomination ballots will hit the mail on December 28, polls will close on January 23, and nominations will be announced on February 2, which will give members an extra week to see the movies.

Does it matter? Would an extra week mean that we might get an Oscar ceremony with more accurate nominations? Doubt it. And maybe they're just passing up a big cross-promotional opportunity -- stars skiing down the slopes to accept awards, skating over ice ... at least it would make up for all the highly congratulatory talk, should it seep into next year's ceremony as well.

Does a March move really matter? Did all the changes this year make you excited for next year, regardless of the date?

The Academy Awards are known for their traditions (among many other things), and this year you may have noticed that some of those traditions were broken. Jack Nicholson wasn't sporting a pair of dark sunglasses and a devilish grin from the front row, Javier Bardem wasn't in attendance to help present the Oscar for best supporting actor and, likewise, Daniel Day-Lewis wasn't there to help present the best actor award. Granted, Oscar's tradition of the prior year's best actor and actress winners (in supporting and lead) presenting the latest award to the opposite sex was ditched in favor of a same sex group thing -- but that still shouldn't have given last year's winners an excuse not to show up. After all, both Marion Cotillard and Tilda Swinton were there.

So where was everyone? The Envelope did a little digging and were informed via a few secret sources that, originally, Jack Nicholson was asked to participate as part of a group for the best supporting actor award (and most likely be the one to speak of Ledger's Joker performance), but ducked out because he only wanted to present alone. Meanwhile, Bardem (who won best supporting actor last year for No Country for Old Men) didn't show because he was suffering from a back injury. Day-Lewis, however, had a much lamer excuse: he was tired. Not only was the best actor winner for There Will Be Blood against the group thing as well, but he was also apparently too tired from work on his new film Nine to show up and present.

Wow, so what's up with this group thing? Sure, I wasn't crazy about it, but it's a little sad when your ego is so big you demand to be on stage alone ... at the Academy Awards, no less. What do you folks think? Do these actors need to get over themselves or do they have every right to present solo?

So every year the Academy Awards does their little In Memoriam montage where they honor those who've passed throughout the year. Queen Latifah sang over the montage for this year's ceremony, which, of course, included lots but excluded a few -- most notably 'The Voice of God' himself, Don LaFontaine, who passed away back in September. LaFontaine, in case you forgot or didn't know, was an actor, producer and writer who provided voiceover for pretty much every trailer ever made (okay not that many, but he is the voice of more than 5,000 movie trailers and hundreds of thousands of television commercials, video game trailers and network promotions).

That's pretty impressive in and of itself, and more than worthy of a mention during the Oscar telecast. But wait, I'll give you one more -- LaFontaine was also the in-show announcer for the Academy Awards! YES! The guy lent his voice to the Academy Awards ceremony every year ... AND THOSE IDIOTS COULDN'T EVEN FIND THE TIME TO HONOR HIM! I haven't had the time to process this entirely since I've been quite busy for the past 24 hours, but this has to be one of their biggest snubs ever. And I don't care if the guy didn't belong to the right club or organization in order to have his work recognized by the Academy -- fact is, his voice helped sell the biggest (and smallest) movies of our time. He is (and always will be) a Hollywood legend. The Academy should be ashamed ... and since they didn't have the time, space or brains to give this guy a shout out -- we will. I will also call on other websites to do the same today.

Don LaFontaine (August 26, 1940 – September 1, 2008)



[via Film Drunk]

In this week's edition of Asian Cinema Scene, we cover the unexpected and the surprising.

Oscar Shocker: One of the few genuine surprises of last night's Oscar telecast was the victory by Japan's Departures (Okuribito) as Best Foreign Language Film. Most observers thought that Israel's Waltz with Bashir or France's The Class would win; the former won the Golden Globe, while the latter picked up the Independent Spirit Award.

Of course, most observers haven't actually seen Departures, which played the Montreal film festival rather than Toronto last fall, and had its US Premiere at the Hawaii Film Festival shortly thereafter. As I reported in January, Regent Releasing acquired distribution rights and announced summer release plans. Regent has already updated the film's official site to reflect the Academy Award victory, but there's no word yet on whether they might push the release up to take advantage of the attention.

Yojiro Takita's film follows a young musician who is forced to take a job preparing corpses for cremation. It's a movie about "finding your bliss, even if the world thinks your bliss is odd, icky and a marriage breaker," as described by Mark Schilling in The Japan Times. Four subtitled clips are available at the official site.

Banned in China: As disheartening as it may be to hear, it's not really surprising that China's censors refused to pass Derek Yee's Shinjuku Incident because it is "too violent," according to the director (as reported by Variety). What is surprising is that the film stars Jackie Chan. The excellent-looking trailer is embedded below.

After the jump: More on Shinjuku Incident.

President Obama watched his first Academy Awards from the White House last night. Following in the footsteps of last week's well-received liveblogging of the President's first foreign trip, a White House New Media intern was invited to liveblog the event from the First Family's private quarters. The post was quickly pulled, but Cinematical obtained a partial transcript.

8:33 p.m.: First Family arrives, takes the best seats. Unidentified staffer: "Great to see a gay man hosting the Oscars." POTUS kindly corrects: "That's Hugh Jack-man, not gay man."

8:47 p.m.: Penelope Cruz wins for Best Supporting Actress. POTUS calls Spain's President Zapatero to express congratulations.

9:07 p.m.: As expected, WALL-E wins Best Animated Feature. POTUS dozes off.

9:25 p.m.: First Daughters begin giggling when vampire from Twilight appears.

9:32 p.m.: Ben Stiller's appearance concerns POTUS. "When did the Night at the Museum guy become Orthodox?"

9:43 p.m.: POTUS and First Lady confer about sending girls to bed during James Franco / Seth Rogen stoner skit.

9:51 p.m.: Hugh Jackman begins another musical number.

9:52 p.m.: POTUS sneaks into kitchen, where the staff is watching the Cleveland Cavaliers crush the Detroit Pistons. Go LeBron!

10:21 p.m.: Final: Cavs 99, Pistons 78.

10:32 p.m.: POTUS amused by Will Smith.

10:46 p.m.: Surprised and delighted by Jerry Lewis' brevity; POTUS figures Congress could learn a thing or two.

10:50 p.m.: POTUS asks, "Where's Springsteen?" Upon being notified that he was not nominated this year, POTUS heads to kitchen to watch SportsCenter during presentation of music awards, returns in time to tap his toes to "Jai Ho."