Well, well. Here's some welcome news. After this year's much balleyhooed disaster with the Best Foreign Film Oscar noms -- recap: lauded Romanian Cannes winner 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days somehow didn't even make it onto the Oscar shortlist -- The Envelope's Mark Olsen reports that a rule change has been voted in for next year's event. Now, I don't like to get too worked up about the Oscars -- it's such an insidery, backpatting schmoozefest of the "You're great!" "No, you're great!" variety -- but last year's foreign noms really pissed me off.

I wasn't as enarmored of 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days as many of my fellow critics were, but even so, it's a masterful, tensely drawn piece of filmmaking, it won the Palme d'or and gave critics worldwide a collective cinematic orgasm, and it damn sure deserved not just to be shortlisted, but to make the final cut of nominees. That it wasn't nominated was a travesty, and confirmed the ongoing suspicion of many in the film community that many of the people in the Academy who are charged with making decisions around foreign film noms are a pack of drooling idiots.

I guess we won't be seeing the first female President of the United States in 2009, but we could at least see the first female cinematographer nominated for an Academy Award (in the cinematography category, that is). In the 80 years of the Oscars there hasn't been one female nominee for Best Cinematography. Shocking, isn't it? But fortunately there's a chance for next year's ceremony: Mandy Walker, who shot Baz Luhrman's war epic Australia, could be a shoo-in for one of the five nomination slots if the film is Oscar-worthy in general.

The Oscar blog In Contention points out the possibility in a recent post celebrating Walker's reception Tuesday evening of the Kodak Vision Award at the Women in Film's Crystal + Lucy Awards (other honorees included Salma Hayek, Sherry Lansing, Ginnifer Goodwin, Jeffrey Katzenberg and Diane English and the ensemble of The Women). Clearly we only need to look at the trailer to see that Walker's work on the film is gorgeous and might have a shot. In Contention also notes Walker's previous achievements, such as her Independent Spirit Award nomination for Shattered Glass.

Cinematical was just handed this exclusive clip from the film Mongol, which finally arrives in theaters in limited release on June 6 after being nominated for a Best Foreign Language Oscar. Mongol comes from the award-winning Russian filmmaker Sergei Bodrov (Prisoner of the Mountains), and it follows the early years of Genghis Khan -- before he took on that name, through his perilous childhood to the battle that sealed his destiny. Cinematical's Eric D. Snider reviewed the film when it played the Portland Film Festival, and said: "The battle scenes, in particular, are thrilling and visceral without being too nauseating, and Japanese actor Tadanobu Asano's performance as Temudjin has the stoicism and dedication you need for an effective biopic hero." I think it goes without saying that we all love a film with a few good battles in it, and Mongol looks to give us just that ... and then some. Check out the clip above, then the poster, then get your asses to the theater when it arrives on June 6.

Darned politics! It's always getting in the way of our entertainment. This year, there were Oscar worries due to the writers strike. Next year, there is going to be some presidential interference. Unless you've been living on a remote island under a rock, by now you should have caught on that there's a presidential race a-brewing to figure out who is going to replace Dubya in the White House. Whatever person gets picked will have their inauguration on January 20, 2008.

That's the day that the 81st Annual Academy Award nominees were going to be announced, like they are every year, on a Tuesday in mid-January. To completely avoid a showdown, The Hollywood Reporter posts that the Academy will ignore tradition next year and announce the nominees two days later -- Thursday, January 22 at 5:30 am, PST.

So, the Oscar schedule for next year is as follows:

December 1 - Credit forms are due.
December 26 - Nomination ballots are mailed.
January 12 - Ballots are due back.
January 22 - Nominees are announced.
January 28 - Final ballots mailed.
February 2 - Annual nominees luncheon.
February 7 - Scientific and tech achievement awards given.
February 17 - Final ballots due.
February 22 - Fancy-garbed actors and notables flock to the Kodak Theatre for the awards.

Thanks to the local ABC affiliate in Buffalo, NY, we now have a great quote to put on the DVD box of No Country for Old Men: "The guy with no expression who keeps blowing up everything." There it is! That's the best movie of the year in a nutshell. Anyway, in case you haven't seen this yet, a technical snafu up in Buffalo accidentally turned on the newsroom mics in the middle of the Oscar broadcast -- right as they were announcing the best director award for Joel and Ethan Coen. Watch the video above, and listen to the part where the feed cuts out and these folks start talking about the film. One guy goes, "I don't believe in this Oscar bullsh*t, but this was the best movie of the year." Then the female news anchor goes, "What's it about?" And I swear it sounds like someone responds to her question with an answer that goes something like, "It's men. It's about old men." No idea. But it's definitely one of the funnier Oscar goof-ups I've seen in some time. My vote is for the Buffalo news team to host the awards next year.

Here's more on the story, including the names of those involved, from the local Buffalo press.

[via Defamer]

The other day, Erik asked you for your ideas on new Oscar categories to shake things up a bit. I don't think it's Jon Stewart's fault the Oscar's tanked, but will he be asked back next year? I'm betting not, but who knows? Meanwhile, Cinematical's Chris Campbell, who also writes for Spoutblog.com with former Cine EIC Karina Longworth, has some excellent ideas for ways to boost the Oscar ratings.

My favorite among his suggestions is the Gary Busey Red Carpet. Hell yeah! Get rid of Regis, who's about as boring as watching bread get moldy, and bring on the Busey action. He can show up drunk with his fly open, and attack all the talent as they make their walk up the red carpet. It'll be almost like adding a sporting event to the Oscars -- duck and run from Gary Busey before he attacks your neck!

Poor Jennifer Garner would probably have to bring an entourage of everyone who's f*cking her husband, Ben Affleck, to be her body shield against further Busey attacks. For added fun, Busey can bring along his son Jake, who can also get drunk and talk loudly to everyone within ear range about how he's Gary Busey's son. The two of them could become a regular Oscar team like Melissa and Joan Rivers ... only drunker and with less cleavage and plastic surgery.

For more of Chris's ideas, including what Diablo Cody should have really done on that stage, go read the full piece.

Well, that didn't take long. Only two days after the gal took home a best original screenplay Oscar, nude photos of stripper-turned-screenwriter Diablo Cody have surfaced online, courtesy of Egotastic. Most of the photos look a tad old, and they definitely shouldn't take anything away from her win (I'm sure the gal is used to being seen without any clothes on), but it does mean we're not exactly ready to stop talking about this rather amusing success story. The images show Cody in some pretty revealing outfits, and in one photo she's actually rocking the whip cream bikini top. Groovy. Then there's a few others of the girl swinging from a stripper pole in what appears to be her own house. Why don't I have one of those yet in my living room? Oh yeah, I'm not hot.

Personally, I couldn't help but snicker when this girl walked up onto the Oscar stage in a leopard-print dress and a "Jonny's Girl" tattoo. I suddenly felt like it was New Year's Eve at a dive bar in Jersey. What's interesting about that particular tattoo is that, according to reports (including Wiki), Cody divorced her husband (aka Jonny) in late 2007. So fellas -- anyone interested in a former stripper-turned-Oscar winner with a tattoo dedicated to her former husband on her arm? Don't all raise your hands at the same time. Nevertheless, we here at Cinematical dig Cody (her body, her tat and her script for Juno) and we wish her nothing but luck going forward.

Even though we're all having a good time geeking out over last night's Oscars telecast, the actual show turned out to be a ratings nightmare. According to preliminary ratings from Nielson, the 80th Academy Awards came in 14 percent lower than the least-watched ceremony ever! And 21 percent lower than last year! Damn, looks like at least one record was set last night. So what's the problem? Is it that a majority of the public haven't seen the nominated movies? Is it because the show is too long? Is it because the categories aren't flashy enough?

After they announced the second sound-related award last night, I turned to my friend and noted that they could've easily replaced one of these sound categories with something a little more fan-friendly. Or even if they want to stick with what they have, perhaps more people will watch if they have more say in how the awards show plays out. So in the spirit of brainstorming, what would be a good category to add to future Oscar telecasts? Best fanboy film? Best comedy? Or how about a viewer's choice award? Would something like asking, ya know, actual paying moviegoers which film they liked the best take away from the epic-like ceremony?

What can Oscar do to turn this sucker around? (And no, having Miley Ray Cyrus announce every award is not a good solution.) Sound off below ...

A lot of people will be talking about Marion Cotillard today, whose teary-eyed acceptance speech was just beyond cute. But I feel the night's greatest moment came in two parts -- first when Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova performed Falling Slowly (from the movie Once) on stage, and then when both accepted the Oscar for best song. In a very cool moment, Irglova was cut off at the mic before she could thank anyone, and so after the commercial break Jon Stewart brought her back on stage to finish what she was about to say.

Talk about two kids who deserved a break. This song, from a film that was made for roughly $100,000, beat out Disney and their -- what? -- 13 Enchanted nominations. Was it me, or did each of those Enchanted songs sound exactly the same? This time, however, the Oscar went to the little guy (and girl). You could totally tell that there was a ton of love behind that song -- and even though it was obvious Hansard and Irglova were nervous at the beginning, they finished it off in spectacular fashion. Above, check out their performance at the Oscars, then head after the jump to see both acceptance speeches.

Well here we are. The Oscars are only a few hours away. I was up early this morning ironing the pajamas I'm going to wear tonight while I, along with Kim Voynar and Scott Weinberg, live blog the hell out of the Oscars ceremony. In case you don't know, Kim will be up first live blogging the red carpet at 6pm EST, then each of us will be up front and center for each hour of the broadcast. We always have a ton of fun doing this, so make sure you stop by and say hello.

In the meantime, there's a slew of Oscar-related goodies to feast on. First up, Film School Rejects assembled a list of Oscar picks from across the web -- including predictions from Cinematical, Coming Soon, First Showing, IESB, Latino Review, The Movie Blog, Double Viking and Bullz-Eye. So to see how your picks stack up against those from around the web, head on over here.

Once you're done there, definitely skip over to our Oscars hub. In it, we've included our reviews for practically every nominated film, as well as all of our wacky Oscar predictions, images, polls, the works. Then, since it's only a hop, skip and a jump away, you should definitely check out Moviefone's Oscars Hub. They went all out this year, with a ton of fun galleries, polls -- heck, if it was a topic that could be written about, it's there.

So make sure you keep it tuned right here to Cinematical for the ceremony. We'll be live blogging and updating the winners in real time; it'll almost feel like you're at the actual ceremony ... except more funner!