Last year we brought you the word when the Saturn Award nominations were announced, so it only makes sense that I'd do it again this year. I'm consistent that way. For those who are unfamiliar, The 34th Annual Saturn Awards are handed out by the "Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films, a non-profit organization devoted to honoring, recognizing and promoting genre entertainment." Sounds good to me! Not that I agree with all of their "best of" picks, but I do love it when an organization takes genre flicks seriously. So let's see what the Genre Academy liked the best...

Best Science Fiction Film

Cloverfield
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
I Am Legend
The Last Mimzy
Sunshine
Transformers

(OK, so they nominated Transformers for best science fiction film of the year; count how many additional nominations it received.)

Best Fantasy Film

Enchanted
The Golden Compass
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
Spider-Man 3
Stardust

(Pretty loose interpretation of the word "fantasy," if you ask me.)

The nominees for the 2007 MTV Movie Awards were announced today, and they're a predictably colorful lot indeed. As is always the case, you can cast your very own vote and then sit down to root for your favorites on June 3, when the presentation will be broadcast LIVE with Sarah Silverman as your host. Whew, I sounded like a press release there for a minute. Let's dig through the nominees...

Best Movie: 300, Borat, Blades of Glory, Little Miss Sunshine, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

Wow, Blades of Glory? Really? I mean, even among hardcore Ferrell-heads I doubt it's considered one of his best movies. Also, I know several young people who definitely fall within MTV's most coveted demographic ... and they've pretty much all seen (and adored) The Departed. (To say nothing of Pan's Labyrinth.) As much as I love MTV's willingness to throw a lot of love towards the "popcorn" movies, I don't think they need to dumb it down quite this much.

Best Villain: Bill Nighy in Pirates 2, Jack Nicholson in The Departed, Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada, Rodrigo Santoro in 300, Tobin Bell in Saw 3

Give it to anyone but that big bronze goofball. His were the (unintentionally) funniest scenes in 300.

Best Performance: Johnny Depp in Pirates 2, Will Smith in The Pursuit of Happyness, Gerard Butler in 300, Keira Knightley in Pirates 2, Jennifer Hudson in Dreamgirls, Beyonce Knowles in Dreamgirls

We'll give it to Will Smith just so they can play "Parents Just Don't Understand" when he comes up to collect the award. It'll be ironic because Happyness is about a parent who definitely understands ... the importance of overt melodrama. Otherwise, it's Johnny and Keira (???) duking it out, another Dreamgirls battle in the making, and ... oh, Gerard Butler. He'll definitely win.

Breakthrough Performance: Abigail Breslin in Little Miss Sunshine, Emily Blunt in The Devil Wears Prada, Jaden Smith in The Pursuit of Happyness, Justin Timberlake in Alpha Dog, Columbus Short in Stomp the Yard, Lena Headey for 300

This is the Smith that will win. Just picture how cute it will be.

Hey, did you know it was awards season? The one crappy thing about all these awards and nominations is that the majority of people out there have not seen any of the films on the list. For example, The Broadcast Film Critics Association (BFCA) announced their nominations for the 12th annual Critics' Choice Awards (which is kind of like the Viewer's Choice Awards, except P. Diddy isn't hosting and everyone in the room is feverishly typing on a blackberry), and just by looking at the best picture category, I assume most folks have only seen two of the films listed. Mayyybe three. But isn't that always the case?

The wonderful thing for pics like Dreamgirls and Letters from Iwo Jima is that, with these awards and nominations pouring out ahead of their release dates, it's all free marketing. But all that does is benefit people with a lot more money than you, so let's move on. With 200 members, the BFCA is the largest critics' organization in the United States and Canada, and the actual awards ceremony will be broadcast this January 20 on E! Entertainment Television. The nice thing about these awards is the diversity; basically everyone gets to join the party. Beside your standard categories (Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Screenplay, Supporting, Animated, Documentary), you have Best Ensemble, Best Young Actor, Best Young Actress, Best Comedy, Best Soundtrack and Best Family Film (Live Action) -- a category I feel should be included at the Oscars.

Any surprises? Well, Deliver Us from Evil and Jesus Camp were both left off the documentary list, and Leonardo DiCaprio was nominated twice (The Departed, Blood Diamond) in the same category, Best Actor. As far as who has the most nods, The Departed, Babel, Little Miss Sunshine and Dreamgirls each received seven.

As always, a full list of nominations is waiting for you after the jump.

Since there isn't much to do until February except speculate about the Oscars, buzz around who is going to receive a nomination is already starting to build. The New York Times has an article on the support behind Eddie Murphy's performance in the film adaptation of the stage hit musical Dreamgirls.

Plenty has been written about the career of Eddie Murphy, from his rise on Saturday Night Live to his seemingly permanent residency in family-oriented comedies. Dreamgirls hasn't even been released yet, but already heavyweight Jeffrey Katzenberg is throwing his support behind Murphy for a best supporting actor nomination: "Eddie can walk on water, it's just instinct. I know he can do it." The producer John Davis was willing to declare that "Eddie will definitely win the Oscar" for the film, allegedly after seeing only the first five minutes of Murphy's performance. The film has even stirred talk of a revival of the show on Broadway.

It's probably pretty unlikely that Murphy will win an Oscar, however the Academy loves those crazy "wild card" picks and if Murphy gets the nod, I have a feeling he would be filling that requirement. Dreamgirls opens this Christmas so we'll all get the chance to see if Murphy is going to be a serious Oscar contender among other suggested heavies like Jack Nicholson (The Departed), Michael Caine (The Prestige), and Alan Arkin (Little Miss Sunshine). The question will be with competition like that does Murphy even stand a chance?

It's difficult to find opportunities to watch short documentaries -- your best bet is to catch them at film festivals or occasionally on public television. It's too bad, because many documentary subjects are best served by a shorter format than the traditional feature-length. I know documentary filmmakers who have scrabbled to find material to stretch their film to a running time longer than necessary, perhaps weakening the film in the process, because they know that they've got a better chance of a bigger audience with a longer film.

So it's no surprise that you might not see any familiar titles in the Documentary Short Subject shortlist that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences released on Wednesday. I can't predict which might win the Oscar, or even which ones might make the cut as official nominees in January, because I've had no chance to see any of the films.

The eight films on the Oscar shortlist are The Blood of Yingzhou District, Dear Talula, The Diary of Immaculée, Phoenix Dance, Recycled Life, Rehearsing a Dream, A Revolving Door, and Two Hands. To make it easier for those of us who are interested in these films, documentary filmmaker A.J. Schnack has listed the directors and summaries for each film, and links to the films' websites (when applicable). The ones that sound most interesting to me so far are Phoenix Dance, about a dancer who loses a leg and is determined to keep dancing (Disney, this could be a great feature for you!), Dear Talula, a personal doc from a filmmaker who discovers she has breast cancer, and Recycled Life, about the huge Guatemala City dump. But I'd love the chance to watch all of these short documentaries at some point. Have you seen any of them?

A little while ago I shared with you the list of Fangoria Chainsaw Award nominations -- and now it's time for your voice to be heard. You can participate in the voting process any time between now and October 13th, at which point the frenzied counting of votes begin. The Chainsaws will be awarded on Friday the 15th, with the awards show broadcast on Fuse TV on October 22nd.

I'll leave it up to you to decide who you're voting on, but anyone who shows some love to The Descent, Hard Candy and/or Slither will have my undying respect. Well, not really. But I'll like you.

A few days ago, Slither-maker James Gunn mentioned on his MySpace page that his adorably splattery sci-fi horror rom-com was the receipient of four Fangoria Chainsaw Award nominations. My response was "Hey, cool. Where are the rest of the nominations?!?!?" And now, a few days later, here they are. Neat-o.

Although Fangoria has been doing their annual Chainsaw awards for over a decade now, 2006 marks the very first time the event will be televised, much to the delight of zombie freaks and slasher geeks all over North America. The event will be held in L.A. on October 15th, although the Fuse Network won't be airing it until the 22nd. (Which means if you want to watch the event "un-spoiled," I wish you luck.) Want to throw your own votes into the tally? Fine. You can vote right here, but only between September 1st and 13th (which is a Friday, mwaahaaa!)

After the jump you'll find a complete list of all the 2006 Chainsaw nominees, plus my own predictions on which flicks would win if the event were called Amazing Geek Weinberg's Horror Awards instead of The Chainsaws.

The BAFTA (don't worry about what it stands for - basically, they're the British Oscars) nominations were announced this morning in London, thus reducing the shortlists of 15 down to five finalists in each category. Leading the pack was The Constant Gardener - the John le Carré adaptation received ten nominations including best picture, best director (Fernando Meirelles) best actress (Rachel Weisz), and best actor (Ralph Fiennes). The gay cowboys also continued to do well for themselves, as Brokeback Mountain came away with a total of nine nominations, among them one each for Heath Ledger (best actor), Jake Gyllenhaal (best supporting actor), and Golden Globes best director Ang Lee. Crash also was nominated nine times, competing in both the best picture and best director categories. Memoirs of a Geisha, which had the most shortlist nominations, ended up with only a handful of mentions, including one for Zhang Ziyi as best supporting actress.

The BAFTA awards (the complete list of nominees is here) will be handed out on February 19, less than a month before the Academy Awards ceremony.