Seth MacFarlane and Emma Stone to announce Oscar nominees

The 2013 Academy Award nominations will be announced on Thursday, January 10th at 8:30am EST by Emma Stone and this year's host Seth MacFarlane. He is the second host in Academy history to announce the nominations. Charlton Heston is the only previous host who announced the nominations when he did so in 1974.

Here's to hoping the nominations are justified this year!

2012 Governors Awards draw in Oscar hopefuls

This weekend was the Governors Awards in Los Angeles. It is an event that gives a lot of foreshadowing to the Academy Award possibilities and gives potential Oscar hopefuls the chance to expose themselves to the press and promote their films.
According to EW there was a general consensus hinting at Best Picture possibilities; those being Life of Pi, Argo, Les Miserables, Lincoln, Zero Dark Thirty, and Silver Linings Playbook. Personally I think those are all possibles just due to the media buzz around them, specifically Life of Pi and Lincoln, but I would like to at least see The Dark Knight Rises on the list. It deserves to be there. I'm going to be pissed if The Hobbit swoops in at the last minute and takes it.

Apart from Best Picture buzz there is a lot of speculation for the actor and actress categories, both lead and supporting. In attendance were Kristen Stewart, Tom Hanks, Bradley Cooper, John Hawkes, Amy Adams, Helen Hunt, and quite a few others who have Award buzz movies out. Stewart and Adams have On the Road, Hanks has Cloud Atlas, Cooper has Silver Linings Playbook, and Hunt and Hawkes have The Sessions. I am still kind of baffled at the fact that Kristen Stewart could potentially be nominated for On the Road, but I still haven't seen the movie so I can't really comment. She should have been nominated in 2010 for Welcome to the Rileys but that's just me. Same goes for Bradley Cooper. I guess I just never figured him for an Oscar nominated actor. That is if he is nominated.


Awards season is starting!

21 films submitted for Best Animated Feature

The competition for the Best Animated Feature category at the 2013 Academy Awards just got a little more intense. A total of 21 animated films were submitted into the category.

The list of potentials:

Adventures in Zambezia 
Brave
Delhi Safari
Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax
Frankenweenie 
From Up on Poppy Hill 
Hey Krishna 
Hotel Transylvania
Ice Age Continental Drift
A Liar’s Autobiography: The Untrue Story of Monty Python’s Graham Chapman 
Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted 
The Mystical Laws 
The Painting 
ParaNorman 
The Pirates! Band of Misfits 
The Rabbi’s Cat 
Rise of the Guardians 
Secret of the Wings 
Walter & Tandoori’s Christmas 
Wreck-It Ralph 
Zarafa


In my opinion... my final nomination list would be this:

Brave
Frankenweenie 
ParaNorman
Wreck-It-Ralph
Rise of the Guardians

Granted, I have not seen Rise of the Guardians yet but from what I have observed from the trailers the animation alone deserves recognition. I foresee Brave winning it just because Disney/Pixar has dominated the Oscars for years so I don't see why this upcoming awards show would be any different. However, I think ParaNorman and Frankenweenie will give Pixar a run for their money this time around. Both of those films were incredible.

The 2013 Oscar nominations will be released on January 10th, 2013.