2011 Academy Award Nominations

Posted by Veronica Santiago Categories: Awards

Academy Award winner Mo'Nique (Precious) and Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' President Tom Sherak had the honor of announcing the nominees for the 2011 Annual Academy Awards early Tuesday morning.

The King's Speech lead all films this morning with 12 nominations total. True Grit came in second with 10 nods. Meanwhile, The Social Network and Inception both tied with 8 nominations.

Here are some of the noteworthy omissions and inclusions from today’s press conference:

• Best Director: No Christopher Nolan (Inception). Seriously?? (Even James Cameron has to say something about that!)
• Best Movie: No for Blue Valentine, yes for Winter's Bone and Toy Story 3 (also nominated in Animation category)
• Best Actor: No Ryan Gosling (Blue Valentine)!!! Also, no Mark Wahlberg (Fighter), no Leo DiCaprio (Inception), no Aaron Eckhart (Rabbit Hole), no Paul Giamatti (recent Golden Globe winner for Barney's Version). Javier Bardem, though, gets a yes for Biutiful.
• Best Actress: No Julianne Moore (The Kids are All Right), no Halle Berry (Frankie & Alice)
• Best Supp. Actor: No Andrew Garfield or Justin Timberlake (The Social Network), but a big YES for Jeremy Renner (The Town) and John Hawkes (Winter's Bone)

You can find a list of the nominees from the major Oscar categories after the jump.

Click to continue reading 2011 Academy Award Nominations

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Little Miss Sunshine DVD Review

Posted by Johnny Mercedes Categories: Fox Searchlight, Adventure, Drama, Independent, Comedy, New Releases, DVD Reviews

When little Olive Hoover becomes eligible to compete in the regional Little Miss Sunshine pageant, her dysfunctional but supportive family decide to help her get there.  Traveling from New Mexico to California in a failing Volkswagen bus, the family, despite an utter distaste for one another, must find a way to inhabit shared space for two straight days and face a slew of problems, both physical and psychological, along the way.  Little Miss Sunshine is a superbly written dark comedy that closely examines contemporary American family values and the growing dichotomy between what constitutes success and failure.

Little Miss Sunshine is written by Michael Arndt, directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, and stars Abigail Breslin, Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette, Steve Carell, Paul Dano, and Alan Arkin.  Rated R. 

Be sure to check out FilmCrunch’s Little Miss Sunshine Video Review. The DVD release brings along plenty of features to supplement the Oscar-nominated film:

• Both widescreen and fullscreen viewing options
• Two commentaries, one with directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, another with the directors and screenwriter Michael Arndt
• Four alternate endings with optional director commentary.
• Music video featuring music by Denver-based indie rock band DeVotchKa
• Soundtrack spot.
• Trailers

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