New York Magazine's Vulture blog points us to this intriguing Reuters story above Oscar obsessiveness gone too far.  No such thing, I know, but it seems the head chef of New York's Carlyle hotel has whipped up a five course meal representing each of the year's Best Picture nominees.

No, seriously.  Take a look:

The dinner will begin with roasted parsnip tart, fresh shaved black truffle and perigourdine sauce. It is a creation stemming from what Sakatos described as "Ellen Page's fun and somewhat tarty portrayal of Juno."

Black ink risotto, mushrooms, cuttlefish and blood orange foam make up the "There Will Be Blood" second course.

"The black ink brings to mind the film's oil gushers, with blood orange foam to remind diners of the struggle and, of course, the title," Sakatos explained.

He chose Dover sole for "Michael Clayton" after "George Clooney's morally conflicted lawyer found his 'sole' and ultimately did the right thing," while "No Country for Old Men" is "plenty of manly beef -- and true grits to boot."

A passion fruit creme brulee ends the meal, reflecting the great passions of "Atonement," from "the young lovers' embrace to the little girl's jealously that caused her false accusation and ultimately the final passionate moment of atonement."

Read the rest.

Rest in peace.  We hardly knew ya.

My personal favorite performance will always be as Buddy Russo, but my favorite flick from the actor has to be "Marathon Man":

Tim Gray has a story in Variety that finds Academy president Sid Ganis admitting nervousness about this year's Oscar fate.  Very strange times, my friends.

He starts out like so:

Academy prexy Sid Ganis has again reached out to the Writers Guild of America about Oscar's fate but still hasn't received an answer. "We're running out of time," he told Daily Variety.

WGA leaders obviously have a lot on their plate this week, but Ganis on Wednesday said the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences needs to know ASAP "as a matter of logistics. We have nominees and potential presenters who live all over the globe. I'm nervous. We're getting down to the final moments; we need to make plans."

And wraps it up:

The Acad honcho reminds that nearly every member of the Academy belongs to a guild -- or several. (Ganis himself is a guild member, as a producer and former publicist). The org, he said, "has no beef whatsoever with the writers. We have a history of celebrating great writers and of constant cooperation with the guild."

"We're preparing for two shows," he reminded. The office of Gil Cates, who's producing the kudocast, has two boards -- one for Show A and one for Show B. "Both those boards are filling up with plans, but we want to do Show A."

"I'm reaching out in a measured way," he said. "We're feeling great that (WGA-AMPTP) negotiations seem to have reached the stage where they're concluding. I'm a filmmaker and I want everybody back working."

Check out the rest.

Magnolia Pictures is on the case of the year's Oscar nominated shorts once again.  Here is the press release, in part:

New York, NY, January 22, 2008 -- Magnolia Pictures and Shorts International  have announced they will partner for the third year running to bring the ten Oscar®-nominated short films (live-action and animated) to U.S. theatres on February 15th, giving audiences around the country an opportunity to see all ten nominated films prior to the 80th Academy Awards ceremony.

The Oscar Shorts program will open initially in approximately 50 cities on February 15 and will continue to expand in the following weeks.  Says Magnolia President Eamonn Bowles, “Last year’s program was a success, and we’re anticipating an even bigger opening this year. People are excited about having the opportunity to see these excellent films together in one place, not to mention getting a leg up in their office Oscar pools.”

...Eight of the ten nominated filmmakers are newcomers to the Oscars® this year.  The two returning nominees are director, Alexander Petrov and producer Anja Daelemans.  Petrov who is up for his fourth nomination, was nominated in 1989 for THE COW and 1997 for THE MERMAID.  In 1999, his film THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA won the Academy Award® for Best Animated Short.  Daelemans was nominated in 2002 for FAIT D’HIVER in the live-action category.

In addition to a 2007 Oscar nomination, many of the short films have garnered awards from U.S. and international film festivals.   PETER & THE WOLF, the animated short from director Suzie Templeton and producer Hugh Welchman was nominated for a BAFTA last year for a BAFTA. I MET THE WALRUS, from director Josh Raskin won Best Animated Short at the 2007 AFI Film Festival.   TANGHI ARGENTINI, the live action short from director Guido Thys and producer Anja Daelemans has received 18 wins including the Best Foreign Film at the L.A. Shorts Fest in 2007.  THE TONTO WOMAN, based on the Elmore Leonard short story, from director Daniel Barber and producer Matthew Brown won Best in Fest from the L.A. Shorts Fest, and Best Film over thirty minutes at the Palm Springs Festival, both in 2007.

Sasha Stone, meanwhile, has been busy hunting down a bunch of these films over at Awards Daily.  Should give us some insight as to what's what in these races.  Take a look.

Film awards enthusiasts got a lot of answers to a lot of tough questions this morning.  A lot of answers.

The shot heard round the Oscar world not 30 minutes ago was "Atonement," the first film out of Kathy Bates' mouth as she stood by Sid Ganis at the podium of the Academy headquarters to announce the year's Best Picture nominees.  Of course, right?

You could watch the announcement on E! or online, but wherever you were, it became apparent from the outset that the group did not respond to "Into the Wild" -- at all.  No nominations came for Sean Penn, for writing or directing.  No nominations for the film's acting outside of Hal Holbrook's supporting actor mention.  Nothing.  Well, one other nomination -- for Best Film Editing.

That's right, poor Eddie Vedder had to sit back and watch three nods for "Enchantment" come down the pike, while his album full of brilliant tracks was left twisting in the wind.

The only other major surprises of the morning were Jason Reitman's directorial bid for "Juno" (also a Best Picture nominee) and Tommy Lee Jones' left-field bid as Best Actor for "In the Valley of Elah."

The writing was on the wall for "Wild" throughout the week, really.  Some of us refused to believe it.  Nevertheless, this has become the first year that only one SAG ensemble nominee went on to a Best Picture berth.  Very strange.

Yesterday's news that the original score for "There Will Be Blood" would be deemed ineligible wasn't enough to deter the film.  It racked up 8 nominations, tying fellow Best Picture nominee "No Country for Old Men" for the most nominations of the day.  Scott Rudin must be proud.  But still, if that silly DQ hadn't landed for composer Jonny Greenwood, "Blood" would be at the top of the mountain.

Best Picture nominees "Atonement" and "Michael Clayton" each managed 7 nominations, while straggler "Juno" landed 4.  The real surprise of the awards tally, and stealthily so, is "Ratatouille," which came up with 5 total mentions.

Conceivably, the films now duking it out for Best Picture are those very two efforts, as it isn't typical for films not nominated for Best Director or Best Film Editing to take the win.  "Atonement" missed on both peripheral nods, while "Juno" and "Michael Clayton" didn't find room from the editors.

Glancing over the full list of nominees, other travesties become apparent.  Already mentioned was the snub of Eddie Vedder in the original song arena (he should be considered no stranger to the cademy's cold shoulder as he missed back in 2003 for the accaimed track "Man of the Hour" from the "Big Fish" soundtrack).

"Norbit" is an Oscar nominee, ladies and gentlemen, finding room in the makeup field.  This isn't entirely shocking.  A soon as I saw it on the bake-off list, I had a feeling.

The documentary branch completely and utterly failed us all, snubbing the brilliant "Lake of Fire" in favor of run-of-the-mill work like "Operation Homecoming" and the unimpressive "Sicko."  It's hard to argue with "No End in Sight" and "Taxi to the Dark Side," however.  "War/Dance" -- well -- I fell asleep, so no comment.

Final surprises of note include "Away from Her" turning up in the Best Adapted Screenplay category and "Acorss the Universe" finding some love from the costume designers.  Angelina Jolie also found herself snubbed in the Best Actress category, making way for Laura Linney in "The Savages," while Matt Groening and company were ignored by the animation branch for "The Simpson's Movie."  "Surf's Up" joined "Persepolis" and "Ratatouille" in the year's cartoon competition.

The story of the season is that the guilds have failed us.  The DGA foresaw only three of the eventual Best Picture nominees, the group's worst job of prognosticating in six years.  The PGA landed four, continuing down it typical path.  But "Atonement" only managed nominations from the Art Directors Guild, the American Society of Cinematographers and the Costume Designers Guild.  The only template for such an effort making it through to the finish line without major guild commendations is "Elizabeth" in 1998, and believe me, that has been running through my mind all week.

(And no, "Letters from Iwo Jima" isn't applicable, as the guilds simply didn't see the film in time for voting last season.)

The fall of "Into the Wild" is an absolute shock.  Sure, there were ripples in the water.  Maybe the Academy didn't love it so much, maybe other films came along to trump it in the end, etc.  But two nominations.  TWO.  After the industry had celebrated it considerably throughout the guild circuit.  It's actually embarassing because, speaking as no lover of the film, it is a work of passion that didn't deserve this turn of events.

We now turn our eyes to the Oscar ceremony -- still to be held on February 24.  Will there be a show?  Will the strike be over?  Will today's list of nominees anxiously await as winners are revealed in some awkward song and dance akin to this year's Golden Globes?

Some questions, it seems, remain unanswered.

Jonny Greenwood's original score for "There Will Be Blood" has been ruled ineligible by the music branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

The news comes on the heels of last week's Best Foreign Language Film controversy, which left the two most critically acclaimed efforts of the year in that category out of contention (Romania's "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days" and France's "Persepolis").

(Pete Hammond is also reporting on this over at The Envelope, but there is much more to the story, which has been fluttering in the wind throughout the weekend.)

The disqualification has been attributed to a designation within Rule 16 of the Academy's Special Rules for Music Awards (5d under "Eligibility"), which excludes "scores diluted by the use of tracked themes or other pre-existing music."

Greenwood's score contains roughly 35 minutes of original recordings and roughly 46 minutes of pre-existing work (including selections from the works of Arvo Pärt, as well as pieces in the public domain, such as Johannes Brahms' "Concerto in D Major").  Peripheral augmentation to the score included sporadic but minimal useage (15 minutes) of the artist's 2006 composition "Popcorn Superhet Receiver."

"Popcorn" is a 20-minute work commissioned by the BBC in 2005.  The piece premiered at London's Queen Elizabeth Hall in November of 2006.

All musical inclusions were indicated on the score's cue sheet, of which the Academy has been in possession since early December.  The organization had over a month to run over rules and eligibility, sending out reminder sheets to Academy voters that included Greenwood's score for consideration along the way.

Other scores that were deemed ineligible include "Enchanted" and "Into the Wild," from Alan Menken and Michael Brook respectively.  Both were disqualified due to the "predominant use of songs."  But sources say Paramount Vantage was alerted to the ineligibility of "Into the Wild" far in advance.  The situation with "Blood," however, has come at the last minute, catching the studio entirely off guard.

Vantage was made aware of the Academy's "Blood" decision on January 19, seven days after balloting closed.  Greenwood himself first received word via postal mail from the Academy at his home in London on January 17.  Price Waterhouse has been instructed to discount all votes for Greenwood on Academy ballots.

According to the studio, the Academy's decision has also come, in part, due to a situation which arose with Nino Rota's score for "The Godfather" in 1972, which was pulled from the list of nominees after it was discovered that the film's love theme was used in another film, 1958's "Fortunella."  The Academy would like to right a wrong now rather than withdraw a nomination further down the road.  "The Godfather Part II" won the original score Oscar and featured the same love theme which rendered Rota's initial score ineligible.

Sources at the studio say that, though they are baffled by the surprising turn of events, they respect the Academy's decision.  They only wish they had been advised of the situation in enough time to properly appeal it.

Diane Garrett reports here at Variety that the annual Night Before benefit will go on regardless of the goings-on with the Oscar telecast.  Here's how she starts:

The Motion Picture & Television Fund's annual Night Before fund-raiser will proceed as usual on Feb. 23 -- but with even more urgency this year, as requests for financial assistance have grown an astonishing 700% over last year.

Motion Picture & Television Fund organizers said they decided to proceed with the fund-raiser, which reaped nearly $8 million last year, to raise even more coin for the people affected by the writers strike, which began Nov. 5.

"I don't think there's been a time when the needs of the community have been greater than they are now," said founder Jeffrey Katzenberg, who noted that calls for assistance are growing with each day. "There are a lot of people in need, and we've got to help them."

Read the rest.

In his latest Notes on a Season column at The Envelope, Pete Hammond has really dug into the matter of AMPAS president Sid Ganis' strategy (along with telecast producer Gil Cates) refraining from even asking the WGA for a waiver to benefit the Oscar show.  Juicy stuff there, I gotta say.

Hammond also gets into the foreign film fiasco of this week, which left Romanian entry "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days" flapping in the wind along with French entry "Persepolis."  He wrangled a quote from one member of the comittee that makes you want to jump off a building:

We spoke with three foreign language committee members to get the other side, and all were perplexed by the outcry at their choices.

"I voted for Austria, Canada, Italy and Poland among the films that made the final list, and I saw over 50 movies," one voter who has been on the committee since 1993 told us. "I did not like '4 Months.' I thought it was depressing. I've lived through the whole abortion thing. I didn't get anything out of it."

This same voter gave low scores to "City of God" [also nixed early on by the committee] as well saying, "I thought it was so violent. Who needs to watch 11-year-old kids killing people?"

Eesh...

Jeffrey Wells is livid this afternoon about the Academy's shortlist of Best Foreign Language Film contenders because of the exclusion of "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days."  I gotta say, as often as Wells goes on a tirade about things that don't really call for it, I'm with him on this.  And I'm no major fan of Cristian Mungiu's film, mind you.  But I do have profound respect for it and, frankly, I think this decision points a definitive finger at this branch's woeful lack of taste.

That's my piece.  Here's Wells' complaint, for the record:

The foreign-branch nominators were in no way obliged to salute this landmark film as their absolute favorite, but to not even put it on the short list (much less include it among the five nominees, from which the winner of the Best Foreign Language Feature Oscar would be chosen) is intolerable and inexcusable. This is truly a Day of Infamy. I'm not trying to be Franklin D. Roosevelt here, but these people have embarassed themselves, the Academy and the industry as a whole...it's laughable.

Personally, I think the biggest travesty here is "Persepolis," far and away the best contender in the mix (from what I've seen, of course), getting the short end of the stick.  What, just because it's animated, somehow it isn't worth the foreign branch's effort?  What a sad turn of events.

Here are the chosen ones (from AMPAS):

Austria, "The Counterfeiters," Stefan Ruzowitzky, director
Brazil, "The Year My Parents Went on Vacation," Cao Hamburger, director
Canada, "Days of Darkness," Denys Arcand, director
Israel, "Beaufort," Joseph Cedar, director
Italy, "The Unknown," Giuseppe Tornatore, director
Kazakhstan, "Mongol," Sergei Bodrov, director
Poland, "Katyn," Andrzej Wajda, director
Russia, "12," Nikita Mikhalkov, director
Serbia, "The Trap," Srdan Golubovic, director

"The Orphanage" was also snubbed, which might be a surprise to some.  I've had my doubts for a few weeks now on that one.  Personally, I would expect "12," "The Counterfeiters," "Days of Darkness," "The Unknown" (the US title is "The Unknown Woman") and "The Year My Parents Went on Vacation" to be the final five, but what do I know?  Maybe "Mongol" can get a solid boost from Picturehouse.

•  David Poland reports Cate Blanchett's lead actress push for "I'm Not There." [The Hot Blog]

•  Jeffrey Wells thinks the idea stinks. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

•  Tom O'Neil reports that Miramax studio executives are trying "to get to the bottom of the rumor." [Gold Derby]

•  Nathaniel Rogers writes up the effect Golden Globe placement has on actor/actress campaigns. [The Film Experience]

•  Anne Thompson, meanwhile, offers perspective on the typical jockeying for position. [Thompson on Hollywood]

•  Back to Wells, he's got a chat with "4 months, 3 weeks & 2 Days" director Christian Mungiu... [Hollywood Elsewhere]

•  ...offers some not-so-kind thoughts on Amy Adams and here Best Actress-aiming performcnace in "Enchanted"... [Hollywood Elsewhere]

•  ...and ponders 2007 as 1999-ish in its broad swoop of quality cinema -- all in a slew of updates over the weekend.  Sleep, Jeffrey.  Sleep. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

•  Brian Kinsley caught Peter Jackson snoozing in "Beowulf." [In Contention]

•  Susan King talks to Janusz Kaminski about his innovative lensing of "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly." [The Envelope]

•  Lou Lumenick loved "Starting Out in the Evening" and commends the Best Actor push for Frank Langella. [New York Post]

•  Peter Knegt responds to Variety's story re: quality, but genre-handicapped performances. [indieWIRE]

•  Sasha Stone gets to "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford," talks up Roger Deakins. [Awards Daily]

The big guns are coming out Variety's awards season coverage.  Landing online today (and in print on Monday), the Eye on the Oscars Preview issue.

Iain Blair has the lede, a look at the 2007 Oscar race as a more crowded one than usual.  He talks to four studio honchos including Miramax's Daniel Battsek, who talks up "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly."

David Mermelstein, meanwhile, gets into the Oscars' ambition at 80 years old.  He chats it up with AMPAS president Sid Ganis and executive director Bruce Davis about the upcoming Academy Museum of Motion Pictures project, which hopes to open in 2012.

Steve Challogan talks to Tony Gilroy, Andrew Dominik and Noah Baumbach about 2007 films as echoes of the 70s era in cinema.  He also includes quotes from Sidney Lumet and journalist Peter Biskind.

And yours truly has a grand ole' time chatting it up with a trio of fellow Oscarologists about violence in movies and the Academy's reaction to it.

There a lot more material at Award Central.  Here's a quick list:

•  Chinese feast on Oscar hype

•  DVD mailers drum up support

•  Brits turn agains the Beatles

•  Retirees talks about their Oscar films

•  Specialty divisions enter Oscar race

•  Unger tackles broad scope of Acad

•  A brief Oscar history photo gallery

•  Yours truly takes a look at "The Great Debaters." [In Contention]

•  Anne Thompson offers some hard Oscar knocks for "Into the Wild," "Zodiac," indicates potential awards greatness for "Enchanted." [Thompson on Hollywood]

•  T.L. Stanley wonders if "August Rush" could be this year's "Mr. Holland's Opus." [Gold Rush]

•  The Envelope continues to give more and more tech category consideration due, one would assume, to Sheigh Crabtree's spirited efforts...bravo.  Today, Patrick "I hate Oscar bloggers" Goldstein talks to Harris Savides, largely about "American Gangster."  [The Envelope]

•  Meanwhile, Elizabeth Snead talks to Alexandra Byrne about the one nomination you can put money on for "Elizabeth: The Golden Age": Best Costume Design. [The Envelope]

•  Mark Olsen chats it up with Todd Haynes re: "I'm Not There." [The Envelope]

•  Choire Sicha has a profile of "Diving Bell" star Emmanuelle Seigner. [Los Angeles Times]

•  According to the AP, a judge argues against the sale of two Mark Pickford Oscars in Los Angeles county. [Variety]

•  Tom O'Neil updates us on what films guild and Academy members have recieved, though he leaves off the Focus titles (which shipped this week). [Gold Derby]

•  Jeffrey Wells thinks Time magazine has "damned" the Oscar chances of "Charlie Wilson's War" by talking about the film with a light and whimsical syntax. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

•  Lou Lumenick responds to the documentary feature shortlist. [New York Post]

•  Documentary director A.J. Schnack does the same...in fact, he's a little pissed, to be quite honest. [All These Wonderful Things, indieWIRE]

•  Ryan C. Adams takes us back to "Waitress." [Awards Daily]

A lot of outlets have been on the case this weekend, indieWIRE among them, so I'm not sure who scooped the shortlist for Best Documentary Feature first.  But I first saw it over at Awards Daily, so that's where I'll attribute it for now.  But I do see Peter Knegt has a piece up, so who knows where the scoop lies?

Anyway, here's the list of 15:

"Autism: The Musical"
"Body of War"
"For the Bible Tells Me So"
"Lake of Fire"
"Nanking"
"No End in Sight"
"Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience"
"Please Vote for Me"
"The Price of Sugar"
"A Promise to the Dead: The Exile Journey of Ariel Dorfman"
"The Rape of Europa"
"Sicko"
"Taxi to the Dark Side"
"War/Dance"
"White Light/Black Rain"

ThinkFilm's "In the Shadow of the Moon" was left off the list.  It's a great little film, but I suppose it is, after all, the "talking head" brand of documentary cinema that the branch doesn't often go for.

•  Anne Thompson chimes in with some things she learned froma  second look at "There Will Be Blood" Monday night. [Thompson on Hollywood] 

•  Sasha Stone senses a John Cusack surge on the horizon. [Awards Daily]

•  Lisa Rosen spotlights baddies at the Oscars, though it's becoming apparent that The Envelope is churning out TOO MUCH awards content.  Slow down! [The Envelope]

•  Susan King talks to Phil Bosco. [The Envelope]

•  David Poland was ALSO at the "Sweeney Tease" in NYC. [The Hot Blog]

•  Jeffrey Wells comments on Tom O'Neil's reaction to the 17 minutes of footage. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

•  Lou Lumenick agrees with the select few who think "Beowulf" won't land in the animated final three. [New York Post]

•  Peter Knegt takes a stab at predicting the top nine categories. [indieWIRE]

It looks like New Line Cinema will be putting its might behind the "Hairspray" track "Come So Far (Got So Far To Go)" for its Best Original Song push.  Original speculation was on the Zac Efron tune "Ladies' Choice," but the studio sent out a CD this week containing only the former.

"Hairspray," "Into the Wild" and "Once" are looking like the contenders in the category.  Unless five make it, then there are cases to be made for "Enchanted" or even another "Wild" track, but certainly not "A Hero Comes Home" from "Beowulf."  That's a poppy/dreadful tune if I ever heard one (which is strange, given that Alan Silvestri's score is so bloody awesome).

With the announcement today of the Academy's Oscar-qualifying animated films (list below), Variety is on the beat with a number of stories in yesterday's "Eye on the Oscars: Animated Preview" Special Issue.

Some of the stories:

•  David Cohen on "action-cartoon hybrids" forcing the Academy to "define animation." [Variety]

•  Ellen Wolff ponders the valid question of whether animated films are stuck in an "Oscar ghetto." [Variety]

•  And Iain Blair talks to insiders about casting voice talent for popular animated endeavors. [Variety]

•  Oh, and for those who dig pictures over words, we have a photo gallery! [Variety]

Here's the list of Oscar-qualifying films in the category:

"Alvin and the Chipmunks," "Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters," "Bee Movie," "Beowulf," "Meet the Robinsons," "Persepolis," "Ratatouille," "Shrek the Third," "The Simpsons Movie," "Surf's Up," "Tekkonkinkreet" and "TMNT."

I think we can expect the nominees to be "Persepolis," "Ratatouille" and "The Simpsons Movie" to be the final three.  The crowd is over "Shrek," though the branch qualified it, I don't think "Beowulf" will make it through just as "The Polar Expressed" missed in 2004.  And this is a great way for a true animation hero, Matt Groening, to get his due.

"Persepolis" deserves the win in spades, however.  We'll see if the Academy agrees.