The tagline for this year's Academy Awards show is "You've never seen Oscar like this" -- and the show's official poster, which was unveiled by the Academy on Monday, is certainly in keeping with that motto.

Where most Oscar posters rely on little more than the Oscar statuette graphically, and aim to be grand and striking, as befits the pomp and circumstance that surrounds the show, this year's poster is downright playful and silly.  

It depicts Oscar hosts Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin sitting on the shoulders of a giant Oscar statute, Martin looking prim and Baldwin more relaxed.  

Although producer Joe Roth used the image of an illustrated old-style paparazzo shooting the Oscar statue in his poster for the 76th Oscar show, most Oscar posters do not depict people. 

In fact, the ones that do include real figures tend to go with classic images, not participants in the upcoming show -- such as the poster in 2006, which used black-and-white photos of movie stars holding the Oscars they'd just won, cropped so you couldn't tell whose hands you were seeing.

Obviously, though, the Academy, ABC and producers Bill Mechanic and Adam Shankman look at Martin and Baldwin as a big selling point of this year's ceremony, and they want to established a looser vibe. 

And, let's face it, they'd probably draw more viewers if they could have painted Oscar blue and morphed his face into a Na'vi, but that might be construed as showing a big too much favoritism for one nominee.  

Clearly, though, the pressure is now increasing to score a big rating with the show.  Between the Grammys big ratings, the Golden Globes' 14 percent jump over the previous year, and the Super Bowl's record-breaking audience, the Oscars need to see a significant jump in their audience to keep pace with the other big events.

Oscar posters, designed by the Los Angeles-based creative shop Omelet, are for sale at the Oscar website.  And, no doubt, they're soon to be seen on a billboard or at a bus stop near you.

The Santa Barbara International Film Festival always rounds up a good number of Oscar nominees, but this year’s version, the festival’s 25th, may have a particularly healthy crop. Two dozen nominees, with 30 nominations between them, have either already shown up or will participating in the 10-day festival, which began last Thursday and runs through February 10.

So far, the festival has feted Best Actress nominees Sandra Bullock and Carey Mulligan; weathered scheduling snafus caused by California’s governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger; unveiled the little-seen animated Irish film “The Secret of Kells,” a surprise nominee for Best Animated Feature; celebrated the career of James Cameron; and then crowned Cameron’s Best Picture and Best Director competitor Kathryn Bigelow “king and queen of the world” while she was sitting next to Cameron (below).

Although the festival began last Thursday with a screening of “Flying Lessons,” its first Oscar-related event came the next night, when Bullock was presented with the American Riviera Award. The ceremony was by all accounts a complete love-fest, enlivened by Bullock’s engaging, down-to-earth manner and refusal to take herself or her career too seriously.

“I’d be surprised if any Oscar voters in the room (there are apparently many) who came into the evening on the fence about Bullock’s awards-worthiness weren’t won over by her charm and humility, as well as by Whitaker’s high praise,” wrote Scott Feinberg of And the Winner Is …

(According to festival director Roger Durling, about 200 AMPAS members live in Santa Barbara. No word on how many of them attended.)

Saturday night’s presentation of the Modern Master award to James Cameron was reportedly a looser, messier affair, in which presenter Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 10-minute appearance threw things into disarray. Cameron apparently thought he was getting his award at the beginning of the evening because of the governor’s tight schedule, so when he was introduced to start the presentation he immediately began his acceptance speech. Moderator Leonard Maltin eventually corralled Cameron to do the Q&A – which then had to be halted in the middle when Schwarzenegger did show up to give out the award.

Sunday night’s Virtuoso Awards, meanwhile, paid tribute to three actors who missed out on Oscar nominations, and one who didn’t. Emily Blunt (“The Young Victoria”), Saoirse Ronan (“The Lovely Bones”) and Michael Stuhlbarg (“A Serious Man”) were what we assume were near-misses; Carey Mulligan (“An Education”) was the nominee.

(“Precious” star Gabourey Sidibe also received the Virtuoso Award, but due to scheduling conflicts hers will be presented later in the week at a different ceremony.)

The four actors all rhapsodized about their jobs, and passed along the best pieces of acting advice they’d ever been given. For Blunt, it was Alan Arkin’s comment, “It doesn’t have to be perfect, it just has to be real.” For Mulligan (right, with Ronan), it was director Joe Wright’s reminder to her when she shot her first scene in her first movie, “Pride and Prejudice”: “You don’t need to do much, but you do need to do something with your face.”

At a party afterwards, Mulligan said she’s learning to relax and enjoy awards season. “At the Golden Globes I was a nervous wreck," she said, "but now I’m kind of enjoying it.”

In between the ceremonies (and the three dozen film every day), the festival assembled a couple of heavyweight weekend panels to talk about filmmaking. Saturday’s screenwriters panel, moderated by Anne Thompson, was a collegial affair, with Mark Boal (“The Hurt Locker”), Pete Docter (“Up”), Geoffrey Fletcher (“Precious”), Alex Kurtzman (“Star Trek”), Nancy Meyers (“It’s Complicated”), Scott Neustadter (”(500) Days of Summer”) and Jason Reitman (“Up in the Air”).

Reitman and Meyers agreed that it’s easier to write with an actor in mind – Meyers, in particular, said that if she doesn’t envision a lead actress when she’s writing, she thinks of herself. It’s much more productive, she said, for her to think of, say, Meryl Streep (as she did while writing “It’s Complicated”), because the Meryl character will be braver and more resourceful than the Nancy character.

The disadvantage, Reitman added, is that sometimes you can’t get that person: he said he wrote “Thank You for Smoking” with George Clooney in mind, but Clooney “had no interest.”

Boal said that he was told that “The Hurt Locker” could obtain financing only if Ralph Fiennes, who had worked with director Kathryn Bigelow on “Strange Days,” would agree to play a role. So he wrote the part of a British diplomat (complete with a juicy monologue he figured would appeal to Fiennes) specifically for the actor – only to go to lunch with Fiennes and find that while the actor loved the rest of the script, he thought that particular scene and character was “terrible,” and would never consider doing it.

Over lunch, said Boal, he learned that Fiennes would prefer not to wear a suit, and liked the idea of playing a mercenary – hence the scene, born out of his desperation to land Fiennes, in which the bomb unit runs across a team of British mercenaries in the desert, and ends up attacked by snipers.

“People say, ‘Why is there a sniper scene in the middle of a movie about bombs?’” he laughed. “I never told the truth about it before, but that’s why.”

Quentin Tarantino called in sick to the screenwriters panel, but he showed up the next morning for a directors panel moderated by Peter Bart. (Reitman, who’d won the Scripter Award the previous night in Los Angeles, was a no-show this time.)

Introduced as “the Super Bowl of film festival panels” by Durling, the conversation included Bigelow (who got the biggest round of applause during introductions, and was then given the mock crown by Bart), Cameron, Lee Daniels (“Precious”), Docter, Todd Phillips (“The Hangover”) and Tarantino (“Inglourious Basterds”).

Bigelow talked about working on low budget films (“the more modest you can keep the budget, the more you can keep creative control”), while Cameron addressed the art of sequels and Daniels pretended to bristle when Bart brought up the criticism “Precious” has received from some in the African-American community.

“Why you gonna start this?” he said, as the crowd roared. “I’m having a good day. I’m with all these pretty white people, and you’re gonna start some s---?”

The always-garrulous Tarantino (left) was surprisingly subdued for much of the conversation, deferring to his colleagues. Near the end though – when he returned after abruptly leaving to use the bathroom – he began to dominate the conversation, particularly when he talked about his friendly rivalry with Paul Thomas Anderson, which segued into a story about the time Brian DePalma, who was close to finishing what he thought was his best movie, “Blow Out,” saw Scorsese’s “Raging Bull.”

“No matter how good you are,” said Tarantino, “there’s always f---ing Scorsese!”

When Tarantino said he and Anderson tended not to release movies at the same time, which meant they’ve rarely been in direct competition, Cameron glanced at Bigelow, who was sitting to his right.  Then he leaned to his microphone.

“Kathryn and I are going to coordinate better next time,” he said of himself and his ex-wife, the year’s two Oscar frontrunners.

(Photos by Michael Buckner/Getty Images)

In this morning’s roundup of Oscar news ‘n’ notes from around the web, Carey Mulligan isn’t the new anybody, and Meryl Streep needs exploding helicopters.

Julian Fellowes delivers a lovely tribute to Carey Mulligan, whom the writer first met when she was a schoolgirl hoping to become an actress, and he was invited to speaking to her class. At first, the writer of “Gosford Park” and “The Young Victoria” tried to talk her out of becoming an actress; then he tried to help her; now he marvels at a young actress who, he says, is not the new Audrey Hepburn or Vivien Leigh or Mia Farrow. “She may belong in that exquisite group, who combine bird-like fragility with a core of steel, who make us confident of their triumph, just as they demand our love and protection, but she is not a new version of any of them … [L]ike all true stars, she is not quite like anyone else.” (The Telegraph)

Sasha Stone looks at the four acting races, and wonders if they’re all as locked as they appear. Her conclusion: for the most part, they are. She thinks Jeff Bridges is the most vulnerable because his work is relatively subtle, and that Jeremy Renner could possibly pull off an upset if “The Hurt Locker” mounts a sweep. She also foresees a Sandra Bullock victory, one that has more to do with likeability than acting chops: “Bullock will win for many reasons, the least of which is her performance in the film.” As for the supporting races – forget it, it’s Christoph Waltz and Mo’Nique. (Awards Daily)

Sam Leith has a slightly different take on one of the acting races. He says that Mery Streep’s movies are too classy, and that she needs to make an action movie – actually, he calls it an “exploding helicopter movie” – to win another Oscar. (The Guardian)

AMC Theaters, as they have in years past, are offering a special deal that allows moviegoers to see all the Best Picture nominees. Of course, doubling the size of the category makes it impossible to see all 10 nominees in one day, so they’re splitting it over two Saturdays, February 27 and March 6. (Actually, it is theoretically possible to see all 10 in one day, since the combined running time is a little more than 20 hours. But that would be an awfully grueling day.) It’s $60 for all 10 (plus a free popcorn with unlimited refills) if you buy online, $50 if you do so at the theater. (AMC Entertainment) 

E!Online points out five movies you haven’t seen but should before Oscar night. Maybe their readers have yet to see “The Hurt Locker,” but I would hope that mine have. (Haven't you? If not, please do. No excuses.) Their other four are “Fantastic Mr, Fox,” “In the Loop,” and the documentaries “The Cove” and “Food, Inc.” (E!Online)

What went wrong? Dave Karger considers the cases of “Where the Wild Things Are,” “Bright Star” and “(500) Days of Summer,” which only got a single nomination between the three of them. (It’s for the “Bright Star” costumes.) His conclusion: the films were too low-key and not grown-up enough; too early; and too youthful and bittersweet, respectively. (Oscar Watch)

Gregory Ellwood runs down all (well, almost all) the Oscar races. He’s betting “Hurt Locker.” (Awards Campaign)

Kris Tapley on the “least compelling race” of Oscar night: visual effects. Yep, this one would be an upset of astonishing proportions if “Avatar” doesn’t win. (In Contention)

Pixar's "Up" was named Best Animated Feature, and its director Pete Docter was named best director at the Annie Awards Saturday night in Los Angeles.

Four other features also received awards -- and two of them, Disney's "The Princess and the Frog" and Henry Selick's "Coraline" -- beat the total for "Up" by winning three awards each. 

The Annies, which are handed out by the International Animated Film Society were held at Royce Hall on the UCLA campus.  The ceremony avoided the controversy of last year, when the heavily favored "Wall-E" was defeated in most of the top categories by "Kung Fu Panda." 

The full list of awards:

Best Animated Feature: "Up"
Directing in a Feature Production: Pete Docter “Up”
Animated Effects: James Mansfield “The Princess and the Frog”
Character Animation in a Feature Production: Eric Goldberg “The Princess and the Frog”
Character Design in a Feature Production Shane Prigmore “Coraline” 
Music in a Feature Production: Bruno Coulais “Coraline”
Production Design in a Feature Production:  Tadahiro Uesugi “Coraline”
Storyboarding in a Feature Production: Tom Owens “Monsters vs. Aliens” 
Voice Acting in a Feature Production: Jen Cody - Voice of Charlotte - “The Princess and the Frog”
Writing in a Feature Production: Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach - “Fantastic Mr. Fox”

Best Animated Short Subject: "Robot Chicken: Star Wars 2.5"

Best Animated Television Production: "Prep and Landing"
Directing in a Television Production: Bret Haaland “The Penguins of Madagascar - Launchtime” 
Best Animated Television Production for Children: "The Penguins of Madagascar"
Character Animation in a Television Production: Phillip To “Monsters vs. Aliens: Mutant Pumpkins from Outer Space” 
Character Design in a Television Production: Bill Schwab “Prep and Landing”
Music in a Television Production: Guy Moon “The Fairly OddParents: “Wishology-The Big Beginning”
Production Design in a Television Production: Andy Harkness “Prep and Landing” 
Storyboarding in a Television Production: Robert Koo “Merry Madagascar” 
Voice Acting in a Television Production: Tom Kenny - Voice of SpongeBob - “SpongeBob SquarePants — Truth or Square” 

Best Animated Television Commercial: Spanish Lottery “Deportees” 

Best Home Entertainment Production: "Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder"

JURIED AWARDS

Winsor McCay Award — Tim Burton, Bruce Timm, Jeffrey Katzenberg

June Foray — Tom Sito

Ub Iwerks Award — William T. Reeves

Special Achievement — Martin Meunier and Brian McLean

Certificate of Merit — Myles Mikulic, Danny Young and Michael Woodside

Former USC student Jason Reitman returned to campus in triumph Saturday night, as his script for "Up in the Air" was named the year's top adaptation at the 22nd Annual USC Libraries Scripter Awards.

Reitman shared the honor with co-writer Sheldon Turner and with Walter Kirn, the writer of the 2001 novel on which the film is based. Scripter Awards honor both the screenwriter or screenwriters of the film, and the author of the original work on which the film is based.

The dinner ceremony was held inside the Los Angeles Times research library, in the Edward L. Doheny Jr. Memorial Library on the USC Campus. The emcee was Catherine Quinlan, Dean of USC Libraries.

"Adaptation is collaboration," said Reitman when he accepted his award. "I'm really glad that you guys do this award, because it really speaks to how many writers work on a film."

Earlier, Reitman had drawn laughs when he began his speech by saying, "I am a Trojan. It is a thrill to finally come inside this library."

His father Ivan, he said, had actually spent more time in the library than Jason, because the elder Reitman shot the New York Public Library scenes from "Ghostbusters"at USC. 

The other nominees were "District 9" (screenplay by Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell, based on the short film by Blomkamp), "An Education" (screenplay by Nick Hornby, based on the memoir by Lynn Barber), "Precious" (screenplay by Geoffrey Fletcher, based on the novel "Push" by Sapphire), and "Crazy Heart" (screenplay by Scott Cooper, based on the novel by Thomas Cobb).

"It still hasn't completely sunk in what's happening, but today is one of the best days I've had this awards season," said Fletcher, who in the morning appeared in a screenwriters panel at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

Former Scripter winner and "Schindler's List" writer Steven Zaillian presented the Scripter Literary Achievement Award to Eric Roth ("Forrest Gump," "The Insider," "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"), who remembered the two times he'd been nominated in the past.  "Both times I suffered the ignominity of losing to lesser works whose names escape me," he joked.

The writers who didn't win can console themselves with this: Only six times in the 22 year history of the award has the Scripter winner gone on to win the Oscar for Adapted Screenplay. 

How’s this for an unusual double feature: the 3D version of James Cameron’s massive, big-budget blockbuster “Avatar,” followed by the quiet, tense, very low-budget military drama “The Messenger.”

Or “Precious,” with its near-operatic drama and rage and emotional pyrotechnics in a squalid urban setting, followed by the genteel, repressed 19th Century British love story “Bright Star.”

Or a “don’t ask, don’t tell” special: “The Hurt Locker,” followed by “A Single Man.”

Those are some of the options available to Academy members over the next three weeks, as the annual AMPAS screenings of nominated films take over the organization’s theaters in Beverly Hills and Hollywood.

The screenings begin on Saturday morning with a pair of Foreign-Language Film nominees, “The Milk of Sorrow” and “The White Ribbon,” and run through Sunday, February 28, when they come to a close with a double bill of “Il Divo” and “In the Loop.”

In between, each nominee will be screened at least twice, once in the 1,012-seat Samuel Goldwyn Theater in the Academy’s Beverly Hills headquarters and once in the more intimate Linwood Dunn Theater in its Pickford Center for Motion Picture Study in Hollywood.

The hardest films to see, the Foreign-Language, Documentary and short films, will all screen four times each; in those categories, members must see every nominee to be eligible to vote.

The foreign films, docs and shorts were slotted into the screening schedule even before the nominations were announced. Then studio reps participated in a nominations-morning lottery to choose the remaining times, resulting in some unusual juxtapositions as well as some pairings that work nicely.

In the latter category, February 9 brings a British teen night to the Goldwyn: “An Education” at seven p.m., followed by “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” at 8:50.

The next night provides a trip into a pair of fantastic fantasy worlds: “Coraline” at seven, “The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus” at 8:50.

And you could call February 18 Nine Night: first “District 9,” then “Nine.”

On the other hand, it’s hard to imagine too many viewers being equally disposed towards Neil Blomkamp’s sci-fi actioner and Rob Marshall’s lavish musical.

And are any Academy members who go to see the Coen Brothers’ “A Serious Man” on February 21 liable to stick around for Michael Bay’s “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” afterwards?

Of course, it’s not just offbeat double bills we’re talking about here. With two movies at the Goldwyn every night but as many as six at the Dunn, the schedule can make for some awfully wide-ranging movie days for adventurous Academy members.

On Sunday, for example, voters could start with a pair of foreign films, Israel’s “Ajami” and Agentina’s “The Secret in Their Eyes,” then shift gears for “Transformers,” then see the profane British comedy “In the Loop” and the documentary “Which Way Home.”

The members screenings bump gritty documentaries up against frothy animated features and big movies against little ones, and they produce some odd start times: 8:47, 4:02, 9:18. (That’s because each movie begins 10 minutes after the previous one ends. The Academy is very punctual.)

I’m sorry that the ultimate gastronomic double feature of “Food, Inc.” and “Julie & Julia” never materialized (“J&J” plays after “The Cove” and before “Inglourious Basterds” instead), but the point is hardly to create amusing pairings. It’s to make sure that all the Academy members, or at least the ones with lots of free time, have the opportunity to see every nominee before voting.

(AMPAS members’ screenings are held in New York, San Francisco and London as well, although those focus on the doc, foreign and shorts categories.)

For Academy members, the full schedule follows. SGT is the Samuel Goldwyn Theater; LDT the Linwood Dunn Theater.

Note: these are AMPAS-only screenings.

Saturday, February 6
THE MILK OF SORROW   10 am, LDT
THE WHITE RIBBON  11:48 am, LDT
HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE  2:30 pm, LDT
SHERLOCK HOLMES  5:13 pm, LDT
AVATAR (3D)  7:00 pm, SGT
THE MESSENGER  9:52 pm, SGT

Sunday, February 7
AJAMI  10 am, LDT
THE SECRET IN THEIR EYES (EL SECRETO DE SUS OJOS)  12:16 pm, LDT
TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN  2:35 pm , LDT
IN THE LOOP  5:15 pm, LDT
WHICH WAY HOME  7 pm, LDT
THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG  7 pm, SGT
THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN IN AMERICA: DANIEL ELLSBERG AND THE PENTAGON PAPERS  8:33 pm, LDT
THE LAST STATION  8:47 pm, SGT

Monday, February 8
A PROPHET (UN PROPHÈTE)  10:00 am, LDT
PARIS 36  2:00 pm, LDT
IL DIVO  4:11 pm, LDT
BURMA VJ  7 pm, LDT
THE SECRET OF KELLS  7 pm, SGT
FOOD, INC.  8:39 pm, LDT
SHERLOCK HOLMES  8:25 pm, SGT

Tuesday, February 9
THE LAST STATION  2 pm, LDT
THE LOVELY BONES  4:02 pm, LDT
AN EDUCATION  7 pm, SGT
HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE  8:50 pm, SGT

Wednesday, February 10
CRAZY HEART  2 pm, LDT
THE YOUNG VICTORIA  4:01 pm, LDT
THE COVE  7 pm, LDT
CORALINE (3D)  7 pm, SGT
THE IMAGINARIUM OF DOCTOR PARNASSUS  8:50 pm, SGT

Thursday, February 11
JULIE & JULIA  2 pm, LDT
INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS  4:13 pm, LDT
DOCUMENTARY SHORTS  7 pm, LDT
PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE NOVEL 'PUSH' BY SAPPHIRE  7 pm, SGT
BRIGHT STAR  8:49 pm, SGT

Friday, February 12
UP (3D)  2 pm, LDT
DISTRICT 9  3:46 pm, LDT
THE BLIND SIDE  7 pm, SGT
CRAZY HEART  9:18 pm, SGT

Saturday, February 13
AN EDUCATION  2 pm, LDT
ANIMATED SHORTS  2:30 pm, SGT
THE HURT LOCKER  3:50 pm, LDT
LIVE ACTION SHORTS  3:50 pm, SGT
DOCUMENTARY SHORTS  7 pm, SGT

Sunday, February 14
THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN IN AMERICA: DANIEL ELLSBERG AND THE PENTAGON PAPERS  2 pm, LDT
WHICH WAY HOME  3:44 pm, LDT
UP IN THE AIR  7 pm, SGT
COCO BEFORE CHANEL  8:59 pm, SGT

Monday, February 15
STAR TREK  2 pm, LDT
INVICTUS  4:17 pm, LDT
ANIMATED SHORTS  7 pm, LDT
LIVE ACTION SHORTS  8:20 pm, LDT
WHICH WAY HOME  7 pm, SGT
THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN IN AMERICA: DANIEL ELLSBERG AND THE PENTAGON PAPERS  8:33 pm, SGT

Tuesday, February 16
FOOD, INC.  2 pm, LDT
BURMA VJ  3:43 pm, LDT
THE WHITE RIBBON (DAS WEISSE BAND)  7 pm, LDT
THE HURT LOCKER  7 pm, SGT
A SINGLE MAN, 9:20 pm, SGT
THE MILK OF SORROW (LA TETA ASUSTADA)  9:34 pm, LDT

Wednesday, February 17
THE COVE  2 pm, LDT
A SERIOUS MAN  3:40 pm, LDT
THE SECRET IN THEIR EYES (EL SECRETO DE SUS OJOS)  7 pm, LDT
BURMA VJ  7 pm, SGT
FOOD, INC.  8:39 pm, SGT
AJAMI  9:19 pm, LDT

Thursday, February 18
UP IN THE AIR  2 pm, LDT
FANTASTIC MR. FOX  3:59 pm, LDT
A PROPHET (UN PROPHÈTE)  7 pm, LDT
DISTRICT 9  7 pm, SGT
NINE  9:03 pm, SGT

Friday, February 19
THE SECRET OF KELLS  2 pm, LDT
THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG  3:25 pm, LDT
THE COVE  7 pm, SGT
JULIE & JULIA  8:40 pm, SGT

Saturday, February 20
LIVE ACTION SHORTS  10 am, LDT
ANIMATED SHORTS  11:44 am, LDT
DOCUMENTARY SHORTS  2 pm, LDT
PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE NOVEL 'PUSH' BY SAPPHIRE  5:24 pm, LDT
UP (3D)  7 pm, SGT
THE YOUNG VICTORIA  8:46 pm, SGT

Sunday, February 21
AVATAR (3D)  2 pm, LDT
THE BLIND SIDE  4:52 pm, LDT
A SERIOUS MAN  7 pm, SGT
TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN  8:55 pm, SGT

Monday, February 22
BRIGHT STAR  2 pm, LDT
NINE  4:09 pm, LDT
INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS  7 pm, SGT

Tuesday, February 23
THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN IN AMERICA: DANIEL ELLSBERG AND THE PENTAGON PAPERS  10 am, LDT
WHICH WAY HOME  11:44 am, LDT
THE WHITE RIBBON (DAS WEISSE BAND)  2 pm, LDT
THE MILK OF SORROW (LA TETA ASUSTADA)  4:34 pm, LDT
INVICTUS  7 pm, SGT
PARIS 36  9:25 pm, SGT

Wednesday, February 24
FOOD, INC.  10 am, LDT
BURMA VJ  11:43 am, LDT
THE SECRET IN THEIR EYES (EL SECRETO DE SUS OJOS)  2 pm, LDT
AJAMI  4:19 pm, LDT
THE MILK OF SORROW (LA TETA ASUSTADA)  7 pm, SGT
THE WHITE RIBBON (DAS WEISSE BAND)  8:48 pm, SGT

Thursday, February 25
THE COVE  10 am, LDT
A PROPHET (UN PROPHÈTE)  2 pm, LDT
A SINGLE MAN  4:45 pm, LDT
AJAMI  7 pm, SGT
THE SECRET IN THEIR EYES (EL SECRETO DE SUS OJOS)  9:16 pm, SGT

Friday, February 26
DOCUMENTARY SHORTS  10 am, LDT
LIVE ACTION SHORTS  2 pm, LDT
ANIMATED SHORTS  3:44 pm, LDT
A PROPHET (UN PROPHÈTE)  7 pm, SGT
THE LOVELY BONES  9:45 pm, SGT

Saturday, February 27
CORALINE (3D)  2 pm, LDT
COCO BEFORE CHANEL  3:50 pm, LDT
STAR TREK  7 pm, SGT
FANTASTIC MR. FOX  9:17 pm, SGT

Sunday, 2/28
THE IMAGINARIUM OF DOCTOR PARNASSUS  2 pm, LDT
THE MESSENGER  4:12 pm, LDT
IL DIVO  7 pm, SGT
IN THE LOOP  9 pm, SGT

In this morning’s roundup of Oscar news ‘n’ notes from around the web, Oscar contenders head north, and the Academy says “The Hurt Locker” is extraordinary.

The Academy settles the matter of which producers are eligible for Best Picture Oscars for the nominated films “The Hurt Locker” and “The Blind Side.” In the case of the latter, it was a bit odd that the credits weren’t already set when the nominations were announced on Tuesday: the film has three credited producers, which falls within AMPAS guidelines, and all three are now official nominees. The case of “The Hurt Locker” is different, because for the past 10 years Academy rules have limited the number of producers to three, whereas the film credits four: Kathryn Bigelow, Mark Boal, Nicolas Chartier and Greg Shapiro. Of the 50 films nominated since the three-producer limit was instituted, only once was an exception made – and that was for “The Reader” last year, when producers Anthony Minghella and Sydney Pollack both died during the film’s production. After determing that all four “Hurt Locker” producers genuinely functioned in the role, AMPAS invoked its “extraordinary circumstances” clause for the second time, avoiding the kind of brouhaha that afflicted “Crash” four years ago. (TheWrap)
(Below, Getty Images photo of Shapiro, Chartier, Bigelow and Boal by Dimitrios Kambouris)

Jason Reitman tweets the following: “Clickity Click Click Clack Click Clack Click Click Clickity Clack Click Clack...” The words are accompanied by a photo of a MacBook Pro sitting next to a partially visible copy of the book “Labor Day” by Joyce Maynard. A clue as to the script he’s writing in between awards-season appearances? Seems likely, especially since a week ago he posted a photo of a yellow legal pad, blank except for the title “Labor Day” written across the top. The book is about a 13-year-old boy on a Labor Day weekend in New Hampshire – and, says Amazon, about “love, sex, adolescence, and devastating treachery as seen through the eyes of a young teenage boy.” (Twitter)

The Oscar show is a month away, many of the races seem decided, most of the major guilds have handed out their awards, and the one that hasn’t, the WGA, disqualified so many screenplays that it’s not a legitimate precursor this year. So what do we all do for the next month? Guy Lodge ponders the question, and in the process hits upon a realization that “Avatar” and “The Hurt Locker” aren’t really opposites after all; instead, he says, Kathryn Bigelow’s film is “Avatar’s” “smaller, cooler young brother. Their tastes and textures might be very different – one is romantic, the other, but they’re both hard-driving combat movies from highly visual craftsmen steeped in genre filmmaking.” (In Contention)

Sasha Stone decides to kill some time, too, so she notices the fact that Jeff Bridges is the only acting frontrunner whose film was not nominated for Best Picture. Then she goes back to the years in the 1930s and ‘40s when the Academy last had 10 Best Pic nominees, and finds out that in every case, the Best Actor winner was from a film that was nominated for, but did not win, Best Picture. Fortunately, she doesn’t try to any draw any serious conclusions. “It’s just a lot of nonsense, I know, but we have a whole month, folks. Might as well settle in and do a little head-knocking.” (Awards Daily)

Anne Thompson reports from the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, which is awash in tributes to Oscar contenders: Sandra Bullock, James Cameron, Kathryn Bigelow, Colin Firth, Christoph Waltz, Carey Mulligan, Gabourey Sidibe, Stanley Tucci, Vera Farmiga … Thompson herself is moderating a killer writers’ panel on Saturday, with participants including Mark Boal (“The Hurt Locker”), Quentin Tarantino (“Inglourious Basterds”), Pete Docter (“Up”), Jason Reitman (“Up in the Air”) and others. (Thompson on Hollywood)

Kris Tapley looks at Entertainment Weekly’s headline – “Can Anything Beat ‘Avatar?’” and says yes, a couple of things can. His piece focuses on the possible effects of the Academy’s switch to preferential tally for the final Best Picture count, which he says is “a crucial point that many a journalist … is failing to consider when calling this thing.” As a journalist who might be accused of over-considering preferential voting, I don’t disagree. He forsees a situation in which the process could help “Up in the Air,” “Up” or even “An Education” mount a serious challenge. (In Contention)
 

The potential conflict between Hyundai and AMPAS is on the way to a resolution, and the automaker will be able to run its Oscar-show commercials despite the fact that they include voiceovers from Best Actor nominee Jeff Bridges.

That’s the word from AMPAS executive director Bruce Davis, who told me at Tuesday morning’s nominations announcement that the Academy “saw this one coming a long way off” but would work with Hyundai and ABC to position the ads so that they wouldn’t run near the segment in which the Best Actor award will be handed out.

Technically, the strict AMPAS advertising guidelines say that any commercials featuring Oscar nominees, presenters or performers, whether they appear on camera or in voiceover, cannot run within one hour of the person’s appearance on the Oscar show.

With nine commercial spots (at about $1.4 million for each 30-second ad), Hyundai is the largest advertiser on the 82nd Oscar show, and the sole automotive sponsor. Bridges supplies voiceovers for all Hyundai ads, but the actor is never identified.

Although two of the ads are slated for the Oscar preshow, it would still be extremely hard to schedule the other seven without breaking the one-hour rule.  (The Oscar show itself generally contains a dozen commercial breaks.) But Davis said the Academy has always been willing to show more flexibility with unidentified voiceovers, and that they're ready to fit the ads into the show as long as no Hyundai spots run immediately before or after the Best Actor category.

AMPAS couldn't start to work anything out before the nominations were announced, though, because to do so would entail assuming that Bridges would be nominated.  While everybody knew he would be, the Academy cannot be seen to publicly treat any potential nominee as a sure thing. 

Davis was also amused to learn that a Hyundai spokesperson told me the company was unaware of any potential conflict.

“I’ve often thought that the ABC people who are selling our ads don’t really know what our policies are,” he said.

(Getty Images photo by Kevin Winter)