Oscar News

• The Golden Globes, arguably the biggest of the Oscar precursors, announced their nominees on Tuesday. The King’s Speech led the pack with 7 nominations, and will face off for Best Picture – Drama with Black Swan, The Fighter, Inception and The Social Network. The Kids Are All Right led the comedy films with 4 nominations.
• The Fighter and The King’s Speech each managed to garner 4 nominations from the Screen Actors Guild. In addition to three individual acting nominations each, they will duke it out for Best Ensemble along with Black Swan, The Kids Are All Right and The Social Network.
• The Music Branch of the Academy announced their short list for Best Song. 41 songs will compete to make the final 5 nominees.
• The Social Network and the Oscar ineligible Carlos were the big winners at the Los Angeles Film Critics this week, where Colin Firth won yet another Best Actor award. Other winners included David Fincher (tied with Carlos‘ Olivier Assayas), Jacki Weaver, Aaron Sorkin and Kim Hye-Ja (Best Actress for Mother).
• The Social Network also managed the Best Film and Best Director prizes from the New York Film Critics Circle, although The Kids Are All Right beat them out with 3 total wins. Their acting awards went to Colin Firth, Annette Bening, Mark Ruffalo and Melissa Leo, and The Kids Are All Right won Best Screenplay.
• Black Swan led the Broadcast Film Critics nominations with 13 nods, while Inception, The King’s Speech and True Grit also managed double-digit nominations.
• The American Film Institute released their annual list of the 10 Best American Films of 2010, and the list looks like most Oscar predictions lists.
• Several minor critics groups announced their nominees and winners this week: True Grit and The Social Network led the nods at the Houston Film Critics; The Social Network won at the Boston Society of Film Critics, Indiana Film Critics, New York Online Film Critics, San Francisco Film Critics, Southeastern Film Critics and Toronto Film Critics and led the pack with 8 nominations from the Chicago Film Critics; Winter’s Bone won the top prize at the San Diego Film Critics.
• Jeff Bridges and Sandra Bullock will return to the Oscar stage next year as presenters (tradition for the previous year’s acting winners). Joining them for sure at the ceremony as presenters will be Oscar winners Halle Berry and Marisa Tomei and Oscar nominee Oprah Winfrey.
• The official Oscar poster was released this week.

Review Round-Up

• Rabbit Hole is picking up a lot of acting nominations for Nicole Kidman, but the reviews suggest the film is a lot greater than just the lead performance. It has a Metacritic score of 74, and an even stronger 83% on Rotten Tomatoes.
• Weak reviews, putting it at an even 50 on Metacritic, shouldn’t affect TRON: Legacy‘s Oscar chances too much. All the reviews praise the technical aspects of the film, where it should compete heartily.
• James L. Brooks has 3 Oscars and 8 nominations, but How Do You Know won’t be bringing him back to the Kodak Theatre. It has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 38%.

Oscar Box Office

• Even though they ended up as the Top 2 for the weekend, last week’s debuts (Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and The Tourist) both fell way below expectations.
• Black Swan was in sixth place last weekend with $3.3 million, even though it was only in 90 locations.
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part I crossed the domestic $250 million mark.

New Trailers

• Pirates of the Caribbean 4 and Thor: These summer blockbusters will be technical contenders next winter.
• The Tree of Life: Terrence Malick is a film legend, and each of his films have to be treated as major contenders for end of the year awards.
• Water for Elephants: The film has the pedigree of award-winning source material, but the early release date could put it in danger of being remembered come early 2012.

Oscar Farewell

• Academy Award winning director Blake Edwards, who won an Honorary Oscar and was nominated for writing Victor/Victoria, passed away at the age of 88. Among his other credits were Breakfast at Tiffany’s, The Pink Panther and 10, and he was married to Oscar winner Julie Andrews.