Oscar News

• The Governors Awards were awarded last weekend to James Earl Jones, Oprah Winfrey and Dick Smith. Highlights can be found here.
• The Academy this week released the preliminary, 15-film list of possible documentary feature nominees. As always, the list has just as many prominent omissions as it does possible nominees.
• Ricky Gervais will yet again host the Golden Globe ceremony in January. It is his third consecutive year as host.
• Oscar winning art director will be the production designer for the 2012 Oscar ceremony.
• The Los Angeles Police Department will reopen the case of the mysterious death of Oscar nominee Natalie Wood. Wood, who had a famous fear of water, drowned in 1981.

Review Round-Up

• Oscar winners Alexander Payne and George Clooney look poised to return to the big show, at least based on the reviews of their collaboration The Descendants. The film has an 84 on Metacritic, with critics praising the dramedy for it’s writing and ensemble cast especially.

Oscar Box Office

• J. Edgar opened to a solid, if not spectacular, $11 million last weekend.

Oscar Farewell

No members of the Oscar family passed away this week.