Oscar News

• The Academy released another shortlist this week, listing the 10 eligible Animated Shorts. Among the short films are new films from Warner Brothers (starring Tweety Bird), Pixar and Aardman Studios.
• The New York Film Critics were the first awards group to announce their winners this year, and they gave their Best Picture and Director prizes to The Artist. Brad Pitt, Meryl Streep, Albert Brooks and Jessica Chastain were the acting winners, while The Tree of Life led the pack with 3 awards.
• The National Board of Review named Martin Scorsese’s Hugo Best Picture of the Year, with Scorsese also picking up Best Director. George Clooney, Tilda Swinton, Christopher Plummer and Shailene Woodley were the acting winners.
• The Independent Spirit Awards announced their nominations on Tuesday, and The Artist and Take Shelter led the pack with 5 nominations each.
• Drive led the nominees for the Golden Satellite Awards this week, picking up 8 nominations including Best Picture. Steven Spielberg’s War Horse was next with 7 citations.
• The Producers Guild of America announced their Best Documentary nominees.
• The Grammy’s announced their 2011 nominees, and among the nominees are the Oscar nominated score to The King’s Speech and the Oscar nominated song “I See the Light.”

Review Round-Up

• Shame has picked up a lot of controversy over its NC-17 rated sex scenes, but critics don’t seem to be affected by it. They gave the film a Metacritic score of 71, with critics especially praising the lead performances of Michael Fassbinder and Carey Mulligan.

Oscar Box Office

There was no major box office news for Oscar contenders last weekend.

Oscar Farewell

•  Oscar nominated filmmaker Ken Russell, who was cited in 1969 for Women in Love, died this week. The controversial director was 84.