Oscar News

• The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences announced this week that they are constructing an Academy Museum. The museum will focus on cinema as an art form and its impact on culture.
• David Poland tried to get to the bottom of the new Best Picture voting system this week.

Review Round-Up

• Oscar winner George Clooney’s The Ides of March, which he wrote, directed and appears in, opened to good but not stellar reviews this weekend. With a 67 on Metacritic, critics tend to like the film but view it as lightweight and not nearly as impressive as his previously Oscar nominated Good Night, and Good Luck.
• Real Steel, which has poised itself as a dark horse tech category competitor, doesn’t seem to have succeeded in that manor. The film, which has a strong-for-the-genre 56 score, hasn’t gotten the glowing reviews for the effects work that it would need to overcome its larger competitors.

Oscar Box Office

• 50/50 opened in a disappointing fifth place last weekend, taking in only about $8 million.

Oscar Farewell

• Diane Cilento, who got an Oscar nomination for her performance in Tom Jones, passed away this week at the age of 78. She was once married to Oscar winner Sean Connery and Oscar nominee Anthony Schaeffer.
• Veteran character actor Charles Napier passed away this week. The 75 year old appeared in the classic escape scene in Best Picture winner The Silence of the Lambs.