Last year was James Bond’s 50th anniversary, but Hollywood isn’t quite finished celebrating 007.  The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced that this year’s Oscar ceremony will pay tribute to the film franchise by including a “special sequence”.  It would be very cool if producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron could get all six Bond actors onto the stage, but I get a feeling that Sean Connery would want no part of it.

I also wonder if this tribute dashes any hopes of Skyfall picking up a Best Picture nomination.  Yes, genre movies are always a long shot, but the Academy can nominate up to films for Best Picture, and Skyfall was a critical and box office success.  We’ll have to wait and see how much love Bond gets when nominations are announced on Thursday, January 10th at 5:30am PST.  The Oscars will be held on Feburary 24th.  Hit the jump for the press release.

The Oscars are finally over.  The front-runner, The Artist, won the awards race by picking up Best Picture, Best Director (Michael Hazanavicius), Best Actor (Jean Dujardin), Best Costume Design, and Best Score.  There were also some big upsets as “locks” like The Tree of Life for Best Cinematography and Rise of the Planet of the Apes for Best Visual Effects were no match for Hugo, which ended up taking those categories and three more (Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, and Art Direction).  As for nice surprises…not really (unless you loved Hugo).

It was a forgettable year for the Oscars, and Billy Crystal, turning in his safe, predictable, and family-friendly routine was the perfect fit for a year that screamed “Don’t rock the boat!”  Last year’s Oscars took a chance on pairing Anne Hathaway and James Franco, and the show was a mess.  This year, they played it safe and the ceremony was still dull.  Quite simply, there was no films to root for and the “upsets” were for the establishment.  It was also funny to have the show and actors celebrate the theater when audiences are moving to OnDemand services, and studios are trying to make the theatrical release window even shorter.   Hit the jump for a full list of the winners, click here for mine and Adam Chitwood’s Oscar predictions (he did way better than me), and click here for my live-blog of the ceremony.

We’re here at last.  The seemingly endless award season has reached its zenith/nadir.  I have never been less enthusiastic for the Oscars.  And I used to love the Oscars.  I loved the competition, I loved seeing the films and actors I loved get recognized with Hollywood’s highest honor, and this year I hardly have anything or anyone to root for.  This year, it’s mostly “Yeah, I can live with that.”  I know the awards don’t really matter, I know that the voting body is old white men, and I know my Oscar predictions are probably going to go down in flames (if you’re still trying to figure out your Oscar ballot, go with Adam’s picks; I’m playing the odds).

But this live-blog will keep me sane.  Sharing my frustrations and mockery with you fine people will help me get through this charade.  My live-blogging will kick in around 8:00pm (EST) and then just keep refreshing the page for my latest thoughts on the 84th Academy Awards.  I’ll also be live-tweeting (cross-platform mocking!) and you can follow me on Twitter at @MattGoldberg.  Together, we will survive.  The ceremony begins at 8:30pm (EST).

Don’t lie: you mute the insipid Oscar red carpet banter and check out the dresses.  There’s nothing wrong with that.  The dresses are one of the finer points of the evening, and you get to see which actresses found the right mix between elegance and originality, and which actresses found what the designer’s fever dream looked like in gown-form.  The people at Dish Network, when not trying to convince us that satellite dish signals can’t be blown out by a gentle breeze, have put together a fun infographic about the dresses worn by the Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress nominees from the past 22 years.

Hit the jump to check out the infographic.  The 84th Academy Awards air live this Sunday at 7pm EST on ABC.

The 2011 Oscar race will finally be over this Sunday night, but winners need to know the proper way to accept the award.  To this end, Funny or Die has produced a promo on behalf of the Academy Awards starring Oscar-winner Kevin Kline (Best Supporting Actor for A Fish Called Wanda) and Sir Cecil Worthington (Mike Myers).  The sketch is meant to poke fun at the importance of the statue, but Worthington is really more of a reminder of the Academy’s largest voting block: old white men who have never won an Oscar.

Hit the jump to check out the promo.  The 84th Academy Awards air live this Sunday on ABC at 7pm EST.

Every day, the Academy is announcing new presenters for the Oscars, and those press releases are worthless.  No one cares if Ben Stiller will be reading nominees off a card.  But today, the Academy has made a terrific-yet-maddening announcement regarding a duo of presenters.  Kermit and Miss Piggy will present at this year’s Academy Awards, and it will be the fifth time that Muppets have presented at the Oscars.  While I’ll be happy to see them, the announcement makes me even more frustrated with this year’s ceremony.  First, there won’t be a performance of The Muppets nominated song, “Man or Muppet”, which might have made sense due to set construction concerns.  However, there was enough time and money to build a stage for Cirque du Soleil, who should be seen live (or at least in a movie theater) rather than your TV.  And now that they’re going to have Muppets on stage anyway, it feels like the Academy is saying, “Muppets, you’re good enough to deliver a little banter and read names off a card, but no one wants to see you sing a song on live television.”  At least “Man or Muppet” will probably win the Oscar.

Hit the jump for the press release.

The Academy can–and often does–neglect obvious choices in the major Oscar categories.  Studios throw their weight behind certain films and actors and it usually turns out that the biggest marketing budget wins.  Then there’s the obstacle of how the Academy turns away from performances in genre films in favor of hot actresses going ugly or actors doing a perfect impression of a recently deceased legend.  Throw all this together and it looks like the people are going to have to rally if Sam Rockwell is going to get the Oscar nomination he deserves for his performance in Duncan Jones’ “Moon”.  Hit the jump to find out how you can support a worthy cause.