It’s going to be an American night at this year’s César Awards (France’s Oscar equivalent). For starters, Quentin Tarantino is the recipient of the ceremony’s honorary award, Alain Terzian, the president of the Académie des arts et techniques du cinéma announced at a press conference this morning in Paris. It was also confirmed that the Inglorious Basterds director will pick up his trophy in person.

Additionally, three American movies are among the seven nominees for Best Foreign Film: Christopher Nolan’s Inception, David Fincher’s The Social Network and Clint Eastwood’s Invictus.  Presided by Jodie Foster and hosted for the second year running by French actor Antoine de Caunes — a witty guy but meek compared to Ricky Gervais — the 36th edition of the Césars will take place on February 25 in Paris.  See the full list of César nominees after the jump.

Clint Eastwood has become king of the Oscar bait. There’s something – I don’t know – soothing about this, even if it is not was expected from The Man with No Name. But every year now he cranks out a film or two that seems crafted to garner acclaim and awards. This worked for a while with Mystic River and Million Dollar Baby, but though a number of his films after those two got cursory nominations, Eastwood’s Oscar run haven’t had much heat since. And this year, when the Academy expanded to ten best picture nominees; it was telling that – though the film got two acting nominations – Eastwood’s Invictus was not a best picture nominee. The story of how Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman) used the South African Rugby team (headed up by Matt Damon) to unite his country is exactly the sort of Oscar bait that usually attracts attention. But not this time, and for reason. My review of Invictus on Blu-ray after the jump.

Yesterday I was able to participate in a small roundtable interview with Matt Damon for his new movie Green Zone.  While I’ll have the full interview posted closer to release, we were able to get updates on a ton of his upcoming projects like the Coen Brothers True Grit, Steven Soderbergh’s Contagion, the Gary Ross’s Robert Kennedy project (Damon would play Kennedy), Clint Eastwood’s Hereafter, playing a New York Yankees pitcher with Ben Affleck, and Liberace.  And on top of updates on his future projects, he talked about being nominated for an Oscar on Invictus, and how he’s incredibly excited to direct his first feature.

If you’d like to hear more…hit the jump:

Matt Damon has been cast to play Robert F. Kennedy in a biopic about the late politician.  Deadline reports that the film will be based on the Evan Thomas biography His Life. Gary Ross (Seabiscuit) will direct from a screenplay by Steven Knight (Eastern Promises).  The biopic will span Kennedy’s ascent from his brother’s shadow to a powerful nation figure before being assassinated during his 1968 campaign for President.

This may finally be Damon’s shot at a long-deserved Oscar.  Obviously, I haven’t read the script and a million things can happen between now and the finished film, but on paper, you have a respected, talented, and bankable actor playing a larger-than-life American icon.  The Academy becomes filled with tiny orgasms over that kind of project.  While Damon was nominated this year for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of South African rugby star Francois Pienaar in Clint Eastwood’s Invictus, that doesn’t even begin to compare to playing Robert F. Kennedy.  Damon is the goods and RFK’s story is worth telling so it falls to Ross and Knight to live up to the potential of this project.

Damon is currently set to star in Contagion for Steven Soderbergh, True Grit for the Coen Brothers, Hereafter for Clint Eastwood, and will next be seen in Paul Greengrass’ Green Zone, which hits theaters on March 12th.

2009 was another big year for movies thanks to, in varying degrees, the recession, 3D ticket prices and Taylor Lautner’s abs. For funsies we have compiled a fairly trivial movie calendar for the year that was. Here you will find all the big events that, for whatever reason, may not have gotten a lot of media coverage.  Hit the jump to begin reminiscing about the past 12 months:

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) announced their nominees for the 67th Annual Golden Globes and before I comment on the nominees, I first have to explain something about the Globes.  The Globes are not really an indiciator of the Oscars.  Critics lists and awards from various guilds are far better predictors because the Globes are ultimately bought and paid for by the studios.  The Oscars are as well to some extent, but the Globes are just ridiculous.  However, it doesn’t mean they’re not a lot of fun and that they’ll take chances Oscar won’t.

But the big movie nominee was a safe choice with Jason Reitman’s Up in the Air grabbing six nods followed by Rob Marshall’s Nine, which racked up five.  But looking through the nominees, there are some absolutely bizarre inclusions: Julia Roberts for Duplicity (this one makes sense when you remember that the HFPA are starfuckers), Matt Damon for Invictus, and “I See You” from Avatar as the Best Original Song, a tune hated by even those who love the movie .  Some of the snubs are also weird: No love for Up or Fantastic Mr. Fox for Best Musical/Comedy and no Best Song nomination for anything from The Princess and the Frog.

By the same token, I have to give it up for the Globes for nominating The Hangover as Best Musical/Comedy (I guess that FYC ad paid off) and Quentin Tarantino for Best Director for Inglourious Basterds.  It’s all pretty random but the Globes are an entertaining show with a looser atmosphere than the Oscars.  Hit the jump to check out the full list of nominees, including the ones for television (Glee led the pack with four nominations).

After two weeks of sold-out shows in New York and LA, Disney sent The Princess and the Frog out to multiplexes nationwide this weekend. It’s been over ten years since little girls had a new Disney Princess to coo over and weeks since an all-ages family film graced a movie marquee, which is why it shouldn’t surprise anyone that Princess replaced The Blind Side as the number one film domestically. What is a bit surprising, to me at least, is how average the estimated grosses for Disney’s much-hyped feature turned out to be.

After months of hype and controversy, Disney Animation introduced America to its newest princess on Friday with The Princess and the Frog. Personally, I never thought that casting the first amphibian in an animated Disney feature was particularly noteworthy – but perhaps I’m missing the broader strokes of the story. In her first day on 3,434 screens, the lovely green-hued Princess Tiana brought in an estimated $7 million to knock The Blind Side out of first place. That figure was only a bit under the debut of Mulan, Disney’s last fairy-tale princess, which went on to make $22.7 million in its debut weekend back in 1998. Weekend matinees should help The Princess and the Frog to top that figure.  If not, get ready to read a lot of angry pro-frog blog posts on Monday morning. In less contentious news, Clint Eastwood’s Invictus got off to a decent start with $2.9 million from 2,125 theatres. Nothing controversial about a movie set in apartheid-era South Africa, after all.

There’s technically nothing wrong with Invictus.  Clint Eastwood’s direction is smart, Morgan Freeman gives a fantastic performance as Nelson Mandela, the pacing is steady, the script is well written, and it has a straightforward moral message about the power of forgiveness.  But there’s not much you can do with the film after you see it.  Invictus never crosses that line where you have to think about the movie, consider its themes, or even feel like cheering.  It gives you a warm, fuzzy feeling for two hours and then you’re done.

Matt Damon has been honored for his work on both sides of the camera, including an Academy Award for Best Screenplay and an Oscar nomination for Best Actor. In his latest project Invictus, he’s taking on real-life sports hero Francois Pienaar, the captain of South Africa’s rugby team, who helped unite the country by leading the underdogs to victory in the 1995 World Cup Championship match.

While at the film’s press day, the actor talked about the challenges of playing rugby, portraying a real-life hero, working with Clint Eastwood and the importance of doing things of social value.

Check out what he had to say after the jump:

Steve is currently at the press junket for Clint Eastwood’s Invictus and while there he was able to get updates from Matt Damon on Steven Soderbergh’s biopic Liberace, the Coen Brothers adaptation of True Grit, and most importantly, what’s happening with Bourne 4 now that director Paul Greengrass has left the project.  Damon provided brief updates on all of these in less than a minute.  It was impressive.

According to Damon, they’re still waiting on a script for Bourne 4 but that he’s planning to wait for Greengrass and when Greengrass wants to do it, they’ll do it.  He also says that he won’t make a fourth Bourne without Greengrass but he’s optimistic that the director will return at some point down the road.  As for Liberace, they’re planning on shooting it in the summer, and he confirmed he’s playing the role of La Beouf in True Grit which he’ll be shooting in March.  Hit the jump to read the transcript.

Producer Mace Neufeld, who has been with the Jack Ryan series since The Hunt for Red October, provided an update on the status of the next entry in the franchise to Steve who is at the press junket today for the upcoming Clint Eastwood film Invictus starring Matt Damon.  Set to Star Chris Pine as the 4^th Mr. Ryan (following Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford, and Ben Affleck), Neufeld said that while the story will skew young for Pine, it will not be an origin story.

According to Neufeld, the story picks up with Ryan on Wall Street (the home of all great heroes!) although he didn’t elaborate beyond that point.  Neufeld did point out that what separates the Jack Ryan franchise from most others is that “they’re kind of thinking man’s thrillers,” and Ryan’s skills is in seeing ahead three steps to reach conclusions before everybody else.  Hopefully that will translate into an exciting film and will show others (*cough*Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons*cough*) how it’s done.

Check out the full transcript after the jump.

The National Board of Review has chosen Jason Reitman’s Up in the Air as the Best Picture of 2009, but as Anne Thompson states, the National Board of Review tends to be a bellwether of where Oscar momentum is heading, but not necessarily a forecaster of where it will be.  However, it’s a near-certainty that Up in the Air will be getting some Oscar nominations because not only is it in the zeitgeist (the main character Ryan Bingham fires people for a living), but it’s just a damn good film and critics agree with an 86% on Rotten Tomatoes (look for my review tonight).  If you’d like a track record for the NBR, its Best Picture choice has gone on to be nominated for Best Picture Oscar nine of the past ten years (their selection of Quills in 2000 was a swing and a miss), and won the award the past two years.

George Clooney also won the NBR’s Best Actor award for Up in the Air (tied with Morgan Freeman for Invictus), Carey Mulligan won Best Actress for An Education, Woody Harrelson won Best Supporting Actor for The Messenger, Anna Kendrick won Best Supporting Actress for Up in the Air, and Clint Eastwood won Best Director for Invictus.  Hit the jump for the full list of winners including the NBR’s picks for the 10 Best Films of the Year after Up in the Air.

Clint Eastwood Directing + Matt Damon + Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela = Invictus already has a serious shot at some Oscars.  It’s the kind of film that the Academy loves and as long as it gets some positive reviews, it should have a strong shot at nabbing one of the ten Best Picture slots.

Today we have nine clips from the film and if you don’t get the whole Awards-thing, just check out these clips.  Remember, it’s not a question of “Good” or “Bad”; with the Academy, it’s always a question of “importance”.  Hit the jump to see how important this film looks along with a brief synopsis.  Invictus hits theaters on December 11^th.

The first trailer for Clint Eastwood’s “Invictus” has been released and it absolutely looks like an awards contender.  You’ve got the stellar cast (Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon), the director everyone loves, and a feel good story about a country coming together.  If you aren’t familiar with the film, “Invictus” tells the true story of how Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman) joined forces with the captain of South Africa’s rugby team, Francois Pienaar (Matt Damon), to help unite their country.  Check out the trailer after the jump.