One of the benefits of seeing a new Pixar movie in theaters is catching the short film that plays before the feature.  The studio has churned out gems like Day & Night, Partly Cloudy, One Man Band, in front of some of their biggest hits, and this year in front of Brave the wonderfully charming short La Luna was featured.  The short has now been released online in full, so if you missed director Enrico Casarosa’s gorgeous pic in theaters, now’s the time to rectify that.  Not only is the story top-notch, the film also includes a great guitar-infused score by Michael Giacchino.  Though it ultimately lost the Best Animated Short Oscar to William Joyce’s moving The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, it’s still a swell piece of work that’s well-worth your time.

Hit the jump to watch the full short film.

With the theatrical releases of such Oscar-nominated features as The Artist, War Horse and Hugo, most people are at least aware of the movies going into the live Oscars broadcast on February 26^th. Slightly less well-known are the short films nominated for this year’s awards. Luckily for you, all of them will be shown in a limited theatrical release on February 10^th via ShortsHD and Magnolia Pictures. Similar to their successful release of last year’s nominated shorts, three theatrical programs will provide audiences access to short films from the animation, live action and short subject documentary categories. Hit the jump to check out the details.

The nominations for the 84th Annual Academy Awards have finally been unveiled. Many of the categories have fallen in line just as most have predicted (I fared alright with my predictions, but not great), with Hugo scoring 11 nods, followed closely by The Artist with 10. The biggest surprises are War Horse and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close getting in for Best Picture, the exclusion of The Adventures of Tintin from Best Animated Feature, and The Tree of Life nabbing Best Picture and Best Director nods (hooray!). On the snub side of things, despite landing the most precursor critics awards of any other actor in the race thus far, Albert Brooks was denied a Best Supporting Actor nod for his stellar work in Drive (boo). Additionally, Tilda Swinton was overlooked for giving the best performance of the year in We Need to Talk About Kevin, and AMPAS has no love for Michael Fassbender‘s haunting work in Shame.

There’s still plenty to be happy about, as Gary Oldman has his first ever Oscar Nomination (yes, that’s right) and Melissa McCarthy is a Best Supporting Actress nominee. Hit the jump to check out the full list of nominees. The 84th Academy Awards will be presented by Billy Crystal on February 26th.

Pixar has released a pretty sweet logo and new image from its upcoming short La Luna. Directed by Enrico Casarosa (story artist on films such as Cars and Up), La Luna tells the story of a young boy who rows out to sea with this father and grandpa to learn about their “unusual line of work.” Timing in at just under seven minutes, the short is set to premiere at the Annecy International Film Festival currently underway in France. Hit the jump to check out the new images and a synopsis.

Disney has released the first image and synopsis from the new Pixar short La Luna. Directed by Enrico Casarosa (story artist on Pixar films such as Cars and Up), La Luna runs almost seven minutes and is a coming-of-age tale that centers on a young boy who learns of his family’s “unusual line of work” and must decide whether or not to follow in his father and grandfather’s footsteps. The film will premiere in June at the Annecy International Animation Festival.

Hit the jump to check out the full image and synopsis.