There were some quality nominees for this year’s Best Animated Short Oscar, but none of them came close to the winner, The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore.  The short is filled with clever visuals, vibrant colors, and a lot of heart.  At first, it almost seems like it’s going to be the intro for Reading Rainbow if the intro took up half the show.  But as the short develops, you see how stories (symbolized by books) shape and enrich our lives especially once we tell our own.  And it does all of this without dialogue.  The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore made me tear up by the end, and after watching the short, I hope you’ll understand and share my reaction.

Hit the jump to watch The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore.

Last night, I watched more Oscar red carpet coverage than I ever have in my life because I made the grave error of showing up to a party two-and-a-half hours early.  We watched far too much of E!’s pre-show coverage and when we felt our brains trying to escape like a passenger on a sinking ship, we switched over to ABC’s red-carpet coverage.  Naturally, that’s when something interesting happened on E!.  The Twitterdome exploded by saying that Sacha Baron Cohen‘s character from The Dictator, Admiral General Aladeen (who was “banned” and then “unbanned” from the Oscars), had spilled Kim Jong-il‘s ashes on Ryan Seacrest.  We scoured the Internet for video because of course E! wasn’t going to replay the night’s best moment.  We couldn’t find the video online because the Internet chose to let us down.  Thanks, Internet.

Thankfully, the video has finally gone online and you can check out staged antics after the jump.  The Dictator opens May 11th.

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).

We cover Mondo quite a bit here at Collider, the reason being that they create really, really, really cool posters, and today the collectible boutique arm of the Alamo Drafthouse announced a series of posters to coincide with this year’s Academy Awards. Mondo will be releasing limited prints of four of their favorite nominated films from 2011, and they’re kicking things off with Martin Scorsese’s lovely ode to cinema, Hugo and Gore Verbinski’s stellar and quirky Rango. I’m a huge fan of both movies, and these Mondo posters capture the essence of each film perfectly. The two other posters in the series will be announced next week, but today you can take a look at Hugo by artist Kevin Tong and Rango by artist Tom Whalen.

Hit the jump to check out the posters for Best Picture Nominee Hugo and Best Animated Feature nominee Rango. All four posters will go on sale during the Academy Awards on Sunday, February 26th. As always, follow @MondoNews for on sale announcements.

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.