The Oscar Nominations How Much Do You Know? For eight days, you can put your powers of Oscar prognostication to the test. Each day a different category. Each day a winner. Saturday: Best Director Sunday: Adapted Screenplay Saturday: Supporting Actor

10 Days At Sundance Two For The Bowl by David Poland It opens with an unidentified woman cleaning up a bedroom and, when putting something away in the night table drawer, finding a vibrator. After returning to consider the object a couple of times to little comic effect, the unidentified woman grabs the vibrator, turns it on and masturbates. The metaphor extends to pretty much the entire movie. .

The Reeler From New York To Sundance: Bugcrush by S.T. VanAirsdale Carter Smith made Bugcrush, an adaptation of Scott Treleaven's story about the "sinister" fallout from a relationship between two high-school boys. An in-demand fashion photographer by day, Smith had directed only a few commercials and small TV projects before diving into his 35-minute film debut last May.

The Hot Blog Update: Thursday, 4:51p, Utah Time The News From Park City .

20 Weeks To Oscar
Looking Back With Forward Still Ahead
by David Poland

Before we get to the real surprises, in two weeks, let's look at what surprises we can take away from this year's Oscar season so far.

TINKLE TINKLE - Can you hear that? Every time a bell rings, someone becomes a star. This year that someone is Terrence Howard, who has not only given great performances, but has also shown himself to be up to the superstar game off the screen.

The Oscar Charts Quiz
A. Will this be the one win for this film?
B. The little engine that might.
C. Worthy, but not likely... not from The Academy
D. Your runner up.
E. Would help if he showed up somewhere.

The Gurus Look At The Big Eight Categories ...

Best Picture
Best Supporting Actress
Best Supporting Actor
Best Original Screenplay
Best Adapted Screenplay
Best Actress
Best Actor
Best Director

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It's Oscartown, Jake
Acquiescence
by Kristopher Tapley

Brokeback Mountain, Good Night, and Good Luck. and Syriana (to a lesser extent) continue to pop up as major awards contenders, forcing the season into a state of predictability at this point. But I think it's important to grasp - at the very least - that the state of art in the cinema has come to a point of concentrated statements much like the invigorating work that came out of the 1970s.

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Weekend Report
by Leonard Klady

Hoodwinked marks the first time the nascent Weinstein Co. has had a picture top the weekend charts. The acquisition drew little attention when it played a week to qualify for the Oscars and wasn't expected to gross more than $10 million in its national bow. Tracking, and a perception of the film's primary appeal, greatly under appreciated the draw it ultimately had for pre-teens that have been largely ignored in recent weeks.
Weekend Estimates (Full List)

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Digital Nation
by Gary Dretzka

Naturally, the possibility of watching Lost and Desperate Housewives while at work, or sitting on the potty, attracted the usual flurry of media coverage, as well. While not entirely grasping the concept of downloading entertainment content for use on portable micro-screens – let alone, the economic and social ramifications of such techno-wizardry – airhead news anchors delivered the companies’ pitch with the same urgency usually reserved for high-speed police chases, drive-by shootings and Michael Jackson sightings.

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Pride, Unprejudiced
by Ray Pride

No Sundance predictions for you yet, fellas, but some ruminations (but no fulminations) on Match Point, Munich, Caché, Innocence, Runin, and conversations with Marc Levin about The Protocols of Zion and Richard Shepard about the giddy, profane Matador.

In a single masterful stroke, Michael Haneke explains everything in his new movie, Caché. And the solution is a matter of something being hidden in plain sight. If you are impatient, more than unobservant, you might miss it.

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MCN DVD Wrap-Up
The Constant Gardener

The Constant Gardner was as provocative as it was exciting to watch … unusual for a picture grounded in the dramatization of such a complex socio-economic issue as unethical pharmaceutical research. More>>

The Hot Button: The Constant Gardner is two movies. It is a mystery/thriller, set in Kenya. It is also a powerful love story.

Plus: Wedding Crashers: Uncorked, Broken Flowers, The Constant Gardener, Hustle & Flow, Saraband, The Magnificent Seven, Dead Poet's Society, Good Morning Vietnam, Secuestro Express, Café Lumiere, Missing in America, Strong Medecine, Gunsmoke, All In The Family, Rebus, The Pale Horse: Agatha Christie, Hands of a Murderer, Gerald McBoing Boing, Stormy Weather, Hallelujah, Green Pastures, A Great Day In Harlem, The Gospel: Special Edition, Snatch: Deluxe Edition

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The Ultimate DVD Geek
Mr. and Mrs. Smith
by Doug Pratt

The 2005 film is messy, with an obtuse beginning and no ending whatsoever, but the twist is spirited enough, and accompanied by enough pyrotechnics, to forge sufficient entertainment, preventing the film from being a complete waste of time. Of course, the movie wants desperately to be a metaphor about marriage and relationships, and it overplays that hand, but the zingy dialog is full of quips that couples will identify with, and the stars are accomplished enough performers to hold up their end no matter how dumb the movie becomes. Either you like them or you don't, and your opinion of the film will conform to that measure.

Updated throughout the day
Updated: 5:09 pm

The Always Intense Tony Franciosa Dies At Age 77

Geoff Pevere Thinks Some Movies Are Way Too Long, And He Says God Agrees With Him

The Sundance Year Of The Music Doc: Hip-Hop & Manhood, The Talking Heads, Neil Young, And The Beastie Boys

20 Worthy Performances That Shouldn't Get Forgotten At Voting Time From Claudia Puig

Mark Lawson Explains Why Cache (Hidden) Is A Critic Fave - And Why It Should Be

Marr & Wingfield Report That Disney/Pixar Talks Are Heating Up... But Is The News Just An Attempt To Find Out If Wall Street Will See This As The Next AOL Merger?

Halbfinger Hearts Alpha Dog's Nick Casavettes

The Man Dances With The Attitude (Or Is That Altitude?) That Brung Her
"Despite the hype and the frigid climes Sundance remains invaluable - wildly annoying, but invaluable."

The BAFTAs Have Nominated

AMPAS Has Spoken ..
Kris Tapley On Syriana's Screenplay Switch Midstream - It's Not Adapted, It's Original

USA Today Previews Ten At Sundance
The News From Park City

He Shoulda' Been A Cowboy
Harry Hamlin's Gay Love Story Movie Didn't Make Him A Star

David Germain Gets Excited About 2006

Jack Mathews Makes A Case For Terence Howard, Crash And Capote

Sundance Trailers To Whet The Appetite
Michael Rappaport's Special
Sarah Polley in The Secret Life of Words

When Animators Blog

So Distubing For So Many Reasons ..
Captain Kirk, A Kidney Stone, And Someone Willing To Pay $25k

International Tensions And Other Challenges Of Rating Memoirs Of A Geisha In China

Last Year Ray, This Year Walk The Line: The March Of The Musical Bio-Pics

Russia's Museum Of Cinema Goes Dark

Malaysia's Intellectual Property Protection & The MPAA Team Up On Piracy

Scott & Emanuel Globeathize

The Art Directors Nominate

"I'm Campaignin' Here..."
The Original Brokeback Ride, Midnight Cowboy, Set For A Glamorous DVD Re-Release, Just In Time For What Is Hoped to Be The Peak Of The Brokeback Mountain

"What The HELL Happened To That Copy Of The Flamingo Kid They Were Sending Me?"

That Great Opening Song From The Golden Globes

The Sundance High School & The Hard Core Art Film

LouLu Looks At Aniston Craziness For Sundance Kickoff, Friends With Money

Kathleen Turner On What Really Makes A Woman Sexy And Why You Don't See It In Movies

Golden Globe Goes
Brokeback Mountain, Walk The Line
Hoffman/Huffman/Phoenix/ Witherspoon
Film And Television

Hans Zimmer To Score Da Vinci Code

ThinkFilm Grabs Down In The Valley

The 177 Film Santa Barbara Film Festival Line-Up

David Thomson On Marshall Fine On John Cassavetes

The Online FIlm Critics Give A Little Love To A History Of Violence And Sin City

A Good Piece On The Roll Out Of Digital Projection... Except For The Lazy & Inaccurate "Can This Save Theatrical?" Obsession

A Piece On The New Kirby Dick Doc That Seems Too Busy Trying To Be Blog-Clever To Actually Be Clear About Its Point

Tricks For Marketing A Small Movie

How Many Times Have You Seen Walk The Line? She's Heading Towards #63

Roger Ebert Remembers Chuck Jones And His Looney Tunes

How Did MCN Miss The Title Bump Of Ms. Utley & Mr. Gilula Moving Into The COO Position In The P-Rice Empire?

The Latest Film From Documentarian Vikram Jayanti, Lincoln, Premieres On The History Channel On Monday Night

From The Film Experience - The Most Excellent Foreign Language Films Chart & An Interview With The Editor Of Crash

The Floating Film Festival Sails But Once Every Other Year

The New World Of Q'orianka Kilcher
"This is like a very thin line between magic and madness."

Non-CG Animation Dominates Oscar Race, If Not Box Office

Ro Jo On Dan Futterman Acting Like A Screenwriter

The Road To Hoodwinked

A Piece About Why Theatrical Will Live... Even If The Author Gives Up On It In Spite Of Evidence To The Contrary In Every Other Medium

Tremendous Pre-Sundance Package From The Salt Lake City Tribune

Sundance Entry Alpha Dog Reverberates In The Real World

Anne Thompson Profiles A Guy Who Makes The Risky Business Column Title Into A Double Entendre, Don Murphy

The Woman Who Had It All
Shelley Winters Passes On At 85

Revisiting The Passenger 25 Years Later
"At 21, arrogant and priggish, I was certain I'd never make the mistakes Locke does.. At 51, Antonioni's point seems more convincing."

Sunday Parade Of Awards Pitches
The Man On A History Of Violent Sex
Tony Scott On Tight-Lipped Syriana
Holden Onto Nine Lives
Edelstein On True Man PS Hoffman
The Parade Of John Williams Nods
Mark-O!!! Oscar Campaign-O!!!

NBC Charges News Agencies $1200 For Photos From The Globes - To Pay For A New Server?

Please Stop The Rocker/Rapper-Turned- Actor, Pleads John Patterson

Peter Rainer's List Of Movie Theatre Don'ts

The ACE Eddie Nominations

The NeoCons Continue The Anti-Munich Drumbeat In The Washington Post & The Wall Street Journal

Scripter? I Hardly Know Her
Scripter Voting Narrowed To Capote & Syriana, Which Tied And Will Now Have A Runoff, Winner To Be Announced At Feb 11 Dinner