The Gurus Look At The Top Three Choices In The Big Eight Categories This Week, Hoping For Some Heated Competition Somewhere The Charts

It's Oscartown, Jake
A Civil Year
by Kristopher Tapley

It is far too easy to filter everything down to a cinematic year of "political" or "social" statements. Those sentiments are obviously happening on the surface, but the deeper you look, especially within the Academy's Best Picture candidates, the more the focus seems to tighten. More than any year I can think of, this year's nominees are representative of the human experience as it relates to civil interaction and personal relationships.

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The Weekend Report
by Leonard Klady

Distributors buckled down for movie going erosion as the Super Bowl weekend arrived. Weekend business was arcing toward roughly $108 million or a 16% decline from the prior weekend. However, it also represented a 6% boost from 2005.

For those with long memories, the original When a Stranger Calls with Carol Kane and Charles Durning opened in 1979 and scared up great business and a totally forgettable sequel.
Weekend Estimates (Full List)
Domestic Market Share

The Ultimate DVD Geek
Lady Sings The Blues
by Doug Pratt

What the film does to Holiday's life, Ross does to her music, glossing it over a bit and condensing its artistry while infusing it with pop star glamour. This isn't a bad thing, because what really happened is that it revitalized Holiday's reputation and re-introduced her music to a new generation, while offering a definitive context for that music, the way that all of the best biographical music dramas do. At the same time, the film's success contributed to the deconstruction of the very prejudices it was depicting, proving that a drama glamorizing the African-American experience could attract audiences across the spectrum.

MCN DVD Wrap-Up
Bubble

Unless you've been locked in a closet for the last two weeks, you've probably already heard of Bubble. It is the film some fear portends the collapse of film distribution as we've known it for more than 100 years. God forbid. By electing to debut Steven Soderbergh's fragile blue-collar drama simultaneously in select theaters, on HDNet and in video stores, its producers have advanced the day when many, if not all movies will be released day-and-date on several complementary formats.

Plus: Bubble, Tim Burton's Corpse Bride, Captains Courageous, Cimarron, Goldstein, The Good Earth, Hill Street Blues, Johnny Belinda, Kitty Foyle, Lincoln and Lee at Antietam: The Cost of Freedom, Lust for Life, The Pink Panther Film Collection, The Pink Panther Classic Cartoon Collection, Rat Patrol, The Ultimate Lesbian Short Film Festival

20 Weeks To Oscar
Pass, Present And Future
by David Poland

It's the micro/macro Oscars this year.

There will be competition in the tech/craft categories… and there looks to be some intense competition in the top two categories, Best Picture and Best Director. The only high-profile category that is seriously competitive is Best Supporting Actor… and as I recall, that is the second award given out in the evening. So buckle up and try not to fall out of your chair in boredom as you wait the three hours between seeing if George Clooney, Paul Giamatti, or the upset-minded Matt Dillon of Crash wins and finally finding out whether Brokeback Mountain has been backed or broken.
The Oscar Chart

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Digital Nation
The Oscar Docs
by Gary Dretzka

The Great Snub of 2006 is – the envelope, please -- the elimination of Werner Herzog’s fascinating Grizzly Man, which used the victims’ own tapes to document the events leading up to the horrific deaths of Xtreme naturalists Timothy Treadwell and Amie Huguenard. That the critically lauded film didn’t even make the documentary committee’s short list of 15 titles, announced more than two months ago, ranks right up there with last January’s inexplicable exclusion of Paul Giamatti from the list of nominees for Sideways.

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Very Few Surprises
In Oscar Nominations

Brokeback Mountain leads with 8 nominations... Crash with 6... Munich pulls out 5 including
Picture/Director/Screenplay.... Terrence Howard grabs a Hustle & Flow nom... Star Wars shockingly left out of EFX category
Full List
By The Numbers
By Film
Fact Sheets
Reactions

Updated throughout the day
Updated: 5:10 pm

The Da Vinci Code Won't Get A Protest Out Of Opus Dei

Roger Ebert On The Lasting Greatness Of Inherit The Wind

Dogs Of The Movie Imagination At Worth1000

But What About Beyonce?
Rob Harvilla Offers A $50 Reward If Randy Newman Will Perform "It's Hard Out Here For A Pimp" At The Oscars

The Guerilla Girls Take On Oscar With Queen Kong And A Sunset Blvd Billboard
And - The Billboard

Oscar Satire Of The Day
Son Of The Mask Snubbed

Paramount Classics Corners The Market On Polar Bear/Walrus Movies... Hopefully A Defensive Move... Otherwise, It Might Just Seem Stupid

Monkeying Around With Animated Product Placement

Sing Along To Bollywood And Learn To Read

Trailer du Jour
Sofia Coppola's Marie-Antoinette

"I wanted to put up a 'Do Not Disturb' sign because I was so embarrassed about anyone going in."
Keira Knightley On Her (VF Cover) Virginity

Uma Thurman Honored By France... Yes, All Of France... Yes, All Of Uma

X3 Changes Name... Not To "Oy, The Entire Movie Is A Spoiler," But To X-Men: The Last Stand

Carl Icahn Details A Plan That Splits Time Warner Into Four Public Entities
Plus - The 371 Page Report

The Year Of The Statement Film Everywhere
A Turkish Film Whose Rambo-Like Hero Takes On US Soldiers In Iraq

Jesse L. Martin Walks Marvin Gaye's Line In Sexual Healing

Can You Laugh At The Brokeback Jokes Without Being Intolerant?
And - The Parodies Continue In Brokeback Squadron And Brokeback To The Future

Crash: The Little Movie That Could

The Man Enters The Red Tent For The First Time This Award Season... Qs&As The Way Only Manohla Does

How Do You Help Pay $7 Billion for Pixar? Sell Your Radio Division For $2.7 Billion

Joining The Fray In Discussing Old Media's Most Recent Attack On The Web
Also - Patrick Goldstein & John Horn's Podcasts On The Unvelope

Breznican Rolls A Clerks II J With Silent Bob

Lord Of The Rings The Musical Hits Toronto And The Audience Loves It!

Pellicano Indicted... No Fresh Meat Thrown Into The Mix Though Some Still Anticipated

Disney Rats Out The Name Of Pixar's Next Annual Billion Dollar Movie

Gay Groups Celebrate Brokeback Mountain... But Are These Stories Better News , In Terms Of Oscar Voting, For BBM Or Crash?

Fabrikant Brings Some Much Needed Cynicism To Parade Of Recent Borderline Deals
And - A Videogame Dip Too
Plus - The Western Union Telegram Is No More, Passing Into History After 1555 Years

If Only We Had Known! - "Brad Grey doesn't just need to make movies. He needs to make movies that people want to see."
See The Paper Of Record Carry Brad Grey's Water, Spilling Just Enough To Appear Tough

Mike Russell Delivers The Comic View Of Park City, Literally

Wallace And Gromit Sweep The Feature Awards At The Annies

MGM Starts Planning Its Separation From Sony - With Many Rights, Particularly Home Entertainment Staying With Sony For Another Few Years - Just A Year After The "Merger"
Reported On April 7, 2005 - "The Consortium" More Likely To IPO Or Sell MGM/UA In A Few Years Than Sony Is To Purchase It."

Look For Narnia's Prince Caspian In 2007... But No Back-To-Back Sequels As Originally Projected

Commentary By Gary Dretzka
Earlier - Variety's Double Feature On Buzz/Gossip... Still Trying To Keep The Future From Coming
First, A Story That Fails To Report The Many Times MCN Has Scooped Variety While Falsely Associating Standards Here With Those Of Self-Labeled Gossip Site Defamer, Grossly Misestimating MCN Traffic Figures Based On A Metering Company Owned By VNU Which Is Parent To Another Competing Trade Mag, And While Claiming Journalistic Ethics, Fails to Contact At Least This Trade Outlet Before Making Self-Serving Proclamations
Then, Peter Bart Runs Clearly Inaccurate Gossip In His Column
And By The Way - Stacey Snider & Universal's Non-Denial Of Last Week's Rumors Invariably Means Either Some Specific Truth Or That She Is Leveraging The Buzz Against GE In Renewal Talks... Please Note That MCN Always Labels Gossip As Gossip And Fact As Fact

Oscar's Frontrunning Duo, Crash & Brokeback Mountain, Win WGA Awards

New York Magazine Suck On The Weinstein's Tailpipe... Inhales Deeply

David Reminck Talks Capote With Hoffman
And - The Lipp Sticks The Other Capote Movie Front & Center

The Guardian On Al Gore In Sundance
And - MCN Cameras Have A Different Experience

A Video Chat With The Director Of Sundance Entry Journey From The Fall

The Mystique Of Betty Friedan Passes At 85

RoJo's On The (Long Delayed) Nightwatch

Another Mediocre Movie With Lots Of Graphic Sex? Write About It NOW!

Why A Black Dahlia Story Seven Months Before Release? Beats Us

Geoff Pevere Battles His Way Back From Oscar Ennui

An Early Look At Superbowl Trailers
Cars
Pirates of the Carribbean: Dead
Man's Chest
The Shaggy Dog

The Notorious Bettie Page: The Trailer, The Poster, And The Pin Up

The Bagger On Brokeback And The Other Best Picture Chances

Yes, There Is A Golden Groundhog Award, And Sunnyvale Is The Winner

Ellwood On The Oscar Battle
"Crash is more than a stealth candidate to take the top prize from Brokeback -- it may be the actual front runner."

The Shaggy Dog Superbowl Trailer

Evangelicals Struck By The End Of Chad Allen's Spear And His Willingness To Share It With Men

75 Years Of Karloff

QT/RR Flick Set For Weinsteins

Terry Press' Animated Life Confirmed
And - The Japanese Check Out Of DW