Oscar News

• Monday the Academy held their annual nominee luncheon, where nominees could socialize, get lectured on the rules of the awards ceremony and pose for photos, including the Oscar Nominee Photo.
• Among the guilds and minor awards this past week, Rango took Best Film at the Annies, Rise of the Planet of the Apes won the top prize at the Visual Effects Society and the Art Directors Guild awarded Hugo, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
• The awards for this year’s ceremony took their annual pilgrimage from Chicago to Los Angeles in a different fashion this year.

Review Round-Up

• In Darkness, Poland’s nominee for Best Foreign Film at the end of the month, opened to warm reviews and a 69 on Metacritic. Supporters find the holocaust film important and moving, while detractors say there is nothing new in the film that hasn’t been covered in hundreds of World War II films before.

Oscar Box Office

• The Descendants continued its strong holding power, again in 8th place after 12 weeks in theaters.

Oscar Farewell

The Oscar family didn’t lose any members this week.