Academy Award

By Xan Brooks, Jason Solomons, Andrew Pulver And finally, Jason meets Courtney Hunt, whose feature directorial debut Frozen River scored two nominations at this year's Oscars: best screenplay for her and best actress for Melissa Leo's gutsy portrayal of a woman forced into people-smuggling to make ends meet. Hunt shares why she c...

By Jason Solomons, Xan Brooks lt;p>On this edition of Film Weekly, Ryan Fleck, co-director of the Oscar-nominated Half Nelson, joins Jason Solomons to talk about his new film <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/movie/126617/sugar">Sugar</a>, a subtle take on the American dream through t...

By Jason Solomons, Xan Brooks It was a triumphant night for the Brits at the Academy Awards, with Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire bagging eight gongs, while Kate Winslet went home with the award for best actress. Jason Solomons and Xan Brooks discussed the action through the small hours

By Mike Duran, Phil Maynard Haydn Lewis contracted HIV in 1985 after receiving infected blood in a transfusion. He speaks to Alexandra Topping about his fight to get answers as the results of an independent inquiry are published. Jason Solomons reports on an exceptional night for British talent at the 81st Oscars ce...

By Hugh Hart Despite the Academy's longstanding bias against popcorn flicks, Ledger is expected to win the Best Supporting Actor trophy Sunday. (The Academy also managed to toss six technical category nominations in the direction of Christopher Nolan's Batman epic.)

By Belinda Rhodes, Phil Maynard, Iain Chambers, Peter Sale Rosie Swash reports from the Brit Awards in London where 24-year-old soul singer Duffy claimed three awards including best album. And ahead of Sunday's Oscars ceremony Hannah Pool talks to Anil Kapoor about international fame and the appeal of Slumdog Millionaire.

By Hannah Pool Are you going to the Oscars? Yes. I'm looking forward to it. It's my first time at the Oscars. It was my first time at the Baftas, the Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild, my first English film, my first everything. It couldn't have been a better first.

By Alex Billington Tune in next week for a comprehensive Oscars discussion and our coverage of the week's movie news. Download or Listen Now: See post to listen to audio stream] Subscribe via: RSS or iTunes Voicemail Line: 310-668-1982 Timeline & Links:

By Jason Solomons, Xan Brooks How does it feel to be nominated for a Bafta and what does it mean when you win one? Jason Solomons gets the lowdown from Simon Chinn, the Bafta-winning producer of Man On Wire, the acclaimed documentary about Philippe Petit's WTC wire-walk which is about to be rereleased theatrically – ap...

By tomoneil Considering how restrictive the Oscars are about membership, let's guess that no more than half of that BAFTA gang also belongs to the Oscar academy. My guess is that means that there's probably an overlap of 1,000 voters between the two voting groups, which both have between 5,000 and 6,0...

By Andrew Pulver, Jason Solomons First up, Cruz tells Jason about her extreme gratitude for her Bafta and Oscar nominations, playing the seductive and unhinged Maria Elena in Vicky Cristina Barcelona, and how she ended up playing go-between in the mutual admiration society of Pedro Almodóvar and Woody Allen.

By Jason Solomons, Catherine Shoard Next, Jason gets together with Catherine Shoard to review the reunion of Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in Revolutionary Road (clue: it ain't Titanic), Jean-Claude van Damme's comeback film JCVD (not Charlie Kaufman) and the reissued Barry Lyndon ("extraordinarily prescient a...

By orfilms@gmail.com (slashfilm.com) In this episode of the /Filmcast, Dave Chen, Devindra Hardawar, and Adam Quigley discuss their thoughts on this year’s deeply unsatisfying Oscar nominations, reflect on the intellectual bankruptcy of a Tom and Jerry movie, and vehemently debate the merits of Alan Ball’s Towelhead. We...

By Jon Dennis, Phil Maynard, Tim Maby Germans are being urged to eat less meat for the sake of the environment. Kate Connolly reports from Berlin. Film critic Xan Brooks casts an eye on this year's Oscar nominations. He has high hopes for Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire.

By Jason Solomons, Xan Brooks Next, Xan Brooks checks in to chat about the Golden Globes and how the Oscar race is shaping up, as well as to review the week's big releases: Mickey Rourke's comeback performance in The Wrestler, the French star-stuffed A Christmas Tale, the luminous Ingrid Bergman in the reissued Notor...

By Jason Solomons, Xan Brooks, The Observer Then, actor Eddie Marsan, fresh from winning a British independent film award for his role as the driving instructor from hell in Mike Leigh's Happy-Go-Lucky, talks about going from Leigh's set to starring with Will Smith in Hancock.

By orfilms@gmail.com (slashfilm.com) In this episode of the /Filmcast, Dave, Devindra, and Adam reflect on the possibilities of a Ridley-Scott-directed Monopoly film, spend some quality time disparaging Academy Award nomination rules, and ponder the implications of two bold, brand new trailers. Special guest Adam Kemp...

A brass band opens the Gratias Agit award ceremony in Prague's Černínský palác on Friday. The ceremony itself, and the party that follows, are in the words of Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg the single biggest event staged by the Czech Foreign Ministry each year. On Friday, the award...

By James Rocchi As the director, co-screenwriter and star of Appaloosa, Ed Harris follows up his Oscar-nominated work as an actor-director in 2000's Pollock with an adaptation of Robert B. Parker's novel, revolving around two old friends and partners (Harris and Viggo Mortensen) in 1882 New Mexico tr...

One oil executive says Americans will never give up their SUVs. Ford revives a familiar small-car name. Hollywood goes for a clean ride at the Oscars. Talking Tech: We have details on the new AMG Speed-shift. Plus, Nissan takes orders for the GT-R

By James Rocchi Alex Gibney's Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room won acclaim for its inventive, expressive but journalistic and rigorous expose of the facts and finances behind a story that came to represent turn-of-the-millennium capitalism gone mad. Now, with Taxi to the Dark Side, which opens tod...

By James Rocchi In an Esquire piece celebrating "The Casting Mistake of the Year," Joel and Ethan Coen explained how Josh Brolin wound up cast in one of No Country for Old Men's lead roles: "Our movie version of Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men had Tommy Lee Jones in place -- no mistake there -- as a cr...

By James Rocchi What movies are going to be snubbed by Oscar because they don't speak Hollywood's language? Does Into the Wild play better for Baby Boomers than younger audiences? Can Once get a second chance? And do movie journalists have a responsibility to reflect the Oscar race, or to try and influen...

By James Rocchi Does the end-of-the-year overload of prestige pictures and big festivals hurt more movies than it helps? What are a few smaller movies that, while wonderful, might get overlooked in the Oscar rush? And what's coming up for the end of October to chill and haunt moviegoers around Hallowee...

Oscar nominated actor Ed Harris is to play Beethoven in a new Hollywood film.

The 42nd Karlovy Vary International Film Festival came to a close on Saturday night with a glitzy ceremony at the town's Thermal hotel. The festival's prize the Crystal Globe was presented to a number of directors and actors - and to US star Danny DeVito, who got an award for outstanding con...

The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival is one of the biggest cultural and social events in the Czech Republic. The 42nd Karlovy Vary got underway in the pretty spa town on Friday evening, with the Oscar-winning Hollywood star Renee Zellweger perhaps the biggest name ascending the...

The Canadian conductor Kerry Stratton has worked with several leading Czech orchestras and made numerous recordings of Czech classical music. He was recently honoured for his dedication to Czech music, when he received an award from the Czech Foreign Ministry. I spoke to Kerry Stratton...

By Big Geez I was wrong on all counts. The skill and enthusiasm of the actors, combined with the ingenuity of the set design, costumes, and music, created a surprisingly polished facsimile of a big-time production. And not only did I enjoy it, it was also my first exposure to a show that would end up being...

Thousands of fans gathered to glimpse their heroes at the International Indian Film Academy Awards in Sheffield.

By localbands@chron.com (Sara Cress / Joey Guerra) This week's featured artist is Larry Cooper, who fronts L.L. Cooper. In this week's podcast, Cooper talks about the inspiration behind new disc Old Hardin Store Road: family, failed romance and a certain Oscar-nominated actor.

By Cory Doctorow Cory Doctorow: Escape Pod, the killer science fiction story podcast, is running all the Hugo nominees for best short story, starting with Tim Pratt's wonderful "Impossible Dreams," about a film-geek who discovers a video store from another dimension. He went to the Sci-Fi shelf—and ha...

Stories: 1) Tips for Safe Plane Travel with Pets 2) Has Best Actor Become Best Impersonator? 3) Producing the Academy Awards Show 4) For Thankful Windbags, an Oscar-Cam Awaits 0:07:17] ... sang his praises and more Hollywood parties and even Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan could attend. Star...

By James Rocchi Curious about what goes on behind-the-scenes at some of your favorite film-related websites? Who are the men and women behind the sites you browse, click, curse and celebrate? With Cinematical's new podcast, The Rocchi Review, we'll be taking a bi-weekly look at the online film commun...

By josh.hathaway@blogcritics.org (Josh Hathaway) American Idol, Ann Coulter, John Edwards, The Academy Awards, and The Duke De Mondo on the anniversary edition of BCRadio Podcast.

By Josh Hathaway This week's show is a good one, featuring five good minutes with Eric Olsen.  EO and I talk about the show, about me, about you, about all of us- mostly about me.  Naturally, this is my favorite segment.  We also talk a little bit about the Oscars and put this year's Academy Awards to bed.

In today's Arts: a new TV drama looks at the ill-fated mission of Czech paratroopers during WW II. We also talk to the organisers of an awards ceremony and exhibition recognising the country's best graphic prints.

Powered by Audioblog.com Time: 4 minutes, 59 seconds Links: NaturallySpeaking 9 strategy + business Academy Awards MP3 File Posted by Tom Peters | Comments? Powered by Audioblog.com Time: 4 minutes, 59 seconds Links: NaturallySpeaking 9 strategy + business Academy Awards MP3 File...

By Brian Orndorf This year's crop of talent is a wonderful cross section of effort that really made Hollywood sparkle in 2006; in my estimation, the best list of nominees in a very long while...

By Adam Elmore James - Dust My Blues Oscar Brown Jr - Signifyin' Monkey Gene Vincent - Words and Music Johnny Cash - Wanted Man John Lee Hooker - Baby, Please Don't Go Jimmy Dawkins - Put It On The Hawg Bo Diddley - Diddley Daddy Ellen McIlwaine - Farther Along

By James Rocchi Wondering about what the buzz is in the world of film? Well, why not download this newest edition of Coming Distractions -- Cinematical's weekly podcast? This time around, I'm joined by Cinematical's Managing Editor Kim Voynar. Kim and I talk about the box office performance of Apocalyp...

By James Rocchi Welcome to yet another edition of Cinematical's podcast, Coming Distractions. As ever, I'm your host, Cinematical editor-in-chief James Rocchi, and this week's co-host is Cinematical's Scott Weinberg. This week, we're talking about everything from Google's acquisition of YouTube...

For companies worldwide, design has become strategic, the very core of their efforts to differentiate what they make and do. But is design itself becoming a commodity? Consider this. What was once thought of as great design is now seen merely as good, what was once exceptional is now standa...

The animated film director Michaela Pavlatova is in the limelight for this week's Czechs Today. Her films have received numerous awards at international festivals, including an Oscar nomination.

Today on the 2006 Podcast of the Year "The Audio Edition" Doug and I discuss the stupidity of the Brokeback Moutain Author, the new HILARIOUS trailer for The Moglus, Peter Jacksons pre-recorded acceptance speech for The Empire Awards, some Ghost Rider trailer news, Welcome Back Kotter...