3 is a Magic Number - Beasts, Balloons, and Toys.

Only twice in the Academy Award's history has an animated feature film been nominated for Best Picture. Beauty and the Beast broke through and achieved its nomination after its release in 1991, and Up achieved something greater after its release in 2009 - Up battled the existent Animated Feature category, which seems to relegate all animated films into its cage, to become the second animated nominee and the first CGI nominee. And the first to do it with 10 nominees, though that's probably the only reason it happened. Maybe we can thank the unforgivable Wall-E snub for this, as we can thank The Dark Knight for giving us 10 nominees in the first place.

The State of the Race: Best Animated Feature - A Look Back, and Forward

Thanks for playing, everyone else!

It's thanks to Pixar, really, that the modern animated film is something to talk about in terms of the Academy Awards. Well, Pixar, Disney, and Dreamworks. And, of course, Hayao Miyazaki. The four major players in the category since its conception in 2001. Pixar has five of the nine available trophies, losing only two nominations. They are, undoubtedly, the kings of the mountain. This year, with Toy Story 3, they'll get their sixth Oscar and maintain their title. Of course, we should look at this objectively and talk about the other nominees. But, let's face it - if Toy Story 3 isn't winning this, no one is. 

The State of the Race - Our Screenplays

In part three of our discussion on how things might shape up on Oscar nomination morning, we're brought to this - the Best Original Screenplay and Best Adapted Screenplay categories. Several new faces will be nominated alongside a handful of Academy veterans, each deserving of their place. But only two will take home the above naked gold man. 

So. Let's get down to brass tacks. Or, gold tacks, if you will.

The Importance of Jackass 3D

So important, in fact, that I stopped what I was currently writing to share this with all of you - this is, without a doubt, the best awards moment of the year. Not since the "Not since [...]" campaign for Toy Story 3, nor the audacious "why the hell not" campaign for Zack Snyder's Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole, has one advertisement taken me so far aback and made me think "You know what? Okay. Yes."

This, ladies and gentlemen, is my favorite thing of the season -