Today the nominations for the 82nd Academy Awards were announced, and as expected Avatar picked up quite a few in a number of categories. Sandra Bullock, Christoph Waltz, Jeremy Renner, Morgan Freeman, Carey Mulligan and Meryl Streep also recieved nominations for their acting.

You can see the full list of nominations below:

Best Picture
Avatar
The Blind Side
District 9
An Education
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious
A Serious Man
Up in the Air

Actor in a Leading Role
Jeff Bridges – Crazy Heart
George Clooney – Up in the Air
Colin Firth – A Single Man
Morgan Freeman – Invictus
Jeremy Renner – The Hurt Locker

Actor in a Supporting Role
Matt Damon – Invictus
Woody Harrelson – The Messenger
Christopher Plummer – The Last Station
Stanley Tucci – The Lovely Bones
Christoph Waltz – Inglourious Basterds

Actress in a Leading Role
Sandra Bullock – The Blind Side
Helen Mirren – The Last Station
Carey mulligan – An Education
Gabourey Sidibe – Precious
Meryl Streep – Julie & Julia

Actress in a Supporting Role
Penelope Cruz – Nine
Vera Farmiga – Up in the Air
Maggie Gyllenhaal – Crazy Heart
Anna Kendrick – Up in the Air
Mo’Nique – Precious

Animated Feature
Coraline
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Princess and the Frog
The Secret of Kells
Up

Art Direction
Avatar
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Nine
Sherlock Holmes
The Young Victoria

Cinematography
Avatar
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
The White Ribbon

Directing
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious
Up in the Air

Music (Original Score)
Avatar
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Hurt Locker
Sherlock Holmes
Up

Visual Effects
Avatar
District 9
Star Trek

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
District 9
An Education
In The Loop
Precious
Up in the Air

Writing (Original Screenplay)
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
The Messenger
A Serious Man
Up

The winners will be revealed on March 7th in a ceremony presented by Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin.

The Academy released a list of 15 films in contention for the 2010 Visual Effects Oscar last month, and now they’ve narrowed the list down to 7 films. Here they are:

Avatar
District 9
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Star Trek
Terminator Salvation
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
2012

Later this month members of the visual effects branch will watch excerpts from the movies, and the list will then be narrowed down to 3. Earlier this year it was a showdown between Iron Man, The Dark Knight and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, with Button’s ageing effects coming out on top.

If I were a betting man i’d put my money on Avatar. It’ll be interesting to see which 3 make it through to the next round.

Which film do you think should win the Visual Effects Oscar?

Every day between now and 2010 I will be posting some of the best trailers that were released this year, regardless of whether the eventual film sucked or not. Yesterday it was the third trailer for Star Trek, and today it is the third trailer for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince which was released in April.

For a reason I can’t quite remember I stopped watching the Harry Potter movies after Prizoner of Azkaban so I wasn’t really passionate about the early trailers for Half-Blood Prince. It was a case of writing “here’s the trailer, it looks darker than the others, enjoy”. However after watching this third trailer which featured bridges being destroyed, Dumbledore encircled by fire, flying Death Eaters and epic music, it reignited my inner wizard.

Within 2 weeks of the trailer’s release I rented all 5 movies to catch-up, and I saw Half-Blood Prince the day it opened. I then decided to buy all the books and read them within the space of 3 weeks so I could join in with the Deathly Hallows hype. This one trailer has turned me into a Harry Potter nut.

Here it is:

What did you think of the trailer? Was it the best trailer for Half-Blood Prince?

I’ll be posting another trailer tomorrow, and if you have any suggestions feel free to send it over in an email or leave it in the comments section below.

Twitter grew tremendously in 2009, mainly because it has become a people search engine. News, events, and movies become trending topics and you can see what people are saying about them in real-time. As we will soon be heading into 2010 Twitter has complied a list of the top trending topics (ie. most talked about) of 2009 for different categories, and below is the list of movies that took over the Twitter-sphere this year:

1. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
2. New Moon
3. District 9
4. Paranormal Activity
5. Star Trek
6. True Blood
7. Transformers 2
8. Watchmen
9. Slumdog Millionaire
10. G.I. Joe

I have no idea what True Blood is doing there. Harry Potter and New Moon were expected, however the movie that takes the #3 spot is interesting. I can remember around the time District 9 was released Twitter was full of positive buzz for the film, and that buzz most likely encouraged people to see it. I have no way of proving it but I’m pretty sure the Twitter buzz contributed to the film making over $200 million worldwide. Twitter probably contributed to the success of Paranormal Activity too.

What can we expect for next year? Well we have Eclipse and Deathly Hallows being released so they will probably hit the top spots again. I can imagine Iron Man 2 becoming a trending topic for a while, and maybe Kick-Ass will be the ‘District 9′ of 2010?

(You can follow Filmonic on Twitter here)

The 82nd Academy Awards will be held next March and the 15 movies nominated for the Visual Effects Oscar have been revealed. Here they are:

Angels & Demons
Avatar
Coraline
Disney’s A Christmas Caro
District 9
G-Force
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Sherlock Holmes
Star Trek
Terminator Salvation
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
2012
Watchmen
Where the Wild Things Are

In early January the list will be narrowed down to 7, then later in the month members of the visual effects branch will watch excerpts from the movies, and the list will be narrowed down to 3. Earlier this year it was a showdown between Iron Man, The Dark Knight and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, with Button’s ageing effects coming out on top.

Since Avatar Day when we got a glimpse at 15 minutes of footage I’ve had my money on Avatar winning, and from the early reviews it seems it will be a serious contender. I’m glad District 9 got a nod. Out of all the films nominated it had the lowest budget ($30 million) and the guys at WETA did a great job with those financial constraints.

Which visual effects wowed you in 2009? Who do you want to win the Visual Effects Oscar?

Today (December 12th) at 12 noon PST/3PM EST/8PM GMT Daniel Radcliffe and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince director David Yates will be taking part in a live community screening event. During this event people from all over the world will watch the film at the same time with Radcliffe and Yates adding their thoughts, and they will also be answering questions from fans.

In order to participate in this event, you must have the following:

1. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince on Blu-ray Disc
2. A Blu-ray Player that supports BD-Live
3. Your Blu-ray Player must be connected to the Internet
4. A computer connected to the Internet (to ask questions)

You will also need to register a BD-Live account with Warner Bros.

Here’s another reminder of the times: 12 noon PST/3PM EST/8PM GMT

Filmonic will be live blogging this event, so if you plan on attending the live screening you can visit this page to comment and share your thoughts with other fans. If you do not own Half-Blood Prince on Blu-ray then you can watch it all go down below:

In preparation for the awards season Warner Bros. have released the original screenplay for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. We don’t usually get the chance to read scripts as they are kept under tight security during production, and then when the film is released we don’t really need it because we have the completed form for our viewing pleasure. I think I’ll read this one over the weekend just out of interest. According to SnichSeeker there are a few scenes that didn’t make it into the film, and some dialogue changes.

You can download the PDF file by clicking here. You can also check out the ‘For your consideration’ page for Half-Blood prince here.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince will be released on DVD and Blu-ray next month (Amazon are currently selling the DVD for $10) and to gear people up Warner Bros. are starting to release some behind the scenes stuff, along with some deleted scenes that didn’t make it into the movie.

The scene below gives us an extended look at the students and professors as the clouds darken before the Death Eaters invasion. I can’t really see why it was cut down, but I’m sure they have their reasons.

Update: According to The Leaky Cauldron official footage from the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows movies will be included on the special edition version of the DVD, as well as on the Blu-ray copies. Just another reason to buy it!

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is now available to pre-order on Amazon.com. It won’t officially be released until December 8th, but keen Potter fans can make sure theirs arrives as soon as it becomes available. Like with most films, it can be purchased on DVD, Blu-ray, a Two Disc Special Edition, Widescreen and Amazon Video on Demand. Click here to pre-order yours!

When Warner Bros. decided to undertake the Harry Potter adventure one of the most important requirements was to put together a strong cast. Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint have come into their own now, but back during the first few movies they were basically learning on the job, and more experienced actors were needed to help carry the films. Thankfully Warner Bros did just that by bringing on-board legendary British actors such as Alan Rickman, Richard Harris, and two time Oscar winner Maggie Smith to play supporting roles, and over the years it has been these actors that have made the movies special, for me anyway.

Nothing like the Harry Potter franchise had been undertaken before and it would require everyone involved, especially the actors, to keep spaces in their diary’s free for the next decade. Things were running smoothly cast-wise until Richard Harris unfortunately died in 2002, and the role of Dumbledore was then taken on by Michael Gambon in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

For the past 5 years the same actors have been appearing on our screens again and again, although fans of the franchise may have noticed something was different about one particular actress in the latest outing Half-Blood Prince. Maggie Smith who plays Minerva McGonagall wasn’t as ‘active’ on-screen as we had seen her in past instalments. I knew from previous reports that Smith had breast cancer and was undergoing treatment, although I didn’t know how bad it was for her during filming. Smith recently spoke to The Times about her cancer battle, and on filming Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Last year Dame Maggie found a lump on her breast. “I had been feeling a little rum. I didn’t think it was anything serious because years ago I felt a lump and it was benign. I assumed this would be too. It kind of takes the wind out of your sails, and I don’t know what the future holds, if anything. I don’t think there’s a lot of it, because of my age — there just isn’t. It’s all been. I’ve no idea what there will be.”

She revealed that she made Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince — playing Professor Minerva McGonagall — during her cancer treatment. “I was hairless. I had no problem getting the wig on. I was like a boiled egg.”

The cancer was “hideous”, the chemotherapy “something that makes you feel much worse than the cancer itself”, she said. “You feel horribly sick. I was holding on to railings, thinking ‘I can’t do this’.” Dame Maggie is planning to “stagger through” filming the final Harry Potter film, The Deathly Hallows.

“The last couple of years have been a write-off, though I’m beginning to feel like a person now,” she said. “My energy is coming back. S*** happens. I ought to pull myself together a bit.”

Cancer isn’t kind to anyone, especially 74 year old’s, and while we didn’t see McGonagall marching around after students like we usually do, Maggie Smith gave another great performance given the circumstances.

It’s good to hear that her energy is coming back, as she will need it for Deathly Hallows. Fans of the books will know that McGonagall plays an important role in the final film. Now that Dumbledore isn’t around she is appointed Headmistress of Hogwarts, and during the Battle of Hogwarts she has wizarding duels with Snape (Alan Rickman) and Voldemort. While I don’t expect Maggie Smith to be doing anything too physical i’m sure these scenes can still be done. I mean it wasn’t actually Ian McKellen (70) and Christopher Lee (87) throwing themselves around the room during their battles in The Lord of the Rings.

The next time you hear young actors and actresses complaining about how hard it was filming for 10 hours a day or how tough it was running away from those planned explosions, block out their bull by admiring the tough cookie that is Dame Maggie Smith.