No Globes, No Grammys and No Oscars?

Amid the pervasive uncertainty created by the WGA strike, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences is forging ahead with plans for the Feb. 24 Oscar ceremony. But the Academy is also planning two different shows -- the usual kudocast and an alternative event if the scribes are still out.

Oscarcast producer Gil Cates supplied few details as to what form the alternative show would take, simply saying at a meeting at Acad headquarters that they'd have to "play it by ear," according to one attendee.

But it's likely that the alternative show would rely on industry heavyweights penning their own speeches and presenting the awards.

79th Academy Award Presenters

Song from Borat Among List of 56 Oscar Eligible Songs

Among the songs eligible for nomination are "The Book I Write" from "Stranger Than Fiction," "Dreamz With A Z" from "American Dreamz," "I Need To Wake Up" from "An Inconvenient Truth," "It's A Fight," from "Rocky Balboa," "Never Gonna Break My Faith" from "Bobby," "O Kazakhstan" from "Borat," "Til The End of Time" from "Little Miss Sunshine," "Try Not To Remember" from "Home Of The Brave," and "You Know My Name," from Casino Royale."

Some films had multiple songs declared eligible. "Family of Me," "Heist," and "Still" all come from "Over The Hedge." "Cars" was home to "Our Town" and "Real Gone." "Dreamgirls," a presumed Oscar favorite, included the eligible songs "Listen," "Love You I Do," and "Patience."

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Oscar Wins Drive DVD Sales Upward

Variety reports that DVD sales jumped for several Academy Award winning films. Crash saw the biggest spike jumping from 33,000 dvd sales to 207,000 sales the week after it won Best Picture.

"Crash," the Academy Awards' biggest winner, received the biggest sales lift: Lionsgate said DVD sales spiked more than sixfold to 207,000 the week after the film nabbed the best picture Oscar.

That's a huge jump over the 33,000 sold in the previous frame and pushes the pic's total sales to about 4.2 million units since its September release on DVD. The film was also re-released in theaters last week, pulling in some $343,000 on 175 screens for a per-screen average below $2,000. Even if the bulk of consumers bought the $19.98 disc on sale -- certain online retailers are selling it for under $10 -- that still reps spending above $3 million.

Fox said "Walk the Line" DVD sales surely benefited from the pic's lead actress kudos; Johnny Cash biopicbiopic sold more than 1 million units last week; total is more than 6 million units in two weeks of release.

It is great that not only this films getting noticed but people are buying and watching the films as well.


Posted on March 22, 2006
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Oscar Winners Announced

Crash pulled the upset (as Roger Ebert predicted) and won in the Best Film category but Ang Lee still won Best Director for Brokeback Mountain. Best Actor went to Philip Seymour Hoffman and Best Actress went to Reese Witherspoon as expected. Here is a complete list of this year's Oscar winners.

Oscar Forecasts and Predictions