Oscar

Christopher Plummer won the Academy Award for best supporting actor Sunday for his portrayal of an elderly man who comes out as gay in the film "Beginners. " Celebritology blogger Sarah Anne Hughes has the highlights from Plummer's acceptance speech. "You're only two year older than me darling," Plummer said to his Oscar statue. "Where have you been all my life?" Plummer thanked the Academy and his fellow nominees, as well as his daughter and his "long-suffering wife.

CANNES, France — Asked about their recent history as Oscar rivals, Steven Spielberg and Ang Lee look at each other hesitantly before Spielberg graciously offers, "After you. " The two have come to the Cannes Film Festival just months after facing off as the two favorites for best director at the Academy Awards. In February, Lee won the Oscar many expected to go to Spielberg for his Civil War epic "Lincoln. " But it was the Taiwan-born Lee, who had previously won the award for...

Did Tom Shales see the same Oscars show that the rest of us saw [" Golden Statuettes, Leaden Television ," Style, Feb. 23]? Sometimes one gets the feeling that the need to criticize is so strong that the critic doesn't see what's actually happening on stage -- and doesn't want to. Not since Billy Crystal has there been a more talented and able host than Hugh Jackman. What did Mr. Shales mean regarding Mr. Jackman being an "outsider" because he's not from the United States? Four of the top five awards were given to such "outsiders.

MILAN — The Venice Film Festival has announced that Oscar-winning director Bernardo Bertolucci will chair the jury for the 70th Venice Film Festival. Bertolucci, 73, headed the jury previously in 1983, when the Golden Lion went to Jean-Luc Godard's "First Name: Carmen," and he has premiered numerous films at the festival, starting with "The Grim Reaper" in 1962 and more recently "The Dreamers," in 2003. Bertolucci's 1987 film "The Last Emperor" won nine Oscars. The festival says it was the...

What animated movie should win the Oscar? Vote in our online poll at http://www.kidspost.com .

Will "Zero Dark Thirty" be Swift-boated out of an Oscar? That's just one of the questions swirling around what observers agree has been the most political Academy Award season in recent memory — not just the movies themselves, but the tactics used to undermine their legitimacy for cinema's top prize. In early December, " Zero Dark Thirty ," Kathryn Bigelow's taut, masterfully executed thriller about the hunt for Osama bin Laden, looked like an unassailable Oscar front-runner, winning a clutch of glowing reviews and...

LOS ANGELES -- Of the 89 documentary films this year eligible for Oscar consideration, 15 have been selected for a short list of potential nominees, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Wednesday. Some of the year's most popular documentary features were overlooked, including Michael Moore's " Capitalism: A Love Story . " The R-rated film was praised by many critics and grossed more than $14 million at the box office. Also omitted from Oscar consideration was the well-reviewed Mike ...

Get out your handkerchiefs. This year's Oscar-nominated documentary shorts include a few powerfully stirring weepers. And even those that don't inspire waterworks aren't exactly light fare. "Redemption" might not leave you in a puddle, but its profile of New York City's subculture of "canners" — people who make a meager living redeeming empty beverage cans and bottles for 5 cents a pop — is eye-opening. "Kings Point" easily has the the most humor of the five films, but its glimpse of...

At this point in awards season, it's all distraction. "Slumdog Millionaire" exploited Indian children! Mickey Rourke and Sean Penn hate each other! "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" is reheated "Forrest Gump"! All this hoo-ha takes away from the simple task at hand: Picking the winners correctly, looking like a genius and winning the office pool. These days, every $30 counts. So we scoured industry blogs, crunched numbers and plotted historical trends. We listened.

Its main commercial attraction may be the novelty of seeing a heavily made-up Anthony Hopkins impersonate the Master of Suspense, but the heart of the new biopic " Hitchcock " isn't Sir Alfred. It's the director's wife, Alma, little known to the public but an enormous influence on the auteur's films. Helen Mirren, who plays Alma, is no stranger to bringing historical figures to the big screen; among other outings, she won an Oscar for playing Elizabeth II in " The Queen. " One assumes it...

"Montaro Caine" (Spiegel & Grau), by Sidney Poitier Oscar-winning actor Sidney Poitier's first novel, "Montaro Caine," is a corporate thriller that veers into science fiction as it follows a beleaguered New York CEO on an unexpected quest to secure two mysterious coins that may hold significant scientific and commercial value. The coins first appeared in the hands of two newborn babies that eventually grow up to marry each other. The impending birth of their first child, and its...

Reports this week that the late Pope John Paul II may be on the verge of sainthood after a second miracle was credited to his intercession aren't a huge surprise: When he died eight years ago, crowds were already clamoring for his canonization, and Pope Benedict XVI quickly waived the usual five-year waiting period to get the process rolling. But the news that Pope Francis, just six weeks on the job, has cleared the way for the long-stalled canonization of martyred Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar...

Fay Kanin, an Oscar-nominated screenwriter for the 1958 Clark Gable-Doris Day comedy "Teacher's Pet" and former president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, died March 27 at her home in Santa Monica, Calif. She was 95. Her caretaker, Monique West, confirmed the death but did not disclose the cause. In a writing career that spanned more than four decades, Mrs. Kanin penned screenplays for such movies as the 1954 Elizabeth Taylor romantic drama...

Next year, the Academy Awards will be moved to March for one year only, the Oscars-hosting ABC and the motion picture academy announced Monday. The move to March steers the trophy show clear of the closing ceremonies of the 2014 Winter Olympics, which will be broadcast on NBC. Although there had been some reports that the trophy show would move to a January airdate, ABC and the academy said the show was back to the traditional final Sunday in...

Courtland Milloy [" Michelle Obama's Oscars appearance was an unbecoming frivolity ," Metro, Feb. 27] needs to update his views on the current struggles among African Americans and for black women. Yes, we would be nowhere without the strength of the Sojourner Truths and Rosa Parkses of the world. But the struggle has changed, and Mrs. Obama's appearance at the Academy Awards is an example of a key step in the modern struggle. Mr. Milloy seems to argue that only a few activities are worthy of emulation.

Her dress was white with long, black streaks, a Liancarlo, from a designer based in Miami. His tux was roomy and simple, a Zegna, from the designer based in Rome. But his socks were gaudy burgundy and gold, inspired by a hero from Washington. When Sean Fine and his wife and co-director, Andrea Nix Fine, ascended the Dolby Theatre stage's stairs Sunday to collect the Academy Award for best documentary short for " Inocente ," those burgundy-and-gold socks had the words "no pressure no diamonds"...

CANNES, France — Asked about their recent history as Oscar rivals, Steven Spielberg and Ang Lee look at each other hesitantly before Spielberg graciously offers, "After you. " The two have come to the Cannes Film Festival just months after facing off as the two favorites for best director at the Academy Awards. In February, Lee won the Oscar many expected to go to Spielberg for his Civil War epic "Lincoln. " But it was the Taiwan-born Lee, who had previously won the award for...

Joyce Redman, the Anglo-Irish actress who brought a mischievous sparkle to the most suggestive scene ever filmed at a dining table — the unforgettable display of gluttony and lust in the 1963 movie "Tom Jones," died May 10 in Kent, England. She was 96. Her son, actor Crispin Redman, announced the death and said his mother had pneumonia. In a career spanning eight decades, Ms. Redman was a stalwart of the British theater. She appeared in productions at the Old Vic, the Shakespeare...

It's time for first lady Michelle Obama to raise her game. Nothing wrong with telling kids to eat their peas or showing them how to Hula-Hoop. But after four years of focusing on the body, she'd do well to spend these next four on building strong minds. Especially girls'. "If I had the first lady's ear, I'd say talk more about the kind of education that women and girls — girls of color, in particular — will need to make it in a global economy," said Avis Jones-DeWeever, executive director of the...