Academy Awards, 2012 Oscars | featured news

Steven Spielberg’s “ Lincoln ” screened Monday night at the New York Film Festival and garnered a positive initial response, as well as predictions that Daniel Day-Lewis, Tommy Lee Jones, Sally Field and virtually everyone involved in the film will be nominated for Oscars.

The Oscar ceremony has much to prove Sunday, including whether a blockbuster-free field can draw a TV audience and if Billy Crystal's host routine remains a crowd-pleaser....

All four acting winners from last year's Academy Awards are returning to this weekend's Oscars as presenters....

The Academy Awards will be coming to you live from the same place - but with a different name. Oscar organizers have agreed to drop mentions of the Kodak Theatre from Sunday's broadcast. The move follows bankruptcy proceedings for Eastman Kodak Co., which has received court approval to end its expensive naming-rights deal for the venue that's been home to the awards show for a decade.

'The Artist' gains momentum as critics' and indie groups hand out early citations. As the fall season's first wave of film awards and nominations roll in, the Oscar picture continues to be a murky mass of contenders and question marks.

Brett Ratner is out as producer of the 84th Academy Awards show. It's been a tumultuous several days for Ratner, who, amongst several offenses, used a gay slur when asked a question about filmmaking. The director said that "rehearsing is for fags" in a Q&A session following a screening of his new film, "Tower Heist," at L.A.'s Arclight Cinemas.

France has chosen "La guerre est declaree" ("War is declared") to represent it at next year's Oscars.

Surprise! During a meeting of the Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Board of Governors on Tuesday night, it was decided that the Best Picture voting system would be changed to allow for anywhere from five to ten nominees in a given year, depending on the quality of films available. The exact number of Best Picture participants won’t be announced until the nominations are revealed in January.

The 2012 Oscars will not be weeks earlier than usual, as had been speculated - a move that would have upended Hollywood's crowded awards season.