Before I focus on last night’s 83rd Academy Award winners, let me describe my conversations with the "losers", only some of whom seemed to take the news in stride. Clearly, The Social Network filmmakers were licking their wounds. To the point that hands-on producer Scott Rudin didn’t even make the trip west for the…

Deadline’s awards columnist Pete Hammond led all of The Gold Derby’s awards experts with 19 of 24 correct Oscars predictions for the highest score. Gold Derby founder Tom O’Neil congratulated Hammond “for kicking all of our Oscars pundits’ butts”. Over the past several months, Gold Derby has been polling top awards…

There's no question this was Hollywood's biggest week of the year. But now it's all coming to a close tonight — and not a moment too soon for a lot of nominees at the end of a looooong campaign trail. "Thank God,"  said The King's Speech’s 73-year-old screenwriter David Seidler when I asked him Saturday night at The We…

EXCLUSIVE: I've learned 2-time Oscar winner and Academy favorite Tom Hanks will be the first presenter and name winners in both the Art Direction and Cinematography categories right off the bat. Best Picture frontrunner The King's Speech is up for both, so the world will quickly get an idea whether that Best Picture…

Get those ballots in, stragglers. Forget that many professional pundits and even casual observers of this year's Oscar race have already called it. (…The King's Speech wins Best Picture… Best Actor for Colin Firth… Natalie Portman gets Best Actress… The Fighter‘s Christian Bale and Melissa Leo win supporting… The Socia…

Ever since the British Academy of Film and Television Arts several years ago moved their honors ceremony to coincide with Hollywood's awards season, it’s been hit and miss as a predictor of the Oscars. Even though there is probably a crossover of about 600 members in both organizations. This year's results giving a…

Javier Bardem's first acting job was at the age of six, but his career has heated up since the mid-1980s not only in a number of notable films in his native Spain for such directors as Pedro Almodovar but now as a full-fledged international star. Nominated twice for Oscars, first in 2000 for Before Night Falls and…

With ballots out and not due back until 5 PM on February 22nd, I decided to talk to a sampling of Academy Of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences voters directly to see how they’re picking their winners. By doing this very unscientific survey in the past, I could gauge if an upset was coming. For instance, in 1992, I found…

As he walked into the International Ballroom of the Beverly Hilton hotel earlier this afternoon, The King's Speech director Tom Hooper looked around and said, "Now I guess it's really happening. I really am a nominee." This was a sentiment shared by more than a few who may have thought Oscar night came three weeks…

The Oscar ballots went into the mail today and should be in every one of the 5,755 voting members' hands by tomorrow, or at least by the weekend depending on how long it takes some of them to travel to snowbound or far-flung places. The Academy Of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences has set a due date of February 22nd…

You know the oft-repeated phrase heard this time of year, "It's an honor just to be nominated"? That was never more true for some who might have actually won the Academy Award but tripped on their way to the Kodak stage by failing to get to first base with a nomination this past Tuesday. This year, presumed…

Has The King's Speech, fresh off that Producers Guild win and now leading with 12 Oscar nominations, just gone to the front of the class? My guess is this one could be a squeaker. Presumed Academy Awards co-frontrunner and critics favorite The Social Network trailed with only 8 nominations but they were the right…