1/24/06: Sound Guys Crank It Up

MPSE GOLDEN REEL AWARDS - according to the MPSE calendar, nominees would be published at or by 9:00 a.m. January 24. Fortunately, this group is ahead of their game and the noms were posted on the org's website by 9:00 pm. January 23. Visit MPSE to check out all the nominees. The Motion Picture Sound Editors will present their awards on March 4, 2006.

ACADEMY AWARDS Sound Editing Bake Off - Seven films made the Oscar short list for Best Achievement in Sound Editing for the 78th Academy Awards: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, King Kong, Memoirs of a Geisha, Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith, Walk the Line and War of the Worlds. Ten-minute clips from each film will be screened for the nominating committee tonight, then members will vote to nominate three of the seven films for Oscar® consideration. All nominations for the 78th Academy Awards will be announced Tuesday, January 31, 2006.

Owen Wilson Crashes Oscarcast

AMPAS announced this morning that Owen Wilson, star of Wedding Crashers and the upcoming Cars, has been invited to present at the 78th Annual Academy Awards. He joins Jessica Alba and last year's Best Actress Hilary Swank, Best Actor Jamie Foxx, and Best Supporting Actor Morgan Freeman, as well as host Jon Stewart, on the Oscar stage. Additional celebrity presenters will be added here and on our March 2006 calendar as they are announced.

Meet the Oscars®

Oscar Statuettes for the 78th Academy Awards® to be Displayed in Hollywood February 10 - March 3, 2006.

Prior to being placed in the excited hands of Oscar winners at the 78th Academy Awards, this year's crop of coveted Oscar statuettes will be showcased in a public display at the Hollywood & Highland Center® beginning on Friday, February 10.

The exhibition, "Meet the Oscars: The 50 Golden Statuettes," will be free and open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and noon to 8 p.m. Sunday through Thursday on the third level of Hollywood & Highland.

Featuring 50 statuettes as well as other Academy Award-related displays, guests will have the opportunity to hold an Oscar as well as visit a gallery of photographs featuring winners from previous ceremonies. This year's limited edition, vintage commemorative posters, "Black Tuxedo," and "White Gloves," also will be available for purchase.

After the close of the exhibition on March 3, the Oscars, under heavy security, will march down the red carpet on Hollywood Boulevard to the Kodak Theatre where they will be handed out during the Awards Presentation on Sunday, March 5.

The Academy will not know how many statuettes will be awarded until the envelopes are opened on Oscar Night® because there can be ties as well as variable numbers of winners in some categories.

Weighing in at eight-and-a-half pounds, each statuette is thirteen-and-a-half inches tall and is made of gold-plated britannium, a metal alloy. The statuettes, a new crop handmade each year by R.S. Owens and Company in Chicago, will arrive in Los Angeles on Thursday, February 2, on "Oscar 1," the special United Airlines "Flight of the Oscars."

"Meet the Oscars," will be presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, in cooperation with Hollywood & Highland Center, home of the Kodak Theatre. For more information about the exhibition, call 310-247-3600.

Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements for 2005 will be presented on March 5, 2006, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center, and televised live by the ABC Television Network beginning at 5 p.m. PST.