The 85th Oscar Nominees Have Been Announced - And Here They Are. The Entire Official Nominee List.

BEST PICTURE
•Amour (TBD, Producer)
•Argo (Grant Heslov, Ben Affleck and George Clooney, Producers)
•Beasts of the Southern Wild (Dan Janvey, Josh Penn and Michael Gottwald, Producers)
•Django Unchained (Stacey Sher, Reginald Hudlin and Pilar Savone, Producers)
•Les Misérables (Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Debra Hayward and Cameron Mackintosh, Producers)
•Life of Pi (Gil Netter, Ang Lee and David Womark, Producers)
•Lincoln (Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy, Producers)
•Silver Linings Playbook (Donna Gigliotti, Bruce Cohen and Jonathan Gordon, Producers)
•Zero Dark Thirty (Mark Boal, Kathryn Bigelow and Megan Ellison, Producers)

ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
•Bradley Cooper (Silver Linings Playbook)
•Daniel Day-Lewis (Lincoln)
•Hugh Jackman (Les Misérables)
•Joaquin Phoenix (The Master)
•Denzel Washington (Flight)

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
•Alan Arkin (Argo)
•Robert De Niro (Silver Linings Playbook)
•Philip Seymour Hoffman (The Master)
•Tommy Lee Jones (Lincoln)
•Christoph Waltz (Django Unchained)

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
•Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty)
•Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook)
•Emmanuelle Riva (Amour)
•Quvenzhané Wallis (Beasts of the Southern Wild)
•Naomi Watts (The Impossible)

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
•Amy Adams (The Master)
•Sally Field (Lincoln)
•Anne Hathaway (Les Misérables)
•Helen Hunt (The Sessions)
•Jacki Weaver (Silver Linings Playbook)

ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
•Brave (Mark Andrews and Brenda Chapman)
•Frankenweenie (Tim Burton)
•ParaNorman (Sam Fell and Chris Butler)
•The Pirates! Band of Misfits (Peter Lord)
•Wreck-It Ralph (Rich Moore)

CINEMATOGRAPHY
•Anna Karenina (Seamus McGarvey)
•Django Unchained (Robert Richardson)
•Life of Pi (Claudio Miranda)
•Lincoln (Janusz Kaminski)
•Skyfall (Roger Deakins)

COSTUME DESIGN
•Anna Karenina (Jacqueline Durran)
•Les Misérables (Paco Delgado)
•Lincoln (Joanna Johnston)
•Mirror Mirror (Eiko Ishioka)
•Snow White and the Huntsman (Colleen Atwood)

DIRECTING
•Amour (Michael Haneke)
•Beasts of the Southern Wild (Benh Zeitlin)
•Life of Pi (Ang Lee)
•Lincoln (Steven Spielberg)
•Silver Linings Playbook (David O. Russell)

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
•5 Broken Cameras (Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi)
•The Gatekeepers (TBD)
•How to Survive a Plague (TBD)
•The Invisible War (TBD)
•Searching for Sugar Man (TBD)

DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT
•Inocente (Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine)
•Kings Point (Sari Gilman and Jedd Wider)
•Mondays at Racine (Cynthia Wade and Robin Honan)
•Open Heart (Kief Davidson and Cori Shepherd Stern)
•Redemption (Jon Alpert and Matthew O’Neill)

FILM EDITING
•Argo (William Goldenberg)
•Life of Pi (Tim Squyres)
•Lincoln (Michael Kahn)
•Silver Linings Playbook (Jay Cassidy and Crispin Struthers)
•Zero Dark Thirty (Dylan Tichenor and William Goldenberg)

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
•Amour (Austria)
•Kon-Tiki (Norway)
•No (Chile)
•A Royal Affair (Denmark)
•War Witch (Canada)

MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING
•Hitchcock (Howard Berger, Peter Montagna and Martin Samuel)
•The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (Peter Swords King, Rick Findlater and Tami Lane)
•Les Misérables (Lisa Westcott and Julie Dartnell)

MUSIC (Original Score)
•Anna Karenina (Dario Marianelli)
•Argo (Alexandre Desplat)
•Life of Pi (Mychael Danna)
•Lincoln (John Williams)
•Skyfall (Thomas Newman)

MUSIC (Original Song)
•Before My Time - Chasing Ice (Music and Lyric by J. Ralph)
•Everybody Needs A Best Friend - Ted (Music by Walter Murphy, Lyric by Seth MacFarlane)
•Pi’s Lullaby - Life of Pi (Music by Mychael Danna, )Lyric by Bombay Jayashri
•Skyfall - Skyfall (Music and Lyric by Adele Adkins and Paul Epworth)
•Suddenly - Les Misérables (Music by Claude-Michel Schönberg, Lyric by Herbert Kretzmer and Alain Boublil)

PRODUCTION DESIGN
•Anna Karenina (Production Design: Sarah Greenwood,Set Decoration: Katie Spencer)
•The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (Production Design: Dan Hennah, Set Decoration: Ra Vincent and Simon Bright)
•Les Misérables (Production Design: Eve Stewart, Set Decoration: Anna Lynch-Robinson)
•Life of Pi (Production Design: David Gropman, Set Decoration: Anna Pinnock)
•Lincoln (Production Design: Rick Carter, Set Decoration: Jim Erickson)

SHORT FILM (ANIMATED)
•Adam and Dog (Minkyu Lee)
•Fresh Guacamole (PES) See this here!
•Head over Heels (Timothy Reckart and Fodhla Cronin O’Reilly)
•Maggie Simpson in “The Longest Daycare” (David Silverman)
•Paperman (John Kahrs)

SHORT FILM (LIVE ACTION)
•Asad (Bryan Buckley and Mino Jarjoura)
•Buzkashi Boys (Sam French and Ariel Nasr)
•Curfew (Shawn Christensen)
•Death of a Shadow/Dood van een Schaduw (Tom Van Avermaet and Ellen De Waele)
•Henry (Yan England)

SOUND EDITING
•Argo (Erik Aadahl and Ethan Van der Ryn)
•Django Unchained (Wylie Stateman)
•Life of Pi (Eugene Gearty and Philip Stockton)
•Skyfall (Per Hallberg and Karen Baker Landers)
•Zero Dark Thirty (Paul N.J. Ottosson)

SOUND MIXING
•Argo (John Reitz, Gregg Rudloff and Jose Antonio Garcia)
•Les Misérables (Andy Nelson, Mark Paterson and Simon Hayes)
•Life of Pi (Ron Bartlett, D.M. Hemphill and Drew Kunin)
•Lincoln (Andy Nelson, Gary Rydstrom and Ronald Judkins)
•Skyfall (Scott Millan, Greg P. Russell and Stuart Wilson)

VISUAL EFFECTS
•The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton and R. Christopher White)
•Life of Pi (Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron, Erik-Jan De Boer and Donald R. Elliott)
•Marvel’s The Avengers (Janek Sirrs, Jeff White, Guy Williams and Dan Sudick)
•Prometheus (Richard Stammers, Trevor Wood, Charley Henley and Martin Hill)
•Snow White and the Huntsman (Cedric Nicolas-Troyan, Philip Brennan, Neil Corbould and Michael Dawson)

WRITING (Adapted Screenplay)
•Argo (Screenplay by Chris Terrio)
•Beasts of the Southern Wild (Screenplay by Lucy Alibar & Benh Zeitlin)
•Life of Pi (Screenplay by David Magee)
•Lincoln (Screenplay by Tony Kushner)
•Silver Linings Playbook (Screenplay by David O. Russell)

WRITING (Original Screnplay )
•Amour (Written by Michael Haneke)
•Django Unchained (Written by Quentin Tarantino)
•Flight (Written by John Gatins)
•Moonrise Kingdom (Written by Wes Anderson & Roman Coppola)
•Zero Dark Thirty (Written by Mark Boal)

The Oscars air on ABC, Sunday, February 4th. For More info, visit Oscars.org

Adidas Launches Christmas Campaign With Snoop as Scrooge and An Interactive Facebook App That Lets You Un-Scrooge Yourself.

adidas has launched its pioneering Holiday Campaign for 2012, enlisting the help of some of the world’s finest sporting and cultural icons, to turn your social media content into a potentially timeline-changing classic Holiday Tale. At the heart of the campaign is ‘The Cautionary Tale of Ebenezer Snoop’ online film (shown in this post), offering you the opportunity to follow a digital journey to find and share your own Holiday Spirit. As the film closes, you are invited to find out if you are an Ebenezer, and if so, the chance to redeem yourself with an innovative Facebook app (screen grab shown below).



The film features global music heavyweight Snoop Lion alongside skateboard OG Mark Gonzales escorting viewers into the illustrated world of legendary Beavis & Butthead artist JJ Sedelmaier. ‘The Cautionary Tale of Ebenezer Snoop’ follows the path of the classic Holiday story, seeing Ebenezer Snoop confronted by the Ghosts of Holiday Past (Stan Smith), Present (David Beckham) and Future (Derrick Rose & Rita Ora), as well as a host of other Global adidas stars that keeps viewers going back to find more. As you continue on your journey through the tale, you return to Facebook to create your own story.


The adidas Holiday Facebook application produces for you, the user, a personalized journey that mirrors the structure of the Ebenezer Snoop film content. Snoop might not be the only Ebenezer. By aggregating your user data around certain Facebook activities such as comments, birthday well-wishes, & event responses, adidas creates your own uniquely tailored Ebenezer film (they choose all the times you declined invites, didn't respond to posts or didn't acknowledge friends' brithdays to prove your 'scrooginess'). The app pulls in these features from your Facebook timeline, proposing what your digital life could look like if you don’t mend your ways. The level of your online interaction determines the film which your journey takes – the storyline and content directed by your digital life.

Examples from my own Facebook page:



At the end of your personal journey adidas offers you the opportunity to redeem yourself by sending a Facebook greeting card featuring JJ Sedelmaier’s campaign illustrations to friends.



You can choose any of the ghosts from the animated tale to deliver your customized card:

David Beckham:


Derrick Rose:


Rita Ora:


Stan Smith:


The gift which accompanies the card is dependent on your Ebenezer levels – one possibility is a 15% e-commerce discount.

A truly interactive online campaign working across social media, adidas recognises the importance of the digital world to its consumers and presents a complete Holiday gift-giving solution to its fans.

“The Ebenezer Snoop Holiday Campaign is the most user-specific app adidas has ever created, examining consumer behaviour to produce a truly personalised online experience. There is so much noise during the holidays, we’ve created a simple yet effective app to cut straight through. The Ebenezer Snoop Facebook app aggregates your personal Facebook information to produce a film entirely for you. Using the Timeline we are suggesting how your timeline could look if you don’t mend your ways!” -- Gabriel Jaffe, Senior Digital Communications Manager, AG.

Creative Credits:
Production Credits
Client: ADIDAS
Creative Agency: SID LEE
Production Agency: JIMMY LEE.TV
Post-Production:MASS MARKET/JIMMY LEE.TV/ VISION GLOBALE
Production houses: Live action – CAVIAR CONTENT / Animation - J.J. SEDELMAIER PRODUCTIONS
Director: Live action – Jake Szymanski / Animation – JJ Sedelmaier
Grading: MASS MARKET
Editors: JIMMY LEE.TV
Sound Design : MACHINE HEAD
Sound Mix: LA MAJEURE

About adidas
adidas is a global designer, developer and marketer of athletic footwear, apparel and accessories with the mission to be the leading sports brand in the world. Brand adidas is part of the adidas Group, a corporation that includes brands such as Reebok, TaylorMade and Rockport.

About the adidas Group
The adidas Group is one of the global leaders within the sporting goods industry, offering a broad range of products around the core brands adidas, Reebok, TaylorMade, Rockport and Reebok-CCM Hockey. Headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Germany, the Group has more than 46,000 employees and generated sales of € 13.3 billion in 2011.

When You Wish Upon A Death Star: 12 Visual Parallels Between The Star Wars Movies and Classic Disney Favorites.

above composite by If It's Hip, It's Here

Disney's purchase of Lucas Films for $4.05 billion dollars which Lucas is generously donating to charity has been all over the news lately and as expected, lots of memes and clever mash-ups have been popping up online.

Seth Abramovitch and Kyleen James drew these 12 amusing visual parallels between the Star Wars movie franchise and some classic Disney favorites in The Hollywood Reporter. Some are certainly stronger than others but I know that many of my readers would enjoy it, so I'm reproducing the article here for you. Besides, I hate slideshows and prefer to see them all on one page and thought you might, too.

When You Wish Upon a Death Star: The Surprising Symmetry of Star Wars and Disney
Think Disney's purchase of Lucasfilm makes for uneasy bedfellows? The Disney and Star Wars universes have far more in common that you might believe. From Darth Vader and Maleficent to Yoda and Jiminy Cricket, discover some of the striking parallels between the two fantasy giants.

Darth Vader and 'Sleeping Beauty's' Maleficent

The towering lead villains of Star Wars and Disney's Sleeping Beauty (1959) share more than just a penchant for black uniforms and ornate headware. Darth Vader and Maleficent also both possess a mastery of dark, unseeable powers which they use to further the forces of pure, unadulterated evil -- and we love them for it.

Han Solo and 'Tangled's' Flynn Rider

Caddish Han Solo isn't exactly what you'd call a Prince Charming, but neither is Flynn Rider from Tangled (2010) -- real name Eugene Fitzherbert -- a petty thief who steals Rapunzel's tiara ... and ultimately, her heart.

Princess Leia and Pocahontas

Princess Leia might recall any number of Disney Princesses, but her Star Wars backstory -- a beautiful and courageous daughter of a great leader who risks her life to protect her people against forces of destruction -- most echoes that of Pocahontas (from 1995's Pocahontas).

Luke Skywalker and 'The Sword in the Stone's' Arthur

The two blonde boy heroes of Star Wars and The Sword in the Stone (1963) -- Luke Skywalker and young Arthur, also known as Wart -- both know a little something about wielding sabers of extraordinary power, and how they can ultimately lead you to your rightful place on a throne.

Yoda and 'Pinocchio's' Jiminy Cricket

Require you a short, green conscience to help you find your way, do you? Perhaps one possessing great wisdom about nearby celestial bodies, and how they might help you achieve your deepest desires? Then you should probably meet Yoda and/or Jiminy Cricket from Pinocchio (1930).

R2-D2 and Wall-E

Whatever would we do without our sentient helper robots? They're forced to do all the crud work, and, short of a few disgruntled bleeps and bloops, never once complain. And once in a while, they manage to save entire planets. So let's hear it for R2-D2 and Wall-E (from 2008's Wall-E). Hug your droid today!

Jabba the Hutt and 'The Little Mermaid's' Ursula

It's amazing how productively evil you can be without actually being able to walk. Then again, Ursula from The Little Mermaid (1989) can always swim to her various underwater terror appointments. Jabba the Hutt, on the other hand, is mostly relegated to his platform-on-wheels, sliding backwards from time to time to take in the occasional Rancor feeding.

Chewbacca and 'Beauty and the Beast's' Beast

If you're the type that likes your men with wall-to-wall carpeting, then both Disney and Star Wars give you something to swoon over in Beast from Beauty and the Beast (1991) and Chewbacca. In Chewbacca's case, however, there are no spells to break -- just a lot of ape sounds and a lifetime of clogged drains.

Ewoks and 'Snow White's' Dwarves

Diminutive, industrious forest-dwellers unite! The dawning of the Ewok-Dwarf Alliance is upon us.

C-3PO and 'Beauty and the Beast's' Lumière

They're both made from solid brass and live to serve. But that's not all C-3PO and Beauty and the Beast's Lumière have in common: They also love showtunes!

Obi-Wan Kenobi and 'Pinnochio's' Geppetto

Sometimes, all it takes is an aged loner who is nimble with his hands to turn a toy into a boy, or a boy into a man. At least, that's the case with Obi-Wan Kenobi and Geppetto from Pinnochio (1940).

Admiral Ackbar and 'The Little Mermaid's' Sebastian the Crab

"It's a trap!" could easily be said by either of these lovable supporting crustaceans. In Admiral Ackbar's case that could spell doom for the Rebel Alliance; in the case of Sebastian the Crab from The Little Mermaid (1989), however, it just means dinner for Ursula.

A Paper Theater Brought to Life With Light Projection. The Ice Book By Davy McGuire.

Davy McGuire is a director of film, theater and video art. He creates productions for stage, screen and exhibition spaces that blend elements of film, animation, theatre, puppetry, installation art and good old-fashioned illusions.



His latest piece, created with choreographer and dancer wife Kristin, uses light projection on a series of small paper cut out pop-ups combined with film projection and animation for a hauntingly beautiful effect.






The Ice Book is the story of a princess who lures a boy into the forest in order to warm her heart of ice.



His showreel:

Davy McGuire

via W&LeCie via NOTCOT

New Nathan Love Animated Thanksgiving Promo For NBC

The latest collaboration between illustrator/director Nathan Love and NBC to wish their viewing audience a Happy Thanksgiving holiday is this 30 second promo which starts airing today.



Client: NBC Artworks
Director: Nathan Love
Creative Director: Joe Burrascano
Art Director: Anca Risca
Animation Director: Ryan Moran
Rigging: Dan Vislocky, Frank Naranjo
FX Animation: Stieg Retlin
Sound Design & Music: Drew Skinner

Meet Marcel The Shell With Shoes On.

If you haven't yet met Marcel, you're missing out. So let me introduce you.



Marcel the Shell with shoes on is a delightful little character in this stop motion animated short directed by Dean Fleischer-Camp and voiced (not enhanced) by actress, comedienne, writer and 2009-2010 SNL cast member Jenny Slate. The short film was written by both Jenny Slate and Dean Fleischer-Camp.

Sweet and sad (in a Charlie Brown sort of way), Marcel has gone viral in a big way. And you can see why. Just watch the 3 minute and 20 second video below.




above left: Jenny Slate, the voice and co-creator of Marcel the shell, above right.

Marcel is so adored, he even made the New York magazine matrix - in the HighBrow/ Brilliant quadrant!


Marcel:


"Bestie by Bestie," is a web series about friendship that the former SNL star and her comedy partner (and life long bestie) Gabe Liedman screen at their weekly stand-up show. The video series is also directed by Dean Fleischer-Camp and the premiere episode can be viewed here.

Special thanks to my friend Jean Rhode who turned me onto this little guy.

UPDATE:
Now there's more Marcel to love. Check out the sequel, new book, and mobile apps here!

Award-Winning Animated Short Film "Love & Theft"

This seven minute animated short film has been the recipient of numerous awards for both music and animation. With script, direction and animation by Andreas Hykade and artwork by Natalia Eck. (Full credits at the end of this post)

Logorama Takes Home The Oscar. Here's The Whole Animated Short Film.

Logorama, a 16 minute movie, took home the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film last night. As you can imagine, many of the sites that previously has this short feature online have quickly disabled it, but I've got both the trailer and the whole film for you (until someone disables the link):

The whole film:

 

Directed by H5 (François Alaux, Hervé de Crécy and Ludovic Houplain), the short animated film featurtes more than 2500 logos which make up spectacular car chases, an intense hostage crisis, wild animals rampaging through the city... and much more.
         
Geek Details (thanks to Aeromental)

• The yellow persons on the streets are the logo from the Messenger of AOL.
• The Quicktime logo is a clock in the caffeteria
• For Pixar’s Wall-E fans, you can see the Buy N Large logo
• The Bar Equalizer from the Helicopter was the logo of Cisco Systems
• The earthquake in the city formed the X-Box logo, ironically destroying the Windows building and IBM
• The road near the mountains forms the VAIO logo.
• When the car crashes against a tree, many old Apple logos fall, the multicolor version.
• The cactus were made with the standard USB icon.
• The butterflies are the MSN logo.
• The floating W is for Microsoft Word.
• Sony Ericsson is the Moon.
• Internet Explorer appears as a planet.

You can also find Logorama in full length on iTunes (in case by the time you see this, they've figured out I posted the whole thing and disable it).

Honoring Mom With A Beaver, A Bird & A Bee (and a downloadable card!)

In celebration of Mother's Day, Zune Arts, the program that aims to bring the best creative minds together to collaborate on inspiring works of art, has released a new video "Mother Like No Other." The new work is a short film created by French animator, Yves Geleyn, set to the delicate music of The Bird And The Bee's track "Come As You Were". Available now at Zune-Arts.net, the film "Mother Like No Other" also comes with a unique downloadable Mother's Day card that fans can print out to give to their moms for Mother's Day.



This heart-warming tale follows a young beaver and his cardinal friend on a collaborative journey to create a beautiful bouquet for the beaver's mother. With a twist ending, this unique 2D animation film demonstrates just how far some will go to show appreciation for mom. Fans can see a previously released behind-the-scenes video that follows animator Yves through his New York studio during film production here.

Zune Arts recently announced the availability of Zune Arts content through a new podcast series, which showcases a broad selection of today's cutting edge cultural artists expressing themselves through film, music, design and illustration. In addition to showing these works, the podcast series will feature artist interviews, exclusive content, behind-the-scenes videos and more.

For more information about Zune Arts podcast subscription, visit here
For more on Yves Geleyn and Hornet Inc., visit here
For more on The Bird and the Bee, visit the Zune Social here

My friend Ro & The Aliens tell The Untold Story of Space-Dog, Laika

Not only does this animation for Zune-Arts feature Laika, a jack russell terrier that looks just like mine, but it was created by a very talented colleague of mine, Mr. Ro Rohitash!



Visit Ro's site here.



About the music:


The Aliens Music Blog.

Visit Zune Arts here to see more wonderful films and music collaborations.