No less a media organ than the LA Times is already claiming foul at the movie's chances with mainstream gongs, pointing out that it may just in the wrong genre to earn an Oscar:

Entertainment Weekly calls the film "madly original" and "exciting," Washington Post hails it as "transfixing." "District 9" is also a big box-office smash produced by the emperor of the Oscars, Peter Jackson, whose "Lord of the Rings: Return of the King" (2003) tied the Oscar record (11 trophies) set by "Ben-Hur" (1959) and "Titanic" (1997). So that means "District 9" should do well at the Academy Awards next, right? Especially since there will be 10 slots in the best-picture race instead of the usual five, correct?

Hmmmm, not so fast, fanboys. Keep in mind that this is sci-fi, a genre that's received little Oscar respect historically. Only three sci-fi flicks have ever been nominated for best picture: "E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial" (1982), "Star Wars" (1977) and "A Clockwork Orange" (1971).

Could this kind of reflexive Oscar paranoia be what passes for Oscar buzz among science fiction movies? In that case, let's hope it moves Oscar voters to prove the Times wrong.

Is 'District 9' cursed at the Oscars? [LA Times/The Envelope]

Thanks to Yair Raveh's rundown of the planned scheduling for tonight's show, it's become much easier for us to plan your evening out for you, letting you know just when you can stop paying attention and start ordering pizza (All times PST):

5:38: Host Hugh Jackman's opening performance: How can you not want to see Wolverine himself in what is likely to involve some comedy and some singing? You can't, if only for the potential car-crash potential in working in an awkward X-Men Origins: Wolverine plug. Me, I won't be happy unless Liev Schreiber appears for a cameo.

5:45: Actress In A Supporting Role: The closest thing SF has to a horse in this race is Taraji P. Henson for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, although the A Different World fan in me is hoping for a Marisa Tomei victory here.

5:51: Original Screenplay: Wall-E! Wall-E! Sadly, as much as I want Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon and Pete Docter to win for their pitch-perfect script for the Pixar movie, I think they're going to lose out to favorites like Milk and In Bruges, sadly.

5:55: Adapted Screenplay: As much as I'm hoping that Simon Beaufoy clinches it for Slumdog Millionaire, the genre-correct thing would be to point to the fact that The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is nominated here.

6:03: Animated Feature Film: Look, come on. Kung-Fu Panda may be fun and all, but if this doesn't go to Wall-E, then someone's managed to bribe the entire Academy.

6:05: Animated Short Film: Unless you're a big animation fan, this would be a good time to go check on your drinks situation; you won't have heard of any of these nominees and, sadly, you'll probably never hear of them again, either. Wait, was that too cynical?

6:14: Art Direction: In fact, you're in the depths of the awards by now - The next big one isn't until 7 o'clock, so if you need to go out and walk the dog or something, feel free. Although this is the first of The Dark Knight's nominations of the evening, so you may want to stick around after all...

6:18: Costume Design: And this would be a good time to flip over to see whether Sci Fi's Lake Placid is looking worth checking out, unless you have any costumer friends.

6:20: Make-Up: Not that I didn't like Aaron Eckhart's Two-Face in Dark Knight, but if Hellboy II: The Golden Army doesn't win this one, it'll be my scream that you'll be hearing around this time of the evening.

6:30: Cinematography: Another Dark Knight nom here - and one that it deserves, considering the beautiful look of the movie and the technological challenges involved in shooting it.

6:36: Science and Technical Awards Recap: That embarrassing part of the evening when they say that the technical awards aren't as important as all the other awards, and cut to a video of some poor actress who had to host a separate ceremony all on her own.

6:41: Live Action Short Film: Remember what I said about Animated Short? Yeah, that applies here, too.

7:03: Actor In A Supporting Role: Welcome to one of the most cynical scheduling decisions of the night. This is one of the - if not the - most anticipated awards of the evening, thanks to Heath Ledger's nomination for The Dark Knight, and it's being used as the prop in the middle of the boring awards in order to keep everyone tuned in at home. It's enough to make me want Robert Downey Jr. take it for Tropic Thunder just to spite everyone.

7:08: Documentary Feature: See what I mean? At this point, I think they're hoping that the Ledger effect will take you through this and 7:10: Documentary Short Subject.

7:20: Visual Effects: Oh, this one is entirely in our wheelhouse: Iron Man, Dark Knight and Benjamin Button are the nominees, and I'm pulling for the Stark Industries entrant, I have to admit.

7:22: Sound Editing: Another case where all nominees (Dark Knight, Benjamin Button, Wall-E, Wanted and Slumdog Millionaire) are equally deserving. Well, except Wanted, of course.

7:26: Sound Mixing: We're back in the woods of the duller categories, in case you couldn't tell. Unless you're a particularly big fan of Jerry Lewis or music, you can start thinking about skipping the next 45 minutes or so without fear.

7:29: Film Editing: Again, a Dark Knight nom, but don't feel too guilty if you ignore it in favor of... well, almost anything else, really. Especially considering what's coming up next.

7:37: Jean Hersholt Award to Jerry Lewis: I know, I know. Breathe calmly and think of The Nutty Professor. It'll be over soon.

7:48: Original Score and 7:55 Original Song: We're nearing the end; fans of Wall-E and Slumdog Millionaire will undoubtedly like these two categories, but everyone else may want to stay away until 8:14.

8:01: Foreign Language Film: Everyone who's voting for Waltz With Bashir, raise your hands. Everyone who hasn't seen any of these films, do the same. Yeah, that's what I thought.

8:10 In Memoriam: The most depressing, saccharine part of the evening, and yet, you know that you're going to get choked up at at least one point during the montage of people who've died in the last year.

8:14: Directing: And the Oscar goes to... Christopher Nol - No, wait, he wasn't nominated in what really was the snub of the year. Not to get too fanboyish on you all, but I refuse to believe that, as good as Frost/Nixon is, Ron Howard really deserved the nod more than Nolan did. Neither, for that matter, does Fincher's Benjamin Button. Controversial!

8:23: Actress In A Leading Role and 8:31: Actor In A Leading Role: This may be where the schedule falls apart, if they're really hoping for short acceptance speeches from the likes of Meryl Streep, Sean Penn or Frank Langella. There aren't really any io9-friendly movies in the running for Best Actress, but my crush for Kate Winslet means that I'm pulling for her success in that category. For Best Actor, io9 loyalty to SF pushes me to hope for Brad Pitt's success.

8:38: Best Motion Picture: Will it be The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Frost/Nixon, Milk, The Reader or Slumdog Millionaire? My money's on the latter, to be honest, but this is your last chance to complain about your movie of choice not getting recognized before it's all over bar the fashion analysis. But don't worry; we get to do the whole thing again next year.

Two days later, and I'm still upset that The Dark Knight was inexcusably excluded from the Best Picture category at the Academy Awards as well as Nolan for Best Director. But I'm not alone in my lament; Dark Campaign has been rooting for TDK's success for some time now. Jonathan Nolan (TDK screenwriter) sent an email to the faithful fans explaining his dismay and thanks for the ongoing support:

hey — not sure who to address this to as it looks like a collective effort, but I just wanted to pass along my thanks.

It’s truly humbling that you guys would take the time and effort to try to get the film recognized. I, like you, was disappointed that Chris didn’t get some recognition this morning, but for Heath and so many of the people who worked so hard on this thing to get nominated is thrilling.

Any nominations for a comic book movie is a thing of beauty no matter how you slice it, and that takes the sting out a bit. Besides, I’ve been to the big show before, and, like any of these things, it’s a little disappointing. Did you know it’s not even an open bar once the show starts? At least this time I would have remembered to bring a little cash so I could buy myself a drink after losing.

The best part of this experience is seeing other people getting passionate about the film the way that we did. It has been a truly incredible experience. So thank you again.

best,

jonah nolan

Also check out this amazing fantastic, yet super sad, video Dark Campaign made.

Benjamin Button was a collaboration of Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros., Digital Domain, Asylum FX, Matte World and Lola FX. When everybody put their heads together, what we got was the aged face of Brad Pitt on a tiny body that looked too good to be your standard digital manipulation.

Over at BenjaminButtonFX.com, there's an extensive collection of videos that show just how they made Brad look so good. It's pretty amazing how similar the end result is to Brad's brow.

[via Rope Of Silicon]

The big winner this morning was The Curious Case Of Benjamin Buttons. The backwards aging baby was nominated for 13 awards including Best Performance (Brad Pitt), Best Picture, Adapted Screenplay (which I'm a little dubious of) and Best Visual Effects. WALL-E received 5 tips of the hat including Best Animated Feature, Best Original Song and Original Screenplay. The visual effects and sound effects nominations are stuffed with scifi and it's great to see Hellboy II get the recognition it so rightly deserves for makeup. So on that note I'm quite pleased with many of the nominations.

But I'm very disheartened by the passing over of Christopher Nolan for Best Director in The Dark Knight, as well as the snub in the Best Picture category and Best Original Score. The Dark Knight deserves every single technical award it was nominated for, but the movie as a whole deserved attention as well (not saying it deserved to win but a nom for sure). But let's take solace in the fact that Heath Ledger was rightfully nominated for his supporting role, and I will say he should win this category hands down. Plus it is a pleasure to see TDK getting props for Achievement In Cinematography.

Here are the rest of the nominees please feel free to share your surprise and delight.

Performance By An Actor In A Leading Role:
Brad Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Richard Jenkins in The Visitor
Frank Langella in Frost/Nixon
Sean Penn in Milk
Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler

Performance By An Actor In A Supporting Role
Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight
Josh Brolin in Milk
Robert Downey Jr. in “Tropic Thunder”
Philip Seymour Hoffman in Doubt
Michael Shannon in Revolutionary Road

Performance By An Actress n A Supporting Role
Taraji P. Henson in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Amy Adams in Doubt
Penélope Cruz in Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Viola Davis in Doubt
Marisa Tomei in The Wrestler

Performance By An Actress In A Leading Role
Anne Hathaway in Rachel Getting Married
Angelina Jolie in Changeling
Melissa Leo in Frozen River
Kate Winslet in The Reader

Best Animated Feature Film Of The Year
Bolt
Kung Fu Panda
WALL-E

Achievement In Art Direction
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Changeling
The Duchess
Revolutionary Road

Achievement In Cinematography
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire

Achievement In Costume Design
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Revolutionary Road
Milk
The Duchess
Austrailia

Achievement In Directing
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button David Fincher
Frost/Nixon Ron Howard
Milk Gus Van Sant
The Reader Stephen Daldry
Slumdog Millionaire Danny Boyle

Achievement In Film Editing
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Frost/Nixon
Milk
Slumdog Millionaire

Achievement In Makeup
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Achievement In Music Written For Motion Pictures (Original Song)
"Down to Earth" from WALL-E Music by Peter Gabriel and Thomas Newman, Lyric by Peter Gabriel
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Alexandre Desplat
Defiance James Newton Howard
Milk Danny Elfman
Slumdog Millionaire A.R. Rahman

Best Motion Picture Of The Year
Frost/Nixon
Milk
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Achievement In Sound Editing
The Dark Knight
Iron Man
Slumdog Millionaire
WALL-E
Wanted

Achievement In Sound Mixing
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
WALL-E
Wanted>
Slumdog Millionaire

Achievement In Visual Effects
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Iron Man

Original Screenplay
WALL-E
Frozen River
Happy-Go-Lucky
In Bruges
Milk

Adapted Screenplay
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Doubt
Frost/Nixon
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire

The award show will be held on February 22.

[The Academy of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences]

Writing for Variety's Oscar blog, Gabler argues that both movies have deeper intellectual underpinnings than you may expect, making both potential Academy Award-fodder:

"The Dark Knight" functions like a shell game. It sets up an idea and encourages viewers to accept it, only to then pick up the shell and reveal that the audience has been bamboozled... In the end, it isn't order or anomie, but human goodness that prevails. Batman's only purpose is to guard against the aberrations. [In contrast,] the symbolism of the "Iron Man" is unmistakable. Power must be tempered by humanity, in this case literally placing the man inside the weapon. More, the weapon is almost literally powered by Stark's heart, which is attached to a tiny atomic reactor. It is the human dimensions of Stark, even his fallibility, that make him heroic.

No one would claim that this is an earthshaking epiphany. Still, it raises the film above the typical cathartic muscle-flexing, and it adds an ironic edge to the genre. Whether that will be enough to get it Oscar attention remains to be seen, but "Iron Man," like "The Dark Knight," is at least on the voters' radar, which is no small achievement. Ideas can do that for you, even when they are packaged in a comicbook extravaganza.

As someone who thought that Dark Knight was too weighed down with its need to make a grand statement, I'm unsurprised to see it being mentioned here, but Iron Man's appearance is a welcome surprise (even if I'd be very surprised to see it get nominated for anything other than visual effects and potentially a nod for Robert Downey Jr.); has Dark Knight flipped critics' wigs so much that they're re-evaluating popcorn movies for hidden meaning?

Image by Aaron Williams.

Comicbook films address serious issues [Variety]

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has to choose the pick of the litter from this collection of animation features. The chosen few will go on to be Oscar nominees, which will be announced January 22, 2009. We've decided to star each scifi or cult-genre contender.

The contenders are:
Bolt
Delgo
Dragon Hunters *
Fly Me to the Moon *
Igor *
Kung Fu Panda
Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa
$9.99
The Sky Crawlers *
Sword of the Stranger
The Tale of Despereaux
Waltz With Bashir
WALL-E *
Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who!

I think it's easy to assume that WALL-E is the front runner for this years win, but I'm so happy that Mamoru Oshii's The Sky Crawlers got a little respect, as it's a gorgeous story. Still let's take a minute to remember the fallen Space Chimps, and those reviewers who were forced to watch it.

In the wee hours of the morning Neil Patrick Harris (who just so happens to be staring in a fantastic scifi Joss Whedon web series) read off the names for those nominated for Emmys. In a wonderfully fulfilling moment Battlestar Galactica writer Michael Angeli was nominated for Outstanding Writing For A Drama Series. But as the names went on I realized that the whole BSG cast had been passed over, as well as the show itself, for Best Drama. I was pretty shocked, since Boston Legal made the list. Call me sour grapes, but I'm going to have to side with the critically acclaimed religious war epic over watching James Spader try and get laid each week. But on the flip side, Lost was nominated for Best Drama (a scifi victory). Yet Lost still got no love for writing.

And now Hollywood is trying to dash our dreams at seeing a scifi win at the Oscars. People in the know are calling the Heath Ledger Oscar buzz on the internet mere type-clicking for an over-hyped film. Although Leonard Maltin, film critic for Entertainment Tonight, agrees that Ledger's performance was great, with one phrase he casts off the hopes of a million scifi fans as those who don't matter. Says Maltin: "I assure you that the people who are spreading all this are neither Oscar voters nor (Hollywood) movers and shakers."

Other observers claim Hollywood would find a Ledger Oscar creepy. Tom O'Neil, from The Envelope.com, explains, "That's how reluctant Oscar voters are to hug the dead," O'Neil said. "These awards are all about hugs and there's something creepy about embracing the dead."

So the insiders have discredited the internet community as know-nothing buzz-generators, who don't and won't have any impact on whom Hollywood deems worthy of praise. Then they go as far to say that a vote for a well done piece of acting would just be creepy because of an untimely death. It feels like grasping for straws. I wish they'd just say what they meant, that it's an action movie and we just can't be forced to take that seriously.

When is Hollywood going to get it? Scifi writers, artists and all the other indoor kids are the ones that dream of a bigger world are the ones that bring lines to box offices. These people that you continually shove in the back table out of camera's reach at the Golden Globes are the ones who brought you different worlds, fantastic creatures, new ideas and worlds and started dialogues about our future.

When will this continual snub to the scifi industry end? Will something like Cormac McCarthy's film adaptation of The Road open the doors wider because of McCarthy's past award-winning success? Will writers burn out if Hollywood keeps turning its back on wonderfully written series like BSG? Not if J.J. Abrams' Fringe has anything to say about it. Thankfully we still have eager young minds who have found enough success to inspire future scifi contributors, Hollywood be damned.

If the star presence at San Diego's Comic Con is any indication of Hollywood treating scifi with greater respect, then at least we're on the right path. But I hope the day that Hollywood lays itself at the scifi industry's feet and says "I love you," scifi looks right into Hollywood's eyes and says, "I know."

Struzan came to George Lucas' attention when he helped an artist friend who was uncomfortable with portrait work by painting the human figures on a Star Wars poster. Struzan stepped in and painted Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia on the "Star Wars Circus" poster, and that started his long career of painting movie posters for George Lucas and Steven Spielberg.

You've probably seen his work dozens of times without realizing it. From Hellboy to Harry Potter to Back to the Future to The Thing, Struzan's been there. While we see the need for posters advertising the Academy Awards as about as necessary as a screen door on a deep-space cargo ship, it's cool that they're using an artist who loves and appreciates science fiction so much.

Academy unveils Oscar poster [Variety]

What's more insulting is a glance at the list of other entrants on the list, which will soon be boiled down to the nominees:

• 
  
• Evan Almighty: seriously, a bunch of CGI animals? Giant waves? We're weeping, on the inside. Doctor Doolittle had some similar effects, from what we remember. We love Steve Carell, but not as Neo Noah.
• 
  
• The Bourne Ultimatum: sure Matt Damon kicked some butt, but other than that chase across the rooftops and a car chase or two, the vfx didn't blow our pants off.
• 
  
• The Golden Compass: this movie got lost in the wake from the Harry Potter yacht, and the effects looked impressive, and a bit too Narnia-esque.
• 
  
• I Am Legend: we'll tip our hat to this one, since those desolate shots of an empty Manhattan are simply gorgeous, and the hordes of infected were pretty scary as well. Especially that shot where they're all huddled together the in dark. Yikes.
• 
  
• Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End: This is what happens when you marry a really shoddy story that's full of holes with a ton of CGI. A mess that looks fake and is ultimate unsatisfying. Like a bowl of wax fruit.
• 
  
• Transformers: decent effects, like the drawn-out Optimus Prime transformation and some of the slow-motion fights, but in the heat of most of these robo-battles, it was hard to tell what was going on. Something we keep hearing about this flick.
• 
  
• 300: We wanted this to capture more of the spirit of the Frank Miller graphic novel, but simply copying scenes from it didn't work. Sure, Gerard Butler was great, but at times this felt a bit goofy. Still, we'll admit the effects were the film, and not badly done.
• 
  

Sunshine, while you might not be the Academy's darling, you're certainly ours.

• 
  
• Victor Gonzalez, Ignacio Vargas and Angel Tena for the creation of the RealFlow software application. "RealFlow was the first widely adopted, commercially available, easy-to-use system for the simulation of realistic liquids in motion picture visual effects."
• 
  
• Jonathan Cohen, Dr. Jerry Tessendorf, Dr. Jeroen Molemaker and Michael Kowalski for the development of the system of fluid dynamics tools at Rhythm & Hues. "This system allows artists to create realistic animation of liquids and gases, using novel simulation techniques for accuracy and speed, as well as a unique scripting language for working with volumetric data."
• 
  
• Duncan Brinsmead, Jos Stam, Julia Pakalns and Martin Werner for the design and implementation of the Maya Fluid Effects system. "This system is used to create simulations of gaseous phenomena integrated into the widely available Maya tool suite, using an unconditionally stable semi-Lagrangian solver."
• 
  
• Stephan Trojansky, Thomas Ganshorn and Oliver Pilarski for the development of the Flowline fluid effects system. "Flowline is a flexible system that incorporates highly parallel computation, allowing rapid iteration and resulting in detailed, realistic fluid effects."
• 
  
• Dr. Doug Roble, Nafees Bin Zafar and Ryo Sakaguchi for the development of the fluid simulation system at Digital Domain. "This influential and flexible production-proven system incorporates innovative algorithms and refined adaptations of published methods to achieve large-scale water effects."
• 
  
• Nick Rasmussen, Ron Fedkiw and Frank Losasso Petterson for the development of the Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) fluid simulation system. "This production-proven simulation system achieves large-scale water effects within ILM's Zeno framework. It includes integrating particle level sets, parallel computation, and tools that enable the artistic direction of the results."
•