Since producer Brett Ratner has been let go following a vulgar interview consisting of anti-gay slur, Eddie Murphy has decided to step down as host of this year’s Oscars.

Murphy commented, “First and foremost I want to say that I completely understand and support each party’s decision with regard to a change of producers for this year’s Academy Awards ceremony. I was truly looking forward to being a part of the show that our production team and writers were just starting to develop, but I’m sure that the new production team and host will do an equally great job.”

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President, Tom Sherak, stated, “I appreciate how Eddie feels about losing his creative partner, Brett Ratner, and we all wish him well.”

Murphy and Ratner have previously worked together on Tower Heist.

Source: Deadline

• Alice in Wonderland
• The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
• Clash of the Titans
• Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows
• Hereafter
• Inception
• Iron Man 2
• The Last Airbender
• Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief
• Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
• Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
• Shutter Island
• The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
• Tron: Legacy
• Unstoppable

The list will be narrowed down to only seven by the Executive Branch of AMPAS’ Executive Committee. The final nominations will be announced on January 25, 2011.

This year’s Academy Awards will be hosted by James Franco and Anne Hathaway on February 27, 2011.

Move would help the Oscars’ efforts to bring popular pics into the show, as the tentpoles that dominate the box office charts, like this year’s “Alice in Wonderland” and “Iron Man 2,” typically are vfx-heavy.

Those favoring the change note that even though the vfx teams on a major tentpole can outnumber the cast and crew on the set, there is only one vfx category. At the same time, there are two sound categories, two screenplay categories and four for acting, so the number of names up for vfx honors isn’t out of line with other disciplines.

With so many features dripping with visual effects, do you believe that it would be a good or a bad decision to go and put in more slots for this category?

Nominations are expected to be announced for the 83rd Annual Academy Awards on January 25th, 2011. The actual awards ceremony will now take place on Sunday, February 27th (THR).

One of the more surprising outcomes of the night goes to James Cameron’s Avatar which got less than what was predicted by a many of us, and surprisingly getting the Academy Award for Best Cinematography. Up definitely got it’s recognition, despite losing the Best Picture category, and Crazy Heart got an Oscar more of love than previously anticipated by some.

Enough of the jibber-jabber, here’s the list of all of the winners for the 82nd Annual Academy Awards below. Air out your thoughts and let us know what you think of the winners, whether or not you agree with each one as well.:

Best Picture

• The Hurt Locker (Summit Entertainment) – Producers Mark Boal, Katheryn Bigelow, Nicolas Chartier & Greg Sharpio

Best Director

• Katheryn Bigelow – The Hurt Locker (Summit Entertainment)

Best Actor

• Jeff Bridges – Crazy Heart (Fox Searchlight)

Best Actress

• Sandra Bullock – The Blind Side (Warner Bros. Pictures)

Best Supporting Actor

• Christoph Waltz – Inglourious Basterds (The Weinstein Company/Universal Pictures)

Best Supporting Actress

• Mo’Nique – Precious: Based on the novel Push by Sapphire (Lionsgate)

Best Original Screenplay

• Mark Boal - The Hurt Locker (Summit Entertainment)

Best Adapted Screenplay

• Geoffrey Fletcher – Precious: Based on the novel Push by Sapphire (Lionsgate)

Best Foreign Language Film

• El secreto de sus ojos (Argentina)

Best Cinematography

• Mauro Fiore – Avatar (Twentieth Century Fox)

Best Animated Feature

• Up - Directed by Pete Docter & Bob Peterson (Walt Disney Pictures/Pixar Animation Studios)

Best Original Score

• Michael Giacchino – Up (Walt Disney Pictures/Pixar Animation Studios)

Best Original Song

• “The Weary Kind” – T Bone Burnett & Ryan Bingham – Crazy Heart (Fox Searchlight)

Best Art Direction

• Avatar (Twentieth Century Fox)

Best Costume Design

• Sandy Powell – The Young Victoria (Apparition)

Best Makeup

• Star Trek (Paramount Pictures)

Best Sound Editing

• The Hurt Locker (Summit Entertainment)

Best Sound Mixing

• The Hurt Locker (Summit Entertainment)

Best Editing

• The Hurt Locker (Summit Entertainment)

Best Visual Effects

• Avatar (Twentieth Century Fox)

Funny Games

Now talk is swirling about that The White Ribbon director is taking on a different film altogether that revolves around the internet, said to be shot in different locations around the world. The feature is to be handled under Les Films Du Losange with a script that should be completed later on during this year. The White Ribbon got it’s expected recognition from the Academy this year for the 82nd Annual Academy Awards. The two categories the film was nominated for was not only Best Foreign Language Film but also Best Cinematography.

“I’d like to do a Western. But rather than set it in Texas, have it in slavery times. With that subject that everybody is afraid to deal with. Let’s shine that light on ourselves. You could do a ponderous history lesson of slaves escaping on the Underground Railroad. Or, you could make a movie that would be exciting. Do it as an adventure. A spaghetti Western that takes place during that time. And I would call it ‘A Southern.’”

Inglourious Basterds is nominated for eight Oscars at this year’s Academy Awards, among those being Best Picture, Cinematography, Director, Editing, Sound, Sound Editing, Supporting Actor and Original Screenplay.

Asked about potential “Avatar” sequels, chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch said on his quarterly earnings call Tuesday that the conglomerate is in “very early talks about it.” Director James Cameron “has ideas” for a sequel, he said, adding: “We will be pushing for one.” But he cautioned analysts not to “hold your breath for an early one” in a possible reference to Cameron projects often taking a long time to come to fruition.

Right now Avatar has several nominations under it’s belt for the 82nd Annual Academy Awards after yesterday morning. Among those are noms for Best Picture, Director, Art Direction, Cinematography, Film Editing, Original Score, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing and Visual Effects. Let’s see not only if this actually happens but how long it will take Cameron to put together the feature.

This year’s 82nd Annual Academy Awards is finally just around the corner. The nominees will be presented by the lovely Anne Hathaway and the president of the Academy Tom Sherak. Be sure to keep your eyes out on ABC at 5:30 A.M. PST and on this particular article here for up-to-date coverage on the nominees. Feel free to leave feedback, predictions of who will win, and even what you think of the Oscars.

UPDATES:

Best Supporting Actress

• Vera Farmiga – Up in the Air
• Maggie Gyllenhaal – Crazy Heart
• Anna Kendrick – Up in the Air
• Mo’Nique – Precious
• Penelope Cruz – Nine

Best Supporting Actor

• Matt Damon - Invictus
• Woody Harrelson – The Messenger
• Christopher Plummer – The Last Station
• Stanley Tucci – The Lovely Bones
• Christoph Waltz – Inglourious Basterds

Best Actress

• Sandra Bullock – The Blind Side
• Helen Mirren – The Last Station
• Carey Mulligan – An Education
• Gabourey Sidibe – Precious
• Meryl Streep – Julie & Julia

Best Actor

• Jeff Bridges – Crazy Heart
• George Clooney – Up in the Air
• Colin Firth – A Single Man
• Morgan Freeman – Invictus
• Jeremy Renner – The Hurt Locker

Best Director

• James Cameron – Avatar
• Katheryn Bigelow – The Hurt Locker
• Quentin Tarantino – Inglourious Basterds
• Lee Daniels – Precious
• Jason Reitman – Up in the Air

Best Original Screenplay

• The Hurt Locker - Mark Boal
• Inglourious Basterds - Quentin Tarantino
• The Messenger - Alessandro Camon & Oren Moverman
• A Serious Man – Joel & Ethan Coen
• Up - Bob Peterson & Pete Docter

Best Adapted Screenplay

• District 9 – Neill Blomkamp
• An Education – Nick Hornby
• In The Loop - Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell & Armando Iannucci
• Precious – Geoffrey Fletcher
• Up in the Air – Jason Reitman & Sheldon Turner

Best Foreign Language Film

• Ajami (Israel)
• El Secreto de sus Ojos (Argentina)
• The Milk of Sorrow (Peru)
• Un Prophète (France)
• The White Ribbon (Germany)

Best Animated Film

• Coraline
• The Princess and the Frog
• Fantastic Mr. Fox
• The Secret of Kells
• Up

Best Picture

• Avatar
• The Blind Side
• District 9
• An Education
• The Hurt Locker
• Inglourious Basterds
• Precious
• A Serious Man
• Up
• Up in the Air

Best Art Direction

• Avatar - Art Direction: Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg; Set Decoration: Kim Sinclair
• The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus - Art Direction: Dave Warren and Anastasia Masaro; Set Decoration: Caroline Smith
• Nine - Art Direction: John Myhre; Set Decoration: Gordon Sim
• Sherlock Holmes - Art Direction: Sarah Greenwood; Set Decoration: Katie Spencer
• The Young Victoria – Art Direction: Patrice Vermette; Set Decoration: Maggie Gray

Best Cinematography

• Avatar – Mauro Fiore
• Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince - Bruno Delbonnel
• The Hurt Locker - Barry Ackroyd
• Inglourious Basterds - Robert Richardson
• The White Ribbon - Christian Berger

Best Costume Design

• Bright Star - Janet Patterson
• Coco Before Chanel – Catherine Leterrier
• The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus - Monique Prudhomme
• Nine - Colleen Atwood
• The Young Victoria - Sandy Powell

Best Documentary (Feature)

• Burma VJ - Anders Østergaard and Lise Lense-Møller
• The Cove - Nominees to be determined
• Food Inc. - Robert Kenner and Elise Pearlstein
• The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers - Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith
• Which Way Home- Rebecca Cammisa

Best Documentary (Short Subject)

• China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province – Jon Alpert and Matthew O’Neill
• The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner - Daniel Junge and Henry Ansbacher
• The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant – Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert
• Music by Prudence – Roger Ross Williams and Elinor Burkett
• Rabbit à la Berlin - Bartek Konopka and Anna Wydra

Best Film Editing

• Avatar - Stephen Rivkin, John Refoua and James Cameron
• District 9 - Julian Clarke
• The Hurt Locker - Bob Murawski and Chris Innis
• Inglourious Basterds – Sally Menke
• Precious - Joe Klotz

Best Makeup

• Il Divo - Aldo Signoretti and Vittorio Sodano
• Star Trek - Barney Burman, Mindy Hall and Joel Harlow
• The Young Victoria - Jon Henry Gordon and Jenny Shircore

Best Music (Original Score)

• Avatar - James Horner
• Fantastic Mr. Fox - Alexandre Desplat
• The Hurt Locker - Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders
• Sherlock Holmes - Hans Zimmer
• Up - Michael Giacchino

Best Music (Original Song)

• “Almost There” from “The Princess and the Frog” Music and Lyric by Randy Newman
• “Down in New Orleans” from “The Princess and the Frog” Music and Lyric by Randy Newman
• “Loin de Paname” from “Paris 36” Music by Reinhardt Wagner Lyric by Frank Thomas
• “Take It All” from “Nine” Music and Lyric by Maury Yeston
• “The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)” from “Crazy Heart” Music and Lyric by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett

Best Short Film (Animated)

• French Roast - Fabrice O. Joubert
• Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty - Nicky Phelan and Darragh O’Connell
• The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte) - Javier Recio Gracia
• Logorama - Nicolas Schmerkin
• A Matter of Loaf and Death – Nick Park

Best Short Film (Live Action)

• The Door - Juanita Wilson and James Flynn
• Instead of Abracadabra - Patrik Eklund and Mathias Fjellström
• Kavi - Gregg Helvey
• Miracle Fish - Luke Doolan and Drew Bailey
• The New Tenants – Joachim Back and Tivi Magnusson

Best Sound Editing

• Avatar – Christopher Boyes and Gwendolyn Yates Whittle
• The Hurt Locker - Paul N.J. Ottosson
• Inglourious Basterds - Wylie Stateman
• Star Trek - Mark Stoeckinger and Alan Rankin
• Up - Michael Silvers and Tom Myers

Best Sound Mixing

• Avatar - Christopher Boyes, Gary Summers, Andy Nelson and Tony Johnson
• The Hurt Locker - Paul N.J. Ottosson and Ray Beckett
• Inglourious Basterds - Michael Minkler, Tony Lamberti and Mark Ulano
• Star Trek - Anna Behlmer, Andy Nelson and Peter J. Devlin
• Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen - Greg P. Russell, Gary Summers and Geoffrey Patterson

Best Visual Effects

• Avatar - Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham and Andrew R. Jones
• District 9 - Dan Kaufman, Peter Muyzers, Robert Habros and Matt Aitken
• Star Trek - Roger Guyett, Russell Earl, Paul Kavanagh and Burt Dalton

Yes, this works too at the moment. If you go on the ABC News website, you go straight to their search engine and type in “Oscar”. From there a few results will emerge, a couple of those being actual Oscar nominated films/people that we should be finding out about in a few hours rather than now. Among those are supposedly Jeff Bridges for Crazy Heart, Disney’s re-emergence of 2D with The Princess and the Frog and Mo’Nique for her role in Precious.

If this is actually true, then this feels like a case of a little kid who peeked at his presents a few hours before Christmas morning. We already know a little bit of what to expect, but it won’t be as exhilarating hearing about who is nominated because it won’t be the first time we have.

You want to get up early along with myself? I’ll be up plugging away at the Oscar nominees in an article that will emerge within the next couple of hours, so keep your eyes out and come back over here in the morning to find out whether or not this was correct and who else will be part of the nominee list.

Bigelow now joins the list of many directors who have gone onto the running of winning the Academy Award for Best Director. Only six times throughout this award show’s history has the Oscar not gone to the winner of this particular DGA Award, states the DGA. Now the real question is whether or not Bigelow will be making history twice by not only being nominated this Tuesday morning for the Best Director category for 82nd Annual Academy Awards but, more importantly, will she win?

Among the rest who took home an award was director Ross Katz for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Movies for Television/Mini-Series for his work in Taking Chance. To make things a little easier and slightly more condensed, here’s the list of all of the winners below.:

Director’s Guild of America Awards 2010

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in a Feature Film

• Katheryn Bigelow – The Hurt Locker (Summit Entertainment)

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Movies for Television/Mini-Series

• Ross Katz – Taking Chance (HBO)

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary

• Louie Psihoyos – The Cove (Oceanic Preservation Society/Roadside Attractions)

Outstanding Directorial Achivement in Dramatic Series Night

• Leslie Linka Glatter – Mad Men - “Guy Walks Into An Advertising Agency” (AMC)

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy Series

• Jason Winer – Modern Family - “Pilot” (ABC)

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Musical Variety

• Don Mischer – We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial (HBO)

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Reality Programs

• Craig Borders – Build It Bigger Season 3 – “Hong Kong Bridge” (Discovery Science)

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Daytime Serials

• Christopher Goutman – As The World Turns – “Once Upon A Time” (CBS)

Oustanding Directorial Achievement in Commercials

• Tom Kuntz (MJZ)

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Children’s Programs

• Allison Liddi-Brown – Princess Protection Program (Disney Channel)

DGA Service and Achievement Award Recipients

• Norman Jewison (Director) – DGA Lifetime Achievement Award
• Robert Iger (President/CEO of the Walt Disney Company) – DGA Honorary Life Member Award
• Barry Meyer (Chairman/CEO of Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.) – DGA Honorary Life Member Award
• Roger Goodman (Director) – DGA Lifetime Achievement Award
• Cleve Landsberg (DGA AD/UPM Council, West Chairperson Unit Production Manager) – Frank Capra Achievement Award
• Maria Jimenez Henley (Stage Manager) – Franklin J. Schaffner Achievement Award

At this point, who’s surprised?

Avatar managed to reach up to $1,861.8 Billion in the worldwide box office while Titanic stays forever dormant at $1,843.2 Billion, says Box Office Mojo. Unfortunately at this point a great number of us are afraid that since Avatar took in that much money that it will be nearly inevitable that it will take the Academy Award this year for Best Picture, but we’ll see about that. The announcements for the 82nd Annual Academy Awards take place on February 2nd at 5 AM PST, and you bet your ass that we’ll be up early covering who gets nominated.

• El Secreto de Sus Ojos (Argentina) - Dir. by Juan Jose Campanella
• Samson & Delilah (Australia) – Dir. by Warwick Thornton
• The World Is Big and Salvation Lurks around the Corner (Bulgaria) – Dir. by Stephan Komandarev
• Un Prophète (France) – Dir. by Jacques Audiard
• The White Ribbon (Germany) – Dir. by Michael Haneke
• Ajami (Israel) – Dir. by Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani
• Kelin (Kazakhstan) – Dir. by Ermek Tursunov
• Winter in Wartime (The Netherlands) – Dir. by Martin Koolhoven
• The Milk of Sorrow (Peru) – Dir. by Claudia Llosa

The announcement of the final list of nominees, once again, is on February 2nd at 8:30 EST with the actual awards taking place at the Kodak Theater on March 7th.

There are quite a few films that did not make the cut, some of them include Watchmen, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, Coraline, Where the Wild Things Are and Disney’s A Christmas Carol. The Academy Awards takes place on March 7th at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. Here’s the list from Reuters.:

Best Visual Effects Shortlist

• Avatar
• District 9
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
• Star Trek
• Terminator Salvation
• Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
• 2012

• Angels & Demons
• Avatar
• Coraline
• Disney’s A Christmas Carol
• District 9
• G-Force
• G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
• Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
• Sherlock Holmes
• Star Trek
• Terminator: Salvation
• Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
• 2012
• Watchmen
• Where the Wild Things Are

Of the films that were close to making the fifteen were The Lovely Bones, Night At the Museum and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Now that the list is winding down to the finalists, which ones do you think should made it and which ones do you think should not be in there at all? The Oscars will be held on March 7th, 2010 and will be hosted by Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin.