The Video Game Awards are an interesting thing. Like most basic cable award shows it often plays like a two- hour long advertisement for next year rather than a celebration of the current one. On the other hand, the Video Game industry does warrant a night to honor it’s very best, and the people who run the show clearly are interested putting forth the industry’s best foot in prime time.

This year’s show is going to have one huge advantage to keep the show credible and enjoyable. Zachary Levi, the geeky lead in Chuck and video game voice actor, has just been announced as the host for this year’s show.

“Zac Levi is an avid gamer who is truly a part of gaming culture and understands the fans,” says Casey Patterson, Executive Producer and Executive Vice President, Event Production, Talent & Studio Relations for Viacom Entertainment Group. “He has great ideas about this year’s show. Zac is all about honoring the year in gaming and ushering in the future by showcasing massive world premieres at this year’s event. We’re excited to be working with Zac.”

It is great for the show that it’s host is both a charming, likable guy and some one well versed in gaming culture. As the industry becomes more main stream it will need to rely on people who truly understand it’s culture and not just icons whom geeks decide to love.

The show will premiere live at 8:00 PM EST, Saturday December 10th on Spike TV, MTV 2 and SpikeTV.com

The nominations for the 2012 Film Independent Spirit Awards are out. These awards highlight the best in independent cinema and have often helped Academy Awards voters who don’t see indie films realie there’e more to life than what they get at the local multi-plex. Not that Academy Awards voters actually ever go to a multi-plex either.

Looking over the list we can guess what you’re thinking: where’s Michael Fassbender’s nomination for Shame? We don’t know either. We are, however, very happy to see Ryan Gosling, Nicolas Winding Refn and Albert Brooks get nods for their work on Drive. Great movie and great performances.

Here’s all the nominees:

BEST FEATURE
50/50 Producers: Evan Goldberg, Ben Karlin, Seth Rogen
Beginners Producers: Miranda de Pencier, Lars Knudsen, Leslie Urdang, Dean Vanech, Jay Van Hoy
Drive Producers: Michel Litvak, John Palermo, Marc Platt, Gigi Pritzker, Adam Siegel
Take Shelter Producers: Tyler Davidson, Sophia Lin
The Artist Producer: Thomas Langmann
The Descendants Producers: Jim Burke, Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor

BEST DIRECTOR
Michel Hazanavicius The Artist
Mike Mills Beginners
Jeff Nichols Take Shelter
Alexander Payne The Descendants
Nicolas Winding Refn Drive

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Award shows are all the rage these days. When people get burned out on the big three, the Oscars, Emmy’s, Golden Globes, they turn to more fun and entertaining (albeit less important ones) award shows. One of the more fun ones is definitely Spike’s annual Scream Awards.

Starting off celebrating the world of horror, the award show has since become a haven for all things pop culture and geeky, giving awards to the likes of Frank Miller or Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd for Back to the Future. This year, two modern icons are finally getting some love.

Two-time Academy Award nominee Robert Downey Jr. will attend to accept SCREAM’s prestigious Hero Award. With wildly successful films like “Sherlock Holmes” and “Iron Man,” Downey has captivated fans and critics alike with his daring and iconic interpretations of some of cinema’s most beloved characters.

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When mainstream Hollywood is busy making billions of dollars on rereleases of animated classics upgraded for 3D or movies with Morgan Freeman and a dolphin, it’s true independent cinema that holds some of the best stories and visuals.

That’s why we are seeing more and more film festivals pop up over the past few years, giving accolades to the up and coming filmmakers and writers who will one day run the town and bring art back to the theaters.

Shriekfest is one in the Los Angeles area that has been doing so for years. Since 2001, the international film fest has been bringing awareness to the lesser-known horror and science fiction filmmakers with films and shorts that easily surpass some of the movies we spend $10 to see every weekend.

This year’s winners have some of the most talented folks we’ve seen in some time, with aliens and monsters galore. Check out the full list of this year’s winners after the jump, and get the head start on checking out these films over at Shriekfest.com before your friends tell you about them first.

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Last year, Ricky Gervais hosted the 68th Annual Golden Globe Awards and was received with….mixed reviews. Gervais’ brass and care-free digs on the Hollywood system rocked the celebrity world and some were even “outraged” by some of the comments. Gervais’ response? He wants to do it again.

This time around, he won’t be restricted by the “tightwads” at HFPA or the network. Gervais is taking his jokes to the internet, in what some are calling a “re-dubbed livecast”. The British comedian’s plan is to do a live podcast the same night as the awards show, and have some of his friends stop by for the laughs. Here’s what Ricky had to say over at his blog.

What do you think of this?

A live 3 hour podcast during The Golden Globes. Me and a few chums (like Louis CK, Chris Rock, Karl Pilkington, John Stewart, Larry David popping in and out) doing our own alternative commentary.

People at home can have the telly on with the sound down listening to us online say things that no broadcaster could get away with. 

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This week’s pick is Clint Eastwood’s World War II masterpiece Flags of Our Fathers that depicts the famous flag raising on Mt. Suribachi on the Pacific island of Iwo Jima. The film stars Ryan Phillippe (Navy Corpman 2^nd class John “Doc” Bradley), Jesse Bradford (Corporal Rene Gagnon), Paul Walker (Sgt. Hank Hansen), and Robert Patrick (Col. Chandler Johnson).

The film is told through a series of flash-forwards and flashbacks, through the three remaining men who were responsible for the flag raising which helped to raise America’s morale as the Pacific war raged on with no foreseeable end in sight. The seven Marines that are the focal point of the film begin their training at Camp Tarawa in Hawaii with mountain climbing and other P.T. drills.

As they set sail towards their destination, it is revealed that the target in question is the Japanese held island of Iwo Jima, which sits just seven hundred miles away from the Japanese mainland.

During a debriefing, the company commander, Captain Severance (McDonough) tells the men that they will meet stiff enemy resistance than ever before because Iwo is Japanese soil and its defenders will fight to the last man in order to prevent the Americans from gaining a closer foothold toward Japan.

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Tonight at Comic-Con in San Diego the Eisner Awards winners were announced. Among the winners were some surprises and some that were pretty expected including Best New Series American Vampire by Scott Snyder, Stephen King and Rafael Albequerque and Best Continuing Series Chew by John Layman and Rob Guillory.

Here’s the full list of winners:

Best Short Story
“Post Mortem,” by Greg Rucka and Michael Lark, in I Am an Avenger #2 (Marvel)

Best Single Issue (or One-Shot)
Hellboy: Double Feature of Evil, by Mike Mignola and Richard Corben (Dark Horse)

Best Continuing Series
Chew, by John Layman and Rob Guillory (Image)

Best Limited Series
Daytripper, by Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá (Vertigo/DC)

Best New Series
American Vampire, by Scott Snyder, Stephen King, and Rafael Albuquerque (Vertigo/DC)

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The seven finalists for the Will Eisner Spirit of Comics Retailer Award have been announced, and they are…[drum roll]:

A Comic Shop

Alternate Reality

Bridge City

Challengers Comics and Vegetables

The ComicBug

The Dragon

Green Brain Comics

The nominees are selected by peers, retailers, or fans and spread across the United States. All of them represent what Comic-Con director of marketing David Glazner refers to as, “The best of the best in comics retailing.”

The best of the best of the best will be chosen by a panel of judges, including Diamond UK’s Mike Holman, Bone creator Jeff Smith, Anina Bennett (Heartbreakers), BOOM Studios’ Chip Moser, and the last year’s winners Curtis Sullivan and Steve Fodale, co-owners of Vault of Midnight.

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It has been an exciting couple weeks at the Cannes Film Festival, which a number of talented filmmakers showcasing a high number of films to be excited for.  Last night, the official jury for the 64th Festival de Cannes revealed the prize winners during the closing ceremony.

Some highlights from the list include Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life winning the most prestigious award, the Palme d’Or, despite half the crown booing at the screening while the other half cheered with enthusiasm, Kirsten Dunst winning Best Actress after her film’s director Lars von Trier made some anti-Semitic comments at a press conference earlier this week, and Nicolas Winding Refn winning best director for his film Drive, starring Ryan Gosling, proving that he is one of the most prominant up-and-coming directors.

He previously directed Bronson, starring Tom Hardy. Take a look at the full list of winners and award winners after the jump.

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Trey Parker has always been vocal about his love of musicals. Dating back to his time in college and his first feature film, Parker has shown a consistent appreciation of the musical experience. So it was only a natural that he would parlay that success into an actual Broadway show.

After the mega success of South Park and several feature films, Trey Parker and Matt Stone invaded Broadway with their brand of irreverent humor and sharp social commentary with The Book of Mormon. It premiered to critical acclaim, and sold out shows, igniting a new found passion for musicals amongst fans who would otherwise avoid Broadway.

That success has not gone unnoticed by the theater community, The Book of Mormon has recently received 14 Tony nominations. This puts Trey and Matt that much closer to the elusive “EGOT,”  the quintuple victory that nets the recipient an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony.

Trey and Matt have already won multiple Emmy’s and have been nominated for Grammy’s and an Oscar. Of all the current entertainers working today, Matt and Trey hold a unique position  as champions of alternative forms of entertainment.

The Book of Mormon is currently playing on Broadway, and the 15th season of South Park can be seen on Comedy Central Wednesdays at 10/9C.

In what will come as no surprise to anyone, except maybe my mom, the MTV Movie Award nominations have been released and the most popular and creatively vacant film franchise this side of middle earth leads the pack. That’s right,  The Twilight Saga: Eclipse is on top with eight nominations.

The news is not all bad though as both Inception and Harry Potter are also lead contenders. In fact, aside from the obvious Twilight nominations, most of the nominations are not so bad. Many of the better films from 2010 are represented, including Kick-Ass, which has gone mostly forgotten in the retrospective hoopla.

Aside from the traditional Best Movie and Best Kiss, this year also brings a brilliant new category to the world of cinematic awards: “Best Line From A Movie.” This is not only a genius category for the shallow festivities of MTV, but it is something that all award shows should consider in the future.

In the world of cinema fandom movie quotes are often a defining factor in the quality of a film. The more quotable the movie, the more likely it will find a home in the hearts of film geeks the world over.

The nominations for Twilight are to be expected from MTV, but the nominations for Harry Potter are a little more of a surprise. Up to this point in time the Harry Potter movies didn’t really make a dent in the target audience of MTV.

Of course the franchise remains popular the world over, but for MTV, known for immature, shallow drama and sex appeal, to acknowledge the penultimate Potter film in so many categories shows that the Potter is still relevant to pop culture in general.

Check out the full list of nominations after the jump.

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It seems like only yesterday when our planes were touching down, we were packing into our roach-heavy hotels, and ordering that first pint at the Alamo Drafthouse, eager to welcome SXSW 2011, but those days are long gone, and the Film Festival’s award-winners have now been announced.

Of course, those days really aren’t long gone, because there’s still plenty more films to see…and plenty more reviews for us to write up.

But as far as the awards go, it looks like Tristan Patterson’s skater-drug-love documentary Dragonslayer and Robbie Pickering’s Natural Selection, about a housewife’s quest to reunite her husband’s illegitimate son with his father. Take a look at the full winner list in a press release, after the jump.

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