The 82nd annual Academy Award nominations were announced this morning. This is the first year that the Best Picture category has been expanded to ten films. Here is a list of the major category nominees.

For a complete list of all nominees, visit the official site of the Oscars. The Awards take place on Sunday, March 7 at 8/5P on ABC.

Best Supporting Actress
Penelope Cruz, Nine
Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air
Maggie Gyllenhal, Crazy Heart
Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air
Mo’nique, Precious

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 Sidibie, Precious
Meryl Streep, Julie and Julia

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The 67th annual Golden Globes awards took place last night, and Avatar walked away top honors of  Best Picture and Best Director, fueling speculation that it is gaining momentum going into the Oscar nomination race. Avatar and Crazy Heart picked up two awards each, but there were no lopsided wins this year.

Critical darling The Hurt Locker was shut out and went home empty handed.  The Hurt Locker has been cleaning up top honors at Critic Circle awards nationwide. Up in the Air was nominated for six awards, but only won for Best Screenplay.

Veteran actors Jeff Bridges and Meryl Streep won acting awards, and delivered particularly elegant and classy acceptance speeches.

On the television side, Dexter fared well, with John Lithgow and Michael C. Hall both winning acting awards.  HBO’s film Grey Gardens won two awards as well.  Mad Men won for Best Television Series, Drama and freshman series Glee won for best Television Series, Comedy or Musical.

A complete list of winners follows. Also, be sure to check out our photo gallery of all the winners after the jump.

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Fans who have been waiting to see if Seth Rogen can really deliver as a masked crusader are one step closer to either breathing a sigh or relief, or eating their proverbial hats. Some brand new set pics have surfaced showing off Rogen taking on the role of Britt Reid’s alter ego, and by the looks of them, he may be emerging as a true pulp hero. While these aren’t the first pics we’ve seen from the film’s set, they are the first we’ve seen of Rogen in the domino mask and fedora.

Written by Rogen and partner Evan Goldberg (Superbad) with Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) sitting in the directors chair. The Green Hornet follows the adventures of Britt Reid, newspaper publisher by day, masked superhero by night, and his sidekick Kato (Jay Chou). Starring alongside Rogen is Edward James Olmos, Cameron Diaz, and Christoph Waltz.

Since the movie doesn’t hit theaters until December 17, 2010, we’ll be seeing plenty more where these came from. In the meantime, check out the brand new, action-packed images of both Rogen and Chou running around in costume after the jump!

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With the publicity for Seth Rogen and Michel Gondry’s Green Hornet picking up steam in the past monh or so, more news has come out on the casting of the main villain in he film, Mr. X. The role was originally set to go to Nicolas Cage, but for whatever reason (possibly the fact that he’s got another superhero film in the works with Kick-Ass), Cage has stepped down from his role.

We now recieve word that the role will instead be taken on by Christoph Waltz, fresh from playing the Nazi baddie in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds.

“I’m told that ICM’s actor Christoph Waltz who won Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival for playing a Nazi in Inglourious Basterds (and is a shoo-in for an Oscar nomination) has now been cast as villain Chudnofsky in Sony’s The Green Hornet opposite Seth Rogen and Cameron Diaz.

Since Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds came out — and crossed the $100M mark this weekend – Waltz has been offered a lot of big movies by a lot of big directors. And he’s getting big bucks now. How great he’s found success at age 52.”

This is the second news of an actor getting replaced from the film after Stephen Chow stepped down from both directing and the role of Kato. See Waltz, Rogen, and Cameron Diaz in theaters for Green Hornet on December 17, 2010.

Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds is the WW II movie we’ve needed to see since the war ended. Some might consider it overlong or self-indulgent, but it showcases Tarantino’s filmmmaking skills at their finest and serves as an example of one filmmaker’s singular vision and immense storytelling craft. It is immensely entertaining, and at times brilliant, for its entire running time.

Those going into the film hoping to see lots of bloody action like some of the director’s other films are going to be somewhat disappointed. There is some violence and gore to be sure, but this is a war movie that barely features any of the war. Instead, Tarantino focuses on the people and a very personal story of revenge. This is what Inglourious Basterds is at its core: a revenge film.

From the first scene where we’re introduced to “Jew Hunter” Colonel Landa (brilliantly played by Christoph Waltz) and he lets young Shosanna Dreyfus go instead of killing her as he did with her family, the stage is set for Shoshana’s revenge on the man, and the Nazis, who took everything from her and so many others. This is not just Shoshanna’s personal tale of revenge, however, its the cathartic revenge for all Jews — and by extension all people — who suffered at the hands of the Nazis.

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