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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Rather than tell you what I think I should, I decided to come clean on this list. For instance, I am aware that A Serious Man might technically and artistically be a cut above some of these, but I just didn’t enjoy it as much. I’ll also preface this by saying since I was covering most of the main-stream movies this year, there were a lot of independent movies I didn’t see, so they may not appear on the list. The film title links to a review when applicable.

Up In The Air – Buoyed by a trio of fantastic actors, I found this movie to be utterly charming. Directed by Jason Reitman (Thank You For Smoking, Juno), the movie is touching, prescient, original, and funny. Vera Farmiga, George Clooney and Anna Kendrick all received Golden Globe acting nominations.  George Clooney’s depiction of a traveling man who keeps any type of human interaction at arm’s length is effortless, and is a joy to watch.

A Single Man – This film is still in limited release, so many people have not seen it, but I was absolutely blown away by designer Tom Ford’s directorial debut. He brings an artistic eye to the story of a gay man in 1962 who has recently lost a live-in companion. Heavy stuff, and Colin Firth gives a truly amazing performance that will break your heart.

Julianne is a stunning aging beauty who longs to have a relationship with the emotionally unavailable George. Universally relatable to anyone who has ever been in love, or experienced unrequited love. Seamlessly shifting from sepia, black and white, and color, the film is gorgeous. Beautifully scored by Abel Korzeniowsky as well.

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Seems that film studios received plenty of holiday cheer this past holiday weekend. Audiences flocked to a myriad of movies, which resulted in the highest grossing domestic box office on record. When the dust had cleared, a massive $278 Million had been earned at the box office, which bested the previous record ($260.8 Million) set by The Dark Knight opening weekend in July 2008. The top three films alone grossed over $190 Million, an astonishing number.

Avatar has many prognosticators eating crow, as it dropped only a few percentage points from its opening total and made about $75 Million, earning a solid first place finish. Its 10 day total now stands at $212 Million, and worldwide, the film has made over $617 Million! At this point, there is little question it will earn its purported $300-$500 Million budget back.  After months of speculation, Fox studio heads can finally exhale a sigh of relief.

Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes also fared well, and made over $65 Million its opening weekend. Robert Downey Jr. continues to prove he is a major box office draw. Fox also saw Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel place in the top three with $50 Million. The adult comedy Its Complicated earned a respectable $22 Million on just under 2,900 screens.

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In the utterly enjoyable Up in the Air, George Clooney plays Ryan Bingham, a corporate down-sizer.  Like a gun for hire, Ryan is kept on retainer to deliver pink slips instead of bullets; though some might argue there is little difference. Ryan has no personal relationships, rarely sleeps in the same city two days in a row, can fit everything important to him into a carry-on and he could not be happier.

Midway through the movie, Ryan explains that he is on the road traveling over 322 days of the year. That may sound awful to most of us, but to him “that means 43 miserable days at home.” That statement is perfectly indicative of how Ryan sees the world.

He doesn’t like attachments of any sort, human or material. He has a better relationship with the airline ticket agent than his own sisters, and prefers the tidiness and order he finds in all the rituals of traveling to anything authentic. He has the perfect job that by nature requires a skilled detachment.

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“More of this is true than you’d believe” –opening credits for  The Men Who Stare At Goats. Irreverent, sarcastic, and funny as hell, The Men Who Stare At Goats is based on a non-fiction book by Jon Ronson. Ronson is a journalist who stumbled upon a secret military group that was formed in 1979 specifically to harness paranormal and psychic powers to use in warfare. The men in this group were training to become “psychic warriors” who could walk through walls, read thoughts, and kill someone just by staring at them.

Ewan McGregor plays Ronson in the movie. His wife has just left him (for his one-armed boss), and he has no sense of purpose. He goes to interview a man who claims that he used  to be in  a psychic military unit. His story is so crazy that Ronson writes him off as being a kook. He decides to go to the Middle East to cover the Gulf War, partly to impress his ex-wife, and partly because he has nothing to lose.

Upon arrival, he runs into Lyn Cassady (George Clooney) who just happens to be one of the people mentioned by name by the crazy man he just interviewed in the states. Astonished by the coincidence, he starts tagging along with Lyn pleading with him to tell the truth about whether he was in the secret unit. Bit by bit, Lyn tells the story (through flashbacks) of the formation and eventual disintegration of the military unit known as the “New Earth Army” in military circles.  The story finally leads up to what Lyn is doing in the Middle East.

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Here at The Flickcast, we’re very curious about Wes Anderson’s upcoming The Fantastic Mr. Fox, and we’ve dug up all the news we could for you. We brought you the first Fantastic Mr. Fox trailer back in July and a featurette earlier this month, but Ain’t It Cool News has just brought to our attention a new trailer that just hit the web!

While the first trailer gave us a glimpse into the furry world of Mr. Fox, this trailer is a little bit more intimate, giving us a sneak peek at the quirky, zippy dialogue we’ve come to know and love from Anderson’s writing, the amazing ensemble cast he’s assembled, and  a really detailed look at just how beautiful this film is going to be.

The Fantastic Mr. Fox, filmed completely using stop-motion animation and featuring the voice of Meryl Streep, Owen Wilson, Michael Gambon, Bill Murray and George Clooney as Mr. Fox, creeps into theaters November 15. You can watch the newest trailer right after the jump. Enjoy!

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We here at The Flickcast have been reporting everything to you on Wes Anderson’s adaptation of the children’s classic Fantastic Mr. Fox we can find. After giving you the first look at some production stills and the first trailer, we now have an Apple featurette on the making of the film which was brought to our attention by the folks at Ain’t It Cool News.

The featurette explains how Wes Anderson, the writer and director of the film, lived and wrote in the same place Roald Dahl did when he wrote The Fantastic Mr. Fox. Anderson’s experience helped him learn more about Dahl himself and how the character Mr. Fox was based on Dahl. He was also able to work that into his film adaptation. There, Anderson also found inspiration for what would become the universe and set of the film.

It’s really cool that this was released before the film comes out rather than as a special feature on a DVD release, similar to the Where the Wild Things Are featurette we showed you during Comic-Con. The more we see from Fantastic Mr. Fox the more excited we become, and we hope you do too.

The Fantastic Mr. Fox, featuring the voice of Meryl Streep, Owen Wilson, Michael Gambon, Bill Murray and George Clooney as Mr. Fox, creeps into theaters November 15. You can watch the new featurette right here.

Between voicing the lead in Wes Anderson’s The Fantastic Mr. Fox, and playing a “jedi warrior” in The Men Who Stare At Goats, George Clooney has been back on the rise as of late. Now we get to see him in a bit more dramatic light now that the first trailer for Up in the Air has hit the ‘net.

Directed by Juno’s Jason Reitman, Up in the Air is about the life of a corporate downsizing expert who’s life on the road becomes more interesting when he comes across the woman of his dreams. The film is based on the novel by Walter Kim, who also wrote the novel-turned-film Thumbsucker back in 2005.

Like Thumbsucker, this film brings in a laundry list of cameos, from Zach Galifianakis to J.K. Simmons to Jason Bateman to Danny McBride. The cast list looks to be a regular “who’s who” of independent comedies. Check out the first trailer after the break. Up in the Air hits theaters December 4th.

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For those unaware about this film, but intrigued by the title; you’re in luck. The premise is a bit bizarre, and supposedly based on a true story in which reporter Bob Wilton, played by Ewan McGregor, is in search of his next big story when he encounters Lyn Cassady (George Clooney), a shadowy figure who claims to be part of an experimental government program that trains psychics.

Originally based on the book by Jon Ronson, the film was adapted for the screen by writer Peter Straughan (How to Lose Friends and Alienate People) and directed by actor-turned-writer-turned-director Grant Heslov, who penned Good Night and Good Luck. The film has the same feel as Clooney’s Confessions of a Dangerous Mind or even Burn After Reading in it’s ability to stay quirky and funny. The cast also includes Jeff Bridges, Kevin Spacey, J.K. Simmons, and Robert Patrick.

Check out the trailer after the jump. The Men Who Stare at Goats hits theaters on November 6th.

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Wes Anderson’s The Fantastic Mr. Fox has picked up quite a lot of marketing steam in the past few weeks since the first images popped up online. Now, the very first trailer has hit the web, and it already looks to be a new direction into the world of stop-motion animation from the Anderson camp.

The film stars George Clooney in the titular role of Mr. Fox, where he must outwit three mean-spirited farmers who try relentlessly to take out Fox and his family. The story was originally adapted from the Roald Dahl children’s book and also stars Cate Blanchett, Meryl Streep, Willem Defoe and a few Anderson favorites such as Bill Murray, Owen Wilson and Jason Schwartzman.

The film hits theaters November 13th, and you can catch the first trailer after the jump.

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Director Steven Soderberg can pretty much do no wrong, at least in my opinion. His talent and taste make him one of the best and most interesting directors working today. Sure, he might have a few missteps occasionally and release some movies that underperform, but at least he’s never boring and you can rank even his mediocre films higher than many other director’s best. Plus, his film The Limey is one of my all-time favorites.

So, it was with great anticipation that I saw the trailer for his latest project The Informant!, which features a pudgy Matt Damon and tells the real-life story of a bi-polar whistle-blower who must come to grips with the reality that only he knows the truth. At first, before watching the trailer, the title leads you to believe its another of those movies much like The Insider or Michael Clayton. You know, a serious drama.

However, after watching the trailer I’m happy to report that this film is less serious drama and more comedy — which is probably what Soderberg was looking for after two pretty serious films like Che and The Girlfriend Experience. Serious drama or not, its still a great trailer for what I’m sure will be a great movie.

Plus, it features Matt Damon, who I think is really becoming one of the most versatile actors working today. He can do action, drama and comedy and do them all pretty well. Not very many actors can do that.

At the moment, The Informant! has a rather confusing release schedule but it looks to hit theaters sometime towards the end of the year. Check out the trailer after the jump.

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