Even though we don’t really care all that much who or what wins an Academy Award, the rest of Hollywood does. It’s also likley many of you care as well.

So, in that spirit, here’s a list of the nominations that were announced this morning. There’s a lot of them and, to put it bluntly, not that many surprises. The movies and performances that seem “Oscar-worthy” were nominated. It was kinda a no-brainier year.

Of course, there’s also a few regulars who made the cut, like Meryl Streep, you would expect to see on the list. One notable exception is Tom Hanks, who seemed to be a shoe-in for a nomination for his role as Captain Phillips. He got nothing.

I guess every Oscar nominations list needs at least one surprise, just to try and keep it interesting and prove the Oscar voters don’t just vote for whomever or whatever wins a Golden Globe. Of course, Hanks didn’t win the Golden Globe either, but I’m sure it was just a pleasure to be nominated.

Anyway, here’s the nominations list (stolen from the folks at Deadline):

The 65th Primetime Emmy Awards nominations were announced this morning by Aaron Paul, Neil Patrick Harris and Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Chairman/CEO Bruce Rosenblum at the Leonard H. Goldenson Theatre in North Hollywood, CA. The 65th Primetime Emmy Awards telecast will air live on Sunday, September 22nd (8 PM ET/5 PM PT) on CBS from the NOKIA Theater L.A. LIVE in Los Angeles.

Here are the major nominees:

Outstanding Drama Series

Breaking Bad • AMC • Sony Pictures Television

Downton Abbey • PBS • A Carnival / Masterpiece Co-Production

Game Of Thrones • HBO • Bighead, Littlehead, TV 360, Startling TV and Generator Prodns with HBO Ent

Homeland • Showtime • Showtime Presents, Teakwood Lane Prods, Cherry Pie Prods, Keshet, Fox 21

House Of Cards • Netflix • Donen/Fincher/Roth and Trigger Street Prods with Media Rights Capital for Netflix

Mad Men • AMC • Lionsgate Television

In 2011, there was an incredibly close race between Batman: Arkham City and Portal 2 between team Bitcast for the Game of the Year award with Portal 2 coming out on top. This year, the conversation went a lot smoother.

While there were lots of games that got our attention to be nominated, there was one game that stood out amongst the crowd as the clear favorite on The Flickcast. Dishonored, Far Cry 3, Journey, Unfinished Swan, Borderlands 2, Mass Effect 3, Slender were all great innovations in gaming in 2012 and all garnered huge followings. But there is one game that proved it was special to people on so many levels that when it came time to cast the final ballot on game of the year, it was a no brainer for the both of us.

Welcome to The Flickcast Presents the Best of Gaming 2012. This is going to be a five part series throughout this first week of 2013 concluding with the Game of the Year being awarded on Friday.

Best Use of the PlayStation Network’s Voice Chat – Journey

So any gamer who has a PS3 already knows that people with microphones don’t really exist, especially compared to the plethora of expletive spitting, homophobic prepubescents who have claimed to have slept with our mothers that troll XBox Live. What they may not know is that some of the best communication that has happened in 2012 on the PSN comes from a game that actually doesn’t even allow for voice chat.

In Journey, players are placed in the role of a robed figure who has no voice at all but can make a singing tone. Those connected to the PSN will occasionally be placed in random worlds with other players but have no method of communication other than the singing tone. This means that players are actually tasked with creating their own non-verbal communication.

Nominees for the 28th Annual Spirit Awards were announced today and in many of the categories, some familiar names seem to be recurring. Best Feature nominees are Beasts Of The Southern Wild, Keep The Lights On, Moonrise Kingdom and Silver Linings Playbook.

Sean Baker’s Starlet will receive the Robert Altman Award, given to a film’s director, casting director, and ensemble cast. Among distributors, Searchlight leads the way with nine nominations, followed by Music Box with seven and IFC Films, Focus and Sony Pictures Classics with six apiece. Winners will be announced at the ceremony on February 23.

The full list of nominees follows:

BEST FEATURE
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Michael Gottwald, Dan Janvey & Josh Penn (producers)
Bernie
Liz Glotzer, Richard Linklater, David McFadzean, Dete Meserve, Judd Payne, Celine Rattray, Martin Shafer, Ginger Sledge, Matt Williams (producers)
Keep the Lights On
Marie Therese Guirgis, Lucas Joaquin, Ira Sachs (producers)
Moonrise Kingdom
Wes Anderson, Jeremy Dawson, Steven Rales, Scott Rudin (producers)
Silver Linings Playbook
Bruce Cohen, Donna Gigliotti, Jonathan Gordon (producers)

BEST DIRECTOR
Wes Anderson, Moonrise Kingdom
Julia Loktev, The Loneliest Planet
David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook
Ira Sachs, Keep the Lights On
Benh Zeitlin, Beasts of the Southern Wild

In the wee hours of the morning (on the west coast anyway), the nominations for the 2012 Primetime Emmy’s were announced. As usual the list included some happy surprises, some ludicrous choices and even a few head scratchers.

The Flickcast favorites Game of Thrones and Breaking Bad both got some solid recognition in the Drama categories, while some of our Comedy favs, Community and Parks & Recreation, got snubbed for the most part.

Not listed in the main nominations list, because it is oddly not apart of the main Emmy broadcast, was the Outstanding Animated Series category. Both Bob’s Burgers and American Dad shockingly were recognized for their awesomeness, but the incumbent Futurama should be the odds on favorite to win. Oddly South Park, who lately have dominated this category, is absent.

Speaking of incumbent winners who extra-deserve the award again this year, Peter Dinklage thankfully was recognized for the second year in a row. In season one he was a bad ass, in season two he was downright epic. If there is any justice he becomes a two-time winner in September.

Check out the full list of nominees after the jump, and be sure to hop on the comments and register your biggest snubs and surprises!

In an unbelievable feat of suck, Adam Sandler has swept the annual Razzies awards, which showcase the worst films of the previous year.  Sandler’s Jack and Jill has accomplished something no film was able to in the Razzies 32 year history, winning all 10 categories. That includes both a worst actor and actress for win for the titular characters played by Sandler, which is also a Razzie first as it is not often those two categories would overlap.

Sandler wasn’t “honored” alone, as many of his supporting cast in the film went on to win as well. David Spade, Katie Holmes, and Al Pacino all received awards for the part they played in the travesty that is known as Jack and Jill.

The creative team behind the film weren’t free of the crap storm either, with director Dennis Dugan and the screenwriters all taking home awards in their respective categories.

With the film and Interactive portions of the South By Southwest Festival over now and the music part getting into full swing, it’s time for some awards. Taking the “Best Narrative Feature” prize in film was director Adam Leon’s Gimme The Loot.

Other winners include Jay Bulger’s Beware Of Mr. Baker, which won the award in the documentary category and Eden, Directed by Megan Griffiths, which won the “Audience Award” for best narrative feature.

Leon’s film was very well received by audiences and critics during the festival and several distributors have reportedly been considering the project. The film is set in New York and tells the story of Malcolm and Sofia, two tough Bronx teens who are up and coming graffiti artists.

When their latest masterpiece is defaced by a rival gang, the two plot to get spectacular revenge and become the biggest writers in the city.

Click through for a complete list of winners.

With the Academy Awards still fresh in our minds, we can think of all the great films 20111 brought us. It is easy to forget that year also had tons of stinkers and flops, but the Razzie Awards are here to remind us.

The Razzie Award nominees have been announced, and their aren’t too many surprises. Adam Sandler has a record 11 nominations, and that’s not including nominations that are tied to his Happy Madison productions. Three films by the production company, Buck Larsen: Born to be a Star, Just Go With It, and Jack & Jill, all have multiple nominations each.

The Razzies, or Golden Raspberry awards, were created in 1980 as an antidote to the Oscars. They are usually held on the eve of the Academy Awards, but this year are moving to 1 April. Traditionally, stars do not turn up to collect their awards, but good sports over the years have included Paul Verhoeven in 1996 (worst director and worst picture for Showgirls), Halle Berry for 2005’s Catwoman and Sandra Bullock for 2010’s All About Steve.

Check out the nominations after the jump, and be sure to keep an eye out for these “winners” when they are announced on April 1.

Rumors are swirling that have the Academy a bit concerned. The rumor is that on Sunday, Sacha Baron Cohen will come to the Oscars and walk the red carpet. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem, but he will most likely come dressed as the title character from his upcoming Paramount comedy The Dictator.

Baron Cohen’s people have proposed the publicity stunt to the Academy members, but it seems everyone involved with the Oscars event is adamantly against it.  It makes sense that the Academy would be against it, as it could be perceived that it makes a mockery of Hollywood’s most prestigious event. It is rumored that Baron Cohen may sneak his character in either way.

The plan would be to come dressed as the dictator and then change into a tux and attend the Oscars. Even though he isn’t not scheduled to present an award, he would be welcome as part of the Paramount contingent. The studio has a Best Picture nominee in the Martin Scorsese-directed Hugo.

W.E. is the last of our Golden Globe nominated scores, perfect timing as the show airs this Sunday, and by far the most unexpected. In fact before this nomination I didn’t even know this movie existed. The film is actually directed by Madonna, which is interesting but not all together important for a review of it’s score.

The composer is Abel Korzeniowski and I can see why his excellent work was recognized by the Hollywood Foreign Press. The score is very well put together with an emphasis on large, sweeping strings in a few very choice places. Listening to the music gives me the sense that it probably dominates much of the movie. While I appreciate that sort of heavy handed musical touch, I can also see where it might have played a role in the films less than stellar critical reception.

I am happy to see it nominated though, as there has been a recent trend of nominating more subtle and subdued scores in the last few years. This is far from it, and it plays very nicely to my personal film musical tastes. Strong string work always has a tendency to grip me, and this score delivers that in spades.

As with writers, Directors are pretty high on our list of important pieces of the film and TV making puzzle. If writers are the initial creative force that takes an idea from nothing and makes it into something, directors are the force that shapes that something into a clear vision and fulfills its potential for greatness. Or, they get it as close as it’s ever going to get.

With that in mind, the Directors Guild of America President Taylor Hackford today announced the five nominees for the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film for 2011.

“The directors nominated this year for the Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film Award have each demonstrated an inspired command of the medium. The fact that their prodigious talents have been recognized by their peers is the highest honor a director can achieve,” said Hackford. “I offer my most sincere congratulations to each of the nominees.”

The winner will be named at the 64th Annual DGA Awards Dinner on Saturday, January 28, 2012, at the Grand Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland.

The nominees are (in alphabetical order):

WOODY ALLEN
Midnight in Paris
(Sony Pictures Classics)
Mr. Allen’s Directorial Team:
Unit Production Managers: Matthieu Rubin, Helen Robin
First Assistant Director: Gil Kenny
Second Assistant Director: Delphine Bertrand