Posted
by: Paul Heath
Date: January
1st, 2006
Source: AMPAS
Welcome to our brand new awards-watch area
of THN. Well, Christmas has come and gone, and now Hollywood will be gearing up
for the awards season. It all kicks off in a couple of weeks with the 63rd Golden
Globe awards which are dished out by The Hollywood Foreign Press Association on
January 16th in Los Angeles. Then, at the end of the month we get to see who has
been nominated for this year's Academy Awards®. This
year 311 films are eligible for the Academy Award® for Best Picture of 2005.
The Academy says that this is a 16.5% increase from 2004, the 2005 total of eligible
features marks the first time in 32 years that as many as 300 motion pictures
have contended for the Best Picture award. Why? Academy Credits Coordinator Howard
Loberfeld attributed the sharp jump partly to an increase in the number of feature-length
documentaries playing theatrically (35 versus 15 in 2004), and partly to some
distributor reorganizations which led to the release of an unusual number of long-delayed
projects. 
According
to Academy rules, to qualify for consideration a feature-length motion picture
must have a running time of more than 40 minutes and have been exhibited theatrically
on 35mm or 70mm film, or a qualifying digital format. A film must open in a commercial
theater, for paid admission, in Los Angeles County between January 1, 2005, and
midnight December 31, 2005, and run for seven consecutive days. Films that receive
their first public exhibition or distribution in any manner other than as a theatrical
motion picture release are not eligible for Academy Awards® in any category.
Official screen credits and copies of the main and end title credits must have
been submitted to the Academy by December 1, 2005. 
The
nominations will be announced on January 31st at 5.30am at the Samuel Goldwyn
theater in Los Angeles. This year's Oscars will be presented on March 5th, 2006,
at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland. Two
new posters (above) have been released to promote the live telecast, which goes
out on the ABC network in the United States. Stay
tuned to The Hollywood News for more Oscar and other film related awards news. | 
