Electronic Voting To Be Used for The Academy Awards

The annual mailing of the official Oscar ballots, one of the rituals in the annual Academy Awards cycle will soon be a thing of the past. Lately, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), which presents the Oscars, sent a letter advising its 6,000 voting members that an electronic system for Oscar voting will be implemented at the earliest and will positively be in effect by next year.

The letter, which was signed by Kimberly Roush, the academy’s director of membership asked its members for a personal email address which is different from anything that goes to an assistant or intermediary. Ms Roush stated that at some point, once the system is up and running, mailed ballots will be eliminated.

The much expected shift to electronic voting could have a huge impact for the awards season. By eliminating the lag time that arrives with paper ballots, which were sent through the mail, the academy’s governors could change the awards night from late February to an earlier weekend.

Nicole Kidman Allows Fans to Touch Her Oscar

Nicole Kidman has said jokingly that people are welcome to visit her parents' house and touch her Oscar Award. She had won an Academy Award for her portrayal of Virginia Woolf in The Hours in 2002 and had narrated the experience as magical. 

The Hollywood star was raised in Sydney, Australia during most of her childhood, and it carries an exceptional place in her heart. Hence she decided the iconic golden statue should remain at her parents' home in the city.

She told the British edition of InStyle, that it’s on the mantle of her parents' house in Sydney. People in the neighbourhood could come and touch that gold Oscar.

Remembering her childhood, the Australian actress also explained that as a little girl, Hollywood seemed like a fairy-tale place to her. Nicole recalled watching the Academy Awards on TV and compared the American movie industry to a magical, yet surreal, place.

She mentioned that as a little girl in Australia, she had watched the American film industry from afar. She added that she remembered being six or seven and watching the Oscars in her pyjamas, drinking hot chocolate, in this tiny little suburb of Sydney and that it had seemed like a faraway land, like Oz.

Her words were…There's a bit of magic involved in winning an Academy Award .

AMPAS Releases Dates for 2012 Oscars

Inspite of 2011’s uninspiring affair, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) has  announced that no changes will be made to the date for the 84th Academy Awards that will be held in 2012.The Oscar Awards 2012 will be held on Sunday, Feb 26 with final ballots due on Feb 21.

Last year, the academy contemplated moving the affair up at least a month in an effort to battle the awards fatigue that has crept into the season due to manifold award shows that begin in January and carry on, practically every weekend, upto the Oscars. Eventually, the academy held off on moving up the event due to uncertainties that the NFL playoff season would get in the way and that voters wouldn't have sufficient time to see all the films before voting.Though Academy President Tom Sherak has indicated that he'd still like to push up the timing of the show, that issue has been tabled for the approaching year.

Nominations will be announced on Jan. 24 2012.

Cate Blanchett And Her Couture At The Academy Awards 2011

Oscar-winning actress Cate Blanchett’s Givenchy Couture gown at this year's Academy Awards, created quite a stir, leaving most people with several different of opinions. The others present for the Awards either loved it, or hated it. And Cate Blanchett spoke about her bold fashion choice with Instyle Magazine while promoting her film Hanna.

She said that majority of people get so worried about dressing for other people, on the other hand one needs to wear what one likes. In case people get it, they get it and if they don’t, then it doesn’t matter. There are so few houses that can manage to do couture,and since the red carpet is such an amazing showcase that one needs to celebrate it. She stated that the reason behind the choice of her dress that was it was very architectural and the breast piece was made all out of elastic.Additionally she said that she was really tempted to wear it due to the color combination.

Feedback of the 83rd Academy Awards

The 83rd Academy Awards turned out to be quite a dull event. The audiences were not entertained and they did not enjoy as much as they did in the past years, according to a Hollywood Reporter.

In comparison to last year, the Oscar ceremony witnessed a fall of 10%. In the beginning of this year other prestigious award ceremonies such as the Grammys, the Golden Globes and others countered high ratings while Oscars just managed to make 37.6 million total viewers.

Audiences often criticized the poor presentation of young hosts James Franco as well as Anne Hathaway. The 3 hour plus event delivered a rating of 11.7 with a 11% drop in the advertiser-friendly category.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, upto now this was the worst Oscar telecast as James Franco was too detached and Hathaway as overeager.

This year, unfortunately the award winners were not new. Most of the winners had won awards in the equivalent categories in other award ceremonies earlier this year.