Oscar Venue Renamed As Dolby Theatre, Awards Show To Continue In Hollywood

The Hollywood venue that hosts the Academy Awards has been renamed the Dolby Theatre in a new sponsorship deal. 

The 3,400-seater building, which has been the abode to the annual Academy Awards ceremony since 2002, was in the past known as the Kodak Theatre. 

Previously this year a judge granted Eastman Kodak permission to end the $74 million, 20-year naming rights deal it signed in 2000. 

Dolby has approved a 20-year contract with theatre owners the CIM Group. 

Tom Sherak, president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences(AMPAS) stated that the Academy's Board of Governors believes that the home for the awards is in Hollywood.He also added that it is where the Academy and the motion picture industry are rooted.He said that they were pleased to have a new agreement with CIM that will continue their long-standing partnership. 

Kevin Yeaman, of British-founded audio technology specialists Dolby, stated that the partnership enables the theatre to be not only the world stage for the Academy Awards, but for Dolby innovations for decades to come.

Octavia Spencer, Academy Award Winner, Might Star As Oscar Grant's Mom In Fruitvale

Academy Award-winning actress Octavia Spencer is apparently in negotiations to play the role of Oscar Grant's mother in the forthcoming indie film about the New Year's Day 2009 killing of the Oakland man. Spencer is best known for her role as Minny in the 2011 film ‘The Help’. 

The film, titled ‘Fruitvale’ will feature the final hours before Grant was shot and killed by BART police officer Johannes Mehserle after he got off the train at the Fruitvale station in Oakland. The shooting was video-recorded by other passengers, making it one of the most sensitively charged officer-involved shootings in Oakland's latest history. Mehserle was convicted of unintentional manslaughter but was released from prison on good behavior after serving 11 months of his two-year sentence. The movie, being written and directed by Oakland resident Ryan Coogler, is set to air by July.

Acceptance Speech of Meryl Streep at the 84th Academy Awards

Meryl Streep won the Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role at the 2012 Academy Awards for her role in The Iron Lady.

The other nominations in this category includes Viola Davis for ‘The Help’, Glenn Close for ‘Albert Nobbs’, Rooney Mara for ‘The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo’ and Michelle Williams for ‘My Week With Marilyn’.

Quite surprised that she won she exclaimed.."Oh my god.Oh c’mon.Alright.Thank you so much.Thank you, thank you," Meryl said on stage as she commenced her acceptance speech."When they called my name I’d had this feeling I could hear half of America going 'oh no..oh c’mon..why..her..again?' But whatever."

"First I’m going to thank Don because when you thank your husband at the end of the speech they play him out with the music and I want him to know that everything I value most in our lives you’ve given me," she continued. "And now secondly, my other partner: 37 years ago, my first play in New York City I met the great hairstylist and makeup artist Roy Helland and we worked together pretty continuously since the day we clapped eyes on each other. His first film with me was ‘Sophie’s Choice’ and all the way up to tonight when he won for his beautiful work in ‘The Iron Lady’, 30 years later, every single movie in between."

Meryl Streep concluded by saying, "And I just want to thank Roy but also I want to thank — because I really understand I’ll never be up here again — I really want to thank all my colleagues, all my friends. I look out here and I see my life before my eyes, my old friends, my new friends and really this is such a great honor but the thing that counts the most with me is the friendships and the love and the sheer joy we have shared making movies together. My friends, thank you, all of you, departed and here for this enigmatically wonderful career. Thank you so much. Thank you."

After accepting her award, Meryl spoke to reporters offstage and further joked about her long history of always being nominated but never winning. Still, Streep said that she wasn't worried about never winning again.

Inspite of several nominations, Meryl Streep hadn't won an Oscar since 1982.She had won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in ‘Sophie’s Choice’ in 1982.Earlier in 1979 she also had won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in ‘Kramer vs Kramer’.

84th Academy Awards - 2012

The 84th annual Academy Awards or The Oscars took place at the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles on Feb 29th 2012. The Artist and Hugo were the big winners on that night. Nine time host Billy Crystal was the host for this year’s Oscar too.

The list of winners for this years Oscars include:

Best Motion Picture : The Artist

Best Actor in a Leading role : Jean Dujardin for ‘The Artist’

Best Actress in a Leading role : Meryl Streep for ‘The Iron lady’

Best Actor in a Supporting Role : Christopher Plummer for ‘Beginners’

Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Octavia Spencer for ‘The Help’

Best Director : Michel Hazanavicus for ‘The Artist’

Best Writing(Adapted Screenplay) : Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon and Community’s
Dean Pelton for 'The Descendants'

Best Writing (Original Screenplay): Woody Allen won for his screenplay for
‘Midnight in Paris’

Best Animated Film : Rango

Best Original Score : Ludovic Bource for ‘The Artist’

Best Original Song : Bret McKenzie for ‘Man or a Muppet’

Best Documentary : TJ Martin, Dan Lindsay and Rich Middlemas
for their documentary film ‘Undefeated’

Best Cinematography : Robert Richardson for ‘Hugo’

Best Animated Short Film : The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris
Lessmore

Best Short Film (Live Action) : The Shore

Best Art Direction : Dante Ferretti and Francesca Lo Schiavo for
‘Hugo’

Best Costume Design : Mark Bridges for ‘The Artist’

Best Make Up : Mark Coulier and J. Roy Helland for ‘The Iron
Lady’

Best Foreign Language Film : The Iranian film..’A Separation’

Best Film Editing : Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall for ‘The Girl With
The Dragon Tattoo’

Best Sound Editing : Philip Stockton and Eugene Gearty for ‘Hugo’

Best Sound Mixing : Tom Fleischman and John Midgley for ‘Hugo’

Best Visual Effects : Rob Legato, Joss Williams, Ben Grossmann and
Alex Henning for ‘Hugo’

AMPAS Scraps Performances of Nominated Songs From 'Muppets' and 'Rio'

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences(AMPAS) has planned to scrap the musical performances for 'Man or Muppet' and 'Real in Rio’ for the 2012 Academy Awards. 

Audiences will probably not witness "Man or Muppet" or "Real in Rio" being performed at the Oscars telecast this February 26. The music branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has planned to pass over the musical performances of both Best Original Song nominees.

The decision, still, has yet to be sealed as producers Brian Grazer and Don Mischer still have a work in progress. An authoritative source stated that the show is not locked yet.He also added that the decisions about this and other things continue to be evaluated by the team trying to produce the most engaging 3 hours possible.

If the decision to skip the Best Song nominees performance be signed, the audience will not witness Jason Segel having duet with Walter to sing the original soundtrack for "The Muppets" nor Sergio Mendes delivering the original song from "Rio".

"Man or Muppet" and "Real in Rio" are the lone two songs being nominated for this year's Best Original Song category at Oscars.

Meryl Streep And The 2012 Oscars

It has been just less than three months ago that “The King's Speech” obtained the top honors at the Oscars,the 2012 race has already begun with many contenders.

On top of the list is Meryl Streep who stars as the British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in "The Iron Lady". The versatile actress Meryl Streep, has racked up a record 16 Oscar nominations.Streep had won her first Oscar award for her performance in "Kramer Vs Kramer" (1979). Streep also won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her film "Sophie's Choice" in 1982. She was last nominated for the Oscars in 2009 for her performance as French chef Julia Child in "Julie and Julia". However, sadly she had lost that race for Best Actress to Sandra Bullock, who won it for "The Blind Side".