One of the most critically acclaimed films of 2011 was director Alexander Payne’s Oscar-winning movie The Descendants, which is available on Blu-ray and DVD beginning March 13^th. The movie earned Payne his second Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, after his win in 2004 for his previous film Sideways. The Descendants, which is based on the popular 2007 novel by author Kaui Hart Hemmings, also earned a Best Editing nomination for Kevin Tent, a Best Actor nomination for George Clooney, and a Best Director nomination for Payne, as well as a Best Picture nomination for the film.

The Descendants stars Clooney as Matt King, a real estate lawyer from Hawaii put in charge of his family’s land deal while he is dealing with his wife’s terminal coma, and two young daughters. Soon after finding out that his wife is going to die, Matt is struck with more bad news … she’s been cheating on him. Along with his children, and his oldest daughter’s (Shailene Woodley) friend Sid (Nick Krause), Matt goes on a quest to confront the man his wife was having an affair with. But when Matt finally comes face to face with the man she loves, he discovers that they have a connection even he couldn’t have imagined, one that could threaten his family’s cherished land deal.

I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Kaui Hart Hemmings about her novel and the process of making it into the hit film that it has become. The author discussed the movie, how pleased she was when Alexander Payne agreed to direct it, her involvement in the process of adapting the book into the screenplay; differences between the two, George Clooney’s performance, observing on set, Hawaii, Payne’s unique filmmaking style, and her surprise to the film’s overwhelming positive critical response.

Okay, the 84th Annual Academy Awards happened.  They're over.  That means we should all just sit back and enjoy that we have a long stretch of time ahead of us until the next awards season rises from the Pacific Ocean like Godzilla or some Lovecraftian monstrosity.  Before we move on to the serenity of non-awards season, though, there are a few videos that might make your day a bit more enjoyable, starting with Sacha Baron Cohen on the red carpet as his The Dictator character His Excellency Admiral General Aladeen.  Then there's a classily-edited montage of films that were notably snubbed back in the nomination phase, and finally there's a huge trailer for Jimmy Kimmel's fictitious Movie: The Movie.

Los Angelinos may have noticed the Gooodyear Blimp and a bunch of media helicopters circling around the Kodak Theater in Hollywood today.  These aerial vehicles were, oddly, covering an event that that takes place entirely indoors: the 84th Annual Academy Awards.  Hosted for the ninth non-consecutive time by Billy Crystal after Eddie Murphy bowed out months ago, the Oscars went down almost exactly as you'd expect: Harvey Weinstein once again proved his ability to win awards with The Artist, which took home awards for Best Actor, Best Director, and Best Picture, amongst others.

There are just over twenty-four hours until the Academy Awards ceremony begins, and naturally, awards fever has descended on Los Angeles. Symptoms of Awards Fever include, but are not limited to: hives, fancy dressing, red carpet-walking, seizures, limo-riding, hemorrhagic bleeding, speechifying, and general hyperbole. On the eve of the Oscars, those most susceptible to Awards Fever are quarantined in a series of tents on the beach in Santa Monica, mere yards from the Pacific Ocean. 

This quarantine is, in fact, the Independent Spirit Awards, celebrating the very best in independent cinema from the past year. The 27th Annual Spirit Awards are hosted by Seth Rogen. This year, the nominees for Best Picture are 50/50, The Descendants, Drive, The Artist, Beginners,  and Take Shelter, while recognizable faces like Jessica Chastain, Ryan Gosling, Elizabeth Olsen, Corey Stoll, Michelle Williams, John Hawkes, Lauren Ambrose, and Jean Dujardin are nominees in other categories.

IAR is on the ground at the event itself, ready to share the winners at an awards show that is inarguably cooler and younger than those staid old Oscars. Check back for up to the minute news as we update with each and every new winner.

The day before this Sunday's Oscar ceremony, while seemingly everyone is preparing for the onslaught of pomposity that the Academy Awards bring to the Kodak Theater in Hollywood, there's actually a cooler awards ceremony going down on the other side of town.  On the beach in Santa Monica, in a giant tent literally yards from the Pacific Ocean, Film Independent puts on the Independent Spirit Awards, celebrating the very best in movies made without studio backing.  Following Joel McHale as last year's host, the 2012 Spirit Awards are hosted by Seth Rogen.

Rogen needs no elaborate introduction, but the Canadian hilarity-factory has gone well beyond just acting in the likes of Freaks & Geeks, Knocked Up, Funny People, Observe and Report, and The Forty Year Old Virgin.  With his creative partner Evan Goldberg, Rogen has written and/or produced films including Superbad, Pineapple Express, and The Green Hornet.

Not only is Rogen hosting this Saturday's ceremony, but 50/50, the comedic drama which he produced and co-stars in, is up for three awards, including Best Feature and Best First Screenplay for Will Reiser, who wrote the film based on his own experience with cancer. 

In an interview with a handful of national outlets, Seth Rogen was gracious enough to talk about a wide range of topics.  Those topics included, amongst other things: hosting the Spirit Awards, his directorial debut The Apocalypse, his awards hopes for 50/50; improvisation, taking Kate Beckinsale off guard at the Golden Globes, his friend and collaborator Jonah Hill's Oscar nomination, his love of Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol;.and movies he's enjoyed over the last year.

With Oscar ballots due earlier this week, and only a few days to go until the Oscars on Sunday, February 26th, here is how things stand in the race for the gold... 

If history repeats itself, as it inevitably tends to do, The 84^th Academy Awards airing this Sunday, February 26^th on ABC are sure to be a hit that will invariably leave us all with a belly ache from an exorbitant amount of laughter. What else would anyone expect when you take the team of Billy Crystal as returning host, and Carol Leifer as writer? There are simply certain combinations that just work, and this is definitely one of them.

Of Crystal’s decision to host again, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Tom Sherak has recently been quoted as saying, "I'm thrilled to welcome Billy back to the Oscar stage," adding, "He's a comic legend and an Oscar icon, and it feels good to have him back where he belongs."

Crystal's thoughts on the subject, "Some of the best moments of my career have happened on the Oscar stage. I am thrilled to be back there. Actually, I am doing this so that the young woman in my pharmacy will stop asking me my name when I pick up my prescriptions.”

The 2012 Academy Awards will serve as Leifer’s seventh time writing for the Oscars and her third time working with Crystal for the show. A little bit of Oscar trivia will show you just how special this union is, only Bob Hope has hosted more Academy Awards presentations with an impressive nineteen ceremonies between 1940 and 1978. It has been a while since we have seen Crystal at the helm as his last appearance as host was in 2004, and this year will serve as his ninth appearance as the evening’s master of ceremonies.

Unlike the seasons that pass annually in nature thanks to the tilt of Earth's axis and its course through the solar system, awards season culminates in a climactic event that epitomizes nearly everything associated with the yearly handing out of statuettes and accolades.  The 84th annual Academy Awards ceremony takes place this Sunday at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood, where Billy Crystal will host the proceedings for the ninth time in a telecast produced by Brian Grazer.

It seems like just yesterday that the American Cinema Editors announced the nominees who might go on to win at the 62nd annual Eddie Awards.  Seem that way though it may, the nominations were, in fact, promulgated throughout the land well over a month ago.  We now know which of those lucky nominees went on to win these adorably-named awards (don't call them Edwards, it's too formal), as The Descendants, The Artist, and Rango all took home Eddies of their own.

We have but a week until the orgiastic display of congratulations, accolades, pomp, and circumstance that is the Academy Awards finally puts an end to the awards season that so consumes us for months, regardless of foreign wars, humanitarian crises, or potentially Orwellian national legislation.  That leaves one week of breathless speculation based on the other awards being trotted out.  The latest professional organization to unveil its winners and contribute to that speculation is the Writers Guild of America.