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.

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.

We're in the home stretch of awards season here, and as we coast ever closer to the Oscar ceremony at the end of this month, it looks like the official issuing of statues of accolades has settled into an almost entirely predictable pattern.  That pattern sees the silent film homage The Artist picking up the major awards, just as did at tonight at the 64th British Academy of Film and Television Arts, where Michel Hazanavicius's film picked up no fewer than seven awards, including Best Film, Director, Leading Actor, Original Screenplay, Cinematography, Original Music, and Costume Design.

After much nominating and talk of "buzz," we're now in that part of the annual awards season that involves actual awards.  Earlier today, you may have read that Rango cleaned up at the Annie Awards, and now we know who won at the Art Directors Guild Awards.  The nominations were announced more than a month ago, and now the nation can finally stop holding its breath in anticipation.