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'Brave' nets Pixar its seventh best animated feature Oscar

Although it didn't earn the critical acclaim of "Toy Story 3," "Up," or "Ratatouille," Pixar's 2012 film "Brave" joined those three hits, as well as three other Pixar predecessors, in winning the Oscar for best animated feature.

Beating out fellow nominees "Wreck-it Ralph," "Frankenweenie," "ParaNorman," and "The Pirates! Band of Misfits," "Brave" became the seventh Pixar film to nab the Oscar since the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences began awarding the honor in 2002. No other studio has … Read more

Oscars winners, losers jump in Amazon sales rankings

The old adage goes that it doesn't matter who wins or loses but that it's an honor just to be nominated.

Some of last night's Oscar losers may disagree, but it does prove true when it comes to movie and song rankings on Amazon.

The online retail giant says today that winners and losers from the Academy Awards all saw bumps in their sales on Amazon.com.

Seth MacFarlane, the host of the awards show, saw volume 10 of his "Family Guy" TV show rise more than 3,000 percent in the ranks to No. … Read more

Oscar awards show can now be seen online via ABC, Hulu

Those of you who missed the Oscars on TV last night can catch the entire show online.

As of 3 a.m. PT this morning, the full awards ceremony has been available for streaming through several outlets, including ABC.com, the ABC Player app for iOS, the free Hulu site, Hulu Plus, and ABC On Demand.

The streaming Oscars will be available only until this Wednesday at 9 p.m. PT. The online version will also offer its fair share of commercials. But the ads will be short and sweet -- 15 to 30 seconds in length.

"Tonight's … Read more

The Onion deletes offensive tweet about child Oscar nominee

The Onion has deleted a tweet that called 9-year-old Best Actress Oscar nominee Quvenzhane Wallis an extremely offensive name.

In its original tweet, the parody publication -- which is known for its dark humor and for regularly skewering public figures and institutions -- wrote that, "Everyone else seems afraid to say it, but that Quvenzhane Wallis is kind of a c---, right?"

Normally, The Onion is known by its many fans to be joking about almost everything it publishes -- even though its satire is often seen as legitimate commentary on a wide range of issues. But in … Read more

Samsung, Tim Burton brighten Oscars with rainbow-colored unicorn blood

"This is getting too weird for me."

These are words you never expected to hear coming from the mouth of Tim Burton.

Yet Samsung, which these days leaves no competitive joke unturned and no Hollywood star untapped, delivered precisely that during the Oscars broadcast.

The ad, released by Samsung a little while before the show, features Burton playing a director delighted to be turning the "Unicorn Apocalypse" game into a movie.

In this context, "delighted" takes on a very idiosyncratic form.

We begin by hearing that another Samsung endorser, LeBron James, is addicted to &… Read more

Statistics wizard Nate Silver gives his Oscar predictions

With great precision FiveThirtyEight's Nate Silver predicted which states President Obama would win in his second-term election. Now he is applying his statistical-analysis methods to predicting who will take home the Oscars on Sunday.

Silver has made Oscar predictions in the past, but with only 75 percent accuracy. By comparison, he picked all 50 state winners in the 2012 presidential election. Silver refined his Oscar prediction models this year by assigning weights to the glut of movie awards that precede the Oscars, similar to how he weighted the various polls in calculating his election predictions. Silver explained:

These patterns … Read more

Tech wizards behind movie magic honored by Oscars

Most movie fans won't be thinking of the Oscars for two more weeks, but the Academy has already honored some of the innovators who have made significant behind-the-scenes contributions over the years to movie making, including the computer graphics behind "Shrek."

Unlike the Academy Awards ceremony that will be held February 24, which honors only movie achievements of 2012, last night's Scientific and Technical Awards recognized those who demonstrated a "proven record of contributing significant value to the process of making motion pictures" but is not limited to the previous year's achievements.

The … Read more

The 404 1,108: Where we're not looking from behind (podcast)

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

Crazy tape on Olympians: Does it work?

Fair or foul? Experts split over whether Pistorius has advantage.

U.S. Speed Suits could make all the difference.

World records set despite ban on high-tech suits.

Are humans or technology breaking Olympic records?

Creepy Weknowyourhouse.com scans your tweets to publish your address.

Bathroom break video: Some of the best LifeHacks ever.… Read more

In Hollywood, keeping Tinseltown's treasures safe forever

HOLLYWOOD, Calif.--Deep inside a series of very cold vaults, surrounded by thick concrete and protected from fire and water damage, more than 76,000 movies sit on shelves, preserved for future generations to enjoy.

Welcome to the Academy Film Archive, the storage arm of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. On your right is a stack of cans containing several reels of the 1962 classic "Lawrence of Arabia." On your left are several cans comprising a copy of "2001: A Space Odyssey."

Since opening its doors in 1927, the Academy -- the folks … Read more