This morning, while most Angelenos were still sleeping, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced its nominations for the 81st Academy Awards, which will be doled out at the Kodak on February 22. Academy president Sid Ganis and Oscar-winning actor Forest Whitaker announced the nominees beginning at 5:38 a.m. local time at a live news conference attended by 400 international media members at the academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. Staging featured bold lighting in saturated hues that changed throughout the program and a collage of five flat-screens that showed the nominated films in each category. Two giant Oscar statuettes flanked the stage amid the hail of flashbulbs. After the conference, lists of the nominees were then distributed and posted online.
Official screenings of all of the nominated films will begin for academy members this weekend at the Goldwyn Theater. Screenings also will be held at the Academy's Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood and in London, New York, and San Francisco.
