8:01 p.m. Good evening everyone! The ceremony doesn't start for another half-hour, so take this time to settle in, practice your snark, and load up on snacks and DayQuil. (Whoops, maybe only I need that last one. But hey, could make parts of the telecast more interesting.)
8:20 p.m. Starting the montages early with an ode [...]

I'm always excited about the Academy Awards — yeah, there are still a few of us left out there — but I'm guessing there won't be a whole lot of thrilling and/or shocking moments this year. (Most any upset would go thusly: Oooh, the frontrunner didn't win! Which means...someone or -thing completely undeserving did.)
But for [...]

I'm not going to do this all press-release style, because 1) I've barely had any coffee yet and 2) you can read that kind of inverted-pyramid roundup about this morning's Academy Award nominations in about a billion other publications.
Also, 3) bulleted lists are easier to read but 4) I don't know how to type [...]

And the possible nominees are:
Revanche, Austria
The Necessities of Life, Canada

The Class, France
The Baader Meinhof Complex, Germany
Waltz with Bashir, Israel

Departures, Japan
Tear This Heart Out, Mexico
Everlasting Moments, Sweden
3 Monkeys, Turkey
Only two of these film are currently scheduled for Washington releases, virtual shoo-in Waltz With Bashir (1/23) and The Class (1/30). Stay tuned for reviews.