OSCAR NOMINEE COMING!!!

I'm just back from CT where mom is all right after minor surgery--so now I'm ready to blog again!!

The Oscar nominations came out while mom was on the table, but having my priorities straight, I hadn't had time to comment til now! The nominations are pretty much what we all expected, a little boring even. But the two points of dramatic interest for me? 

1) Kathryn Bigelow and ex-husband James Cameron are duking it out for best director!!!

She's up for THE HURT LOCKER with 9 nominations including best picture, while he's up for the billion dollar blockbuster AVATAR also with 9 nominations including BEST PICTURE. May the best spouse win.

2)Did I ever imagine a world where Sandy Bullock and Meryl Streep would be going head to head for Best Actress? I'm sure Sandra--a doll--is just as amazed as we are. She certainly seemed so at the Golden Globes, and later at the SAG awards where she beat La Streep!!!! Bullock was good in THE BLIND SIDE, but not as good as she was in CRASH several years ago. Meryl is invariably good--a record-breaking 16 nominations good. But I think people forget that she has not won an OSCAR since 1982!! I'd like to see her do it this year and cook us up a marvelous speech a la Julia:  Bon appetit!

All of which leads me to what's happening this Saturday night February 6!! BEST ACTOR OSCAR NOMINEE Jeremy Renner from the OSCAR NOMINATED film THE HURT LOCKER is coming to Cambridge to accept his BEST ACTOR AWARD from the Boston Society of Film Critics! His film THE HURT LOCKER will be screened right after the ceremony at the Brattle Theater, after which he will do a Q & A with the audience.

 JULIA CHILD'S NIECE will also be there accepting on behalf of Meryl Streep whom we named BEST ACTRESS!! And Meryl has autographed one of Julia's Cookbooks to be raffled off, 

 proceeds going to Partners In Health for Haiti.

Please come! Check out the press release below for details!

STAR OF ACCLAIMED DRAMA THE HURT LOCKER, JEREMY RENNER, TO BE FETED AT BOSTON SOCIETY OF FILM CRITICS AWARDS CEREMONY   JULIA CHILD’S NIECE TO ACCEPT AWARD FOR MERYL STREEP   BOSTON — Jeremy Renner, star of the acclaimed Iraq War drama The Hurt Locker, will accept his best actor honor from the Boston Society of Film Critics (BSFC) at the BSFC’s third annual awards ceremony Saturday, February 6 at 7 p.m. at the Brattle Theatre, Harvard Square, Cambridge, MA.   Renner, who plays a volatile soldier defusing bombs, has made a career out of playing edgy characters. His past credits include the title role in Dahmer, as well as roles in The North Country and 28 Weeks Later.   Also attending will be Philadelphia Cousins, niece of celebrated chef and author Julia Child, who will accept the BSFC award forMeryl Streep, the BSFC awardee for best actress for her performance as Child in Julie & Julia.   Other special guests are expected as well and veteran arts and entertainment critic and BSFC member Joyce Kulhawik will emcee the evening.   Tickets to the event are available to the public through the Brattle Theater. There will be a pre-event cocktail reception at 5:30 p.m. at Casablanca restaurant in Harvard Square and a screening of The Hurt Locker following the awards presentation. Tickets go on sale on Wednesday, January 20th.   The ceremony will also honor several members of the Boston film community cited by BSFC for their contributions in 2009. Local awardees include Gerald Peary and Amy Geller, director and producer of For the Love of Movies; Haden Guest, David Pendleton and the staff of the Harvard Film Archive; and David Bramante of the Stuart Street Playhouse.   In addition to commending Renner’s performance, the BSFC cited The Hurt Locker with a record four other awards including best film. The BSFC honored Kathryn Bigelow as best director, Barry Ackroyd for cinematography and Chris Innis and BobMurawski for film editing.   The BSFC’s annual awards ceremony has become a much-anticipated event for the Boston film community. The BSFC’s first awards ceremony in 2008 featured Frank Langella, named best actor for Starting Out in the Evening. In 2009, producer Maureen A. Ryan presented the acclaimed documentary Man on Wire, which went on to win the Academy Award.   Formed in 1981, the BSFC is made up of 20 professional film critics working in the print and broadcast media in and around Boston. Visit the BSFC website at www.thebsfc.org for more information on the organization and for a complete list of winners.   For more information or to purchase tickets to the awards event, visit the Brattle Theatre website at www.brattlefilm.org Members of the BSFC will also be on hand to introduce films that are part of the Brattle’s Best of 2009 series which runs from February 5th through February 11th.   Event sponsors are The Boston Phoenix, The Boston Globe and Big Picture Framing.