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This year the 76th Annual Academy Awards are being held on Feb. 29, a month earlier than usual. The academy apparently hopes to win the attention of viewers who may be tiring of the glut of competing award shows that have appeared on television in recent years.
This past year, 2003, brought some surprising movie hits, including "Lost in Translation" and "Whale Rider." Sophia Coppola is only the third woman, and the first American one, to receive an Oscar nomination for directing "Lost in Translation", while 13-year-old Keisha Castle-Huges, star of "Whale Rider," is the youngest person to be nominated for a best supporting role.
Want to learn more about past Oscar upsets and surprises? Interested in the history of film and the buzz surrounding its stars? The World Wide Web offers sites that include information on directors, actors, screenwriters, movie trivia and much more.
Oscar.com http://www.oscar.com is the official Academy Awards site, featuring a list of nominees and past winners, answers to frequently asked questions, a history of the famous Kodak Theatre that hosts the gala event and a "Predict the Winners Contest." The section entitled the "Evolution of Style" captures the changes in fashion in stars from Shirley Temple to Drew Barrymore.
For a more serious look at Oscar history, visit the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Web site at http://www.oscars.org. Learn about the craftsmanship of screenwriting or discover the amazing art of animation with online teacher's guides available for each academy's category of achievement.
The ultimate movie buff should surf the Internet Movie Database http://imdb.com to find out about films produced from 1890 to the present. Sound clips, links to official studio pages, sequel/remake information, image and multimedia archives are among the IMDb's many features. Also, full-text access to recent reviews of domestic and foreign films is presented from newspapers, magazines and online journals, such as The New York Times, Salon and Entertainment Weekly.
Tired of the familiar plots and mainstream actors? Film Scouts http://www.filmscouts.com covers the New York, Sundance and Cannes film festivals with a special emphasis on independent movies. The interview archive leads to interviews with up and coming members of the film world.
And for those post-Oscar blues, have fun testing your movie knowledge by playing "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon." Although he's not an Oscar winner, Bacon is famous for his legendary movie connections—he supposedly can be connected to any other actor through the films or television shows the two have worked on in no more than six steps. The University of Virginia Computer Science Department's online game The Oracle of Bacon http://www.cs.virginia.edu/oracle let's you try out this six degrees movie phenomenon.
Whether you're interested in Hollywood's latest film diva or the history behind the making of an Oscar classic like "Citizen Kane," the World Wide Web is the place to start your research!
—Laura Taddeo and Cindi Tysick, University Libraries