Fan favorite holiday movie (Halloween or Christmas — take your pick), The Nightmare Before Christmas has seen its share of new DVD, Blu-ray, and theatrical releases over the years. The Tim Burton-produced, Henry Selick-directed stop motion animated classic has already seen a 3D release, so what could be next? Well, a 4D release, of course!

It’s been announced that The Nightmare Before Christmas will have a special 10-day run at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, spanning from October 21 to Halloween night. The movie with screen in its Disney Digital 3D format, but with a little something extra to push into the realms of 4D, such as wind and smoke effects within the theater.

As always, we like to have the results of the big awards ceremonies here for all to see, and tonight was the biggest of them all: the 82nd annual Academy Awards.

This, the king of all awards shows, has faced much criticism the last few years, and their nominations this year did not help bring validity to their cause. Many of the films and actors were very deserving of their nominations, but many others were passed over in lieu of some big box office successes of questionable overall quality. And though they made a valiant effort to increase the excitement of the show with 10 Best Picture nominations, the end result was frustrating to we the film lovers of the world?

In the end, some fantastic films and performances were justly awarded, and as always, there were a few that rubbed the wrong way. Continue on over to the other side to see all of the final results!

For we the movie fanatics of the world, the Academy Awards are just as exciting as the Super Bowl. Many of us throw or attend Oscar parties, and even go so far as to print out that ballot and lock our picks into place.

Over the past few years, this and a lot of other awards shows have kind of lost their flare. It has become apparent that deciding nominees and voting for winners is not about who is the best and who is most deserving, but about what has the best side-story and what the popular names and titles are. This massive flaw is hard to swallow, and the appeal of the whole event is bordering on non-existent.

To help bring more appeal to the game, the folks behind the Academy Awards chose to make a few changes in the format of the show. The biggest of these alterations was of course changing the amount of Best Picture nominees from 5 to a whopping 10, which meant that all of the deserving but not-so-traditional contenders (The Dark Knight) could get their chance to be underdog heroes.

Continue reading on for more and to check out the full list of this year’s nominees!

Very few styles of film making are more impressive and more grueling than the art of stop-motion. The meticulous and painstaking work requires the patience of ten saints, and not one person had this gift mixture of virtues more so than Henry Selick. Selick is best known for his directorial debut with the Tim Burton produced Halloween (and sometimes Christmas) classic The Nightmare Before Christmas. He also did James and the Giant Peach, and most recently an adaptation of Neil Gaiman‘s book, Coraline.

Selick recently spoke with HitFix (head there to read a lot more with the director) about what he has coming up next, and surprisingly, three projects were revealed. As impressive as stop-motion movies are, we live in a world where animated movies are mostly made using computer technologies, and these movies make insane amounts of money; so why put the money and the effort into something as tedious as stop-motion when it can be so much easier? Well, sillies — because there is a certain charm that comes from stop-motion that is completely unique and impossible to replicate.

Coraline
Directed by Henry Selick
Starring Dakota Fanning, Teri Hatcher, Ian McShane, Jennifer Saunders, Keith David, John Hodgman
Rated PG
Release date: February 6, 2009

There is something sadistic lurking in the mind of Coraline director Henry Selick, who also wrote the script from Neil Gaiman‘s children’s book. Selick’s vision evokes bareness and disconnection at their most extreme state. Coraline looks and feels like no other animated film in recent memory. Part of its mysticism is that it lays on the outskirts of conventional films, especially kid related films, where there isn’t any cuddly sidekick, boisterous colors, or predictable plot. It has a strange aura around it, the same aura synonymous with silent films in that it creates a supernatural feel to it not allowing the audience to fully comprehend what they are watching. This just goes to show people the talent that Selick acquires. That he can take the Christmas spirit (he directed Nightmare Before Christmas) and all the tidings attached to it and turn it into an artful piece of catastrophic evil proportions is truly amazing. That he can also use the same technology he used with Nightmare, which was a stop-motion animated feature, and upgrade it in Coraline giving it the full 3D experience is equally amazing. 2009 has just begun but Coraline has the potential of being the most creative and gorgeous looking film of the year as well as the most daring.