Watch the Oscar Nominations Live on The Mouse Castle

By Tim Callaway

Neil Patrick Harris will
host the Oscars on
February 22nd.

So, who wants to watch the Oscar nominations with me? The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will announce the nominees at 5:30 a.m. Pacific on Thursday (yeah, I know that's just hours away). You can catch the live stream right here at The Mouse Castle.

Boyhood, Birdman, Selma, The Theory of Everything and The Grand Budapest Hotel are all expected to garner their fair share of nominations. We'll, of course, be keeping an eye on films with a Disney connection. Big Hero 6 is a shoo-in for an Animated Feature nomination, but will Into the Woods get a Best Picture nod? A number of nominations in technical categories (Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Visual Effects and Film Editing) could go to the Marvel contingent of Guardians of the Galaxy and Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Maleficent, meanwhile, could be recognized for Makeup, Costume Design and Production Design.

Actor Chris Pine (Into the Woods), Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs, and directors Alfonso Cuarón (Gravity) and J.J. Abrams (Star Wars: The Force Awakens) will make the announcements from the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. In an unusual move by the Academy, the nominations in all 24 awards categories will be announced during the presentation. In past years, the live announcement have only included the major categories.

I can hardly wait. Let's meet for breakfast and Oscars, shall we?

The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures and Stuff You Can Win Inside 'The Mouse Castle Lounge'

Concept art for the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures
© Renzo Piano Building Workshop

It's been a busy week for me in Baltimore, attending meetings, eating expensive dinners and drinking cocktails paid for by other people. And yet, I still managed to record one more episode of The Mouse Castle Lounge before leaving town.

In today's installment, the Walt Disney Company has thrown its full support behind the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, a new 300,000-square foot facility dedicated to movie history. The museum won't open until early 2017, but the renovation of Los Angeles' historic May Company building has already started and fund raising is well underway. Disney chairman and CEO Bob Iger heads up the museum's $300 million capital campaign along with co-chairs Annette Bening and Tom Hanks.

Bob Iger speaks at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures' inaugural celebration
Photo by Matt Petit/© A.M.P.A.S.

Last week, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences hosted an inaugural celebration for the museum attended by an impressive list of Hollywood hot shots: John Lasseter, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Jerry Bruckheimer, Jason Schwartzman, George Takei, Laura Dern, John Landis, Rachel McAdams and Alexander Payne, just to name a few. Warren Beatty (Mr. Annette Bening) was there also and posed for this great shot in front of his Dick Tracy hat and trench coat:

Warren Beatty with his Dick Tracy duds
Photo by Todd Wawrychuk/© A.M.P.A.S.

For more information about the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures and how you can support it, visit http://www.oscars.org/academymuseum.

Don't forget, you can still win one of historian J.B. Kaufman's wonderful books about Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, The Fairest One of All or Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: The Art and Creation of Walt Disney's Classic Animated Film, simply by listening to either today's podcast or this podcast and following the instructions to enter. It's easy to do and entries must be in by 5:00 p.m. Pacific time on Friday, April 19. Good luck!

There's more inside today's Mouse Castle Lounge including an update on Disneyland's problems with Cal OSHA and a preview of Disneynature's most recent home video release, Wings of Life. Enjoy!

The Mouse Castle Lounge can also be heard on iTunes and Stitcher.

www.themousecastle.com

www.facebook.com/themousecastle

www.twitter.com/disneytim

www.youtube.com/disneytim

www.youtube.com/mousecastletrailers

Motion Picture Academy to Celebrate the Art of Mary Blair

Mary Blair exhibit at the Disney Gallery

Visitors to the Disney Gallery at Disneyland earlier this year were treated to a colorful exhibit of the whimsical artwork of Mary Blair. On October 20 at 7:30 p.m., fans of her work will again be able to celebrate Blair's unique artistry when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presents "Mary Blair’s World of Color: A Centennial Tribute" at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.

Panelists for the discussion will include noted film makers and animators Pete Docter (Toy Story, Wall-E, Up), Mike Giaimo (Pocahontas, Home on the Range), Eric Goldberg (Aladdin, Fantasia 2000), Susan Goldberg (The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules) and Daisuke "Dice" Tsutsumi (Toy Story 3). The panel will be moderated by animation critic and film historian Charles Solomon.

Concept art for Cinderella by Mary Blair

Mary Blair joined the Walt Disney Studios in 1940 and soon established herself as a highly talented concept artist and color stylist. She favored bold colors and unique geometric designs in her work, which inspired the look of Disney's post-World War II animated films including Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan. Beyond Disney animation, Blair contributed significantly to the look and design of It's a Small World at Disneyland and to the massive tile murals in the Grand Canyon Concourse of the Contemporary Resort Hotel at Walt Disney World. She was named a Disney Legend in 1991.

"Mary Blair’s World of Color: A Centennial Tribute" is the latest installment of the Marc Davis Lecture on Animation series presented by the Academy. Named for the legendary Disney animator and Imagineer (who worked with Blair to design It's a Small World), the series provides "a forum for established film animators and other experts in the craft to share their experiences as well as explore with their colleagues the challenges of creating animation for the screen."

Tickets go on sale Monday, October 3 and can be purchased online at http://www.oscars.org/.  Prices are $5 for the general pubic and $3 for Academy members and students (this is a great deal).

http://www.themousecastle.com/

www.facebook.com/themousecastle

www.twitter.com/disneytim

www.youtube.com/disneytim