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Conquered all the 2017 Academy Awards Best Picture nominees with just a day to spare? That means there’s plenty of time to screen this year’s feature and short documentary nominees.

From war-torn Syria, to inside The Lion King, the Best Documentary Feature and Best Documentary Short films vary in topic and genre. Luckily, many of the films require only a Netflix subscription to view. Here’s how to watch them, now.

How to Watch the Best Documentary Feature Nominees:

Fire at Sea

From Italian director Gianfranco Rosi, Fire at Sea tackles the current refugee crisis in Europe, centered around the island of Lampedusa,...

The filmmaker returns to the subject of alienation with his new documentary about a young autistic man who uses Disney films to make sense of the world

Three years ago, Roger Ross Williams was looking around for the subject of his next documentary. He had become the first African American filmmaker to win a directing Oscar, awarded for his short film Music By Prudence, which was about a severely disabled Zimbabwean woman, Prudence Mabhena, who overcame prejudice to become a singer-songwriter. In the feature-length God Loves Uganda he charted the campaign in that country to make homosexuality punishable by death. Then an old friend, the Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Ron Suskind, told him about the book he and his wife Cordelia were writing about their son, Owen, who developed autism at the age of two. Owen had only begun to make contact again through dialogue from his beloved Walt Disney films.

Thanks to “Persepolis,” “Waltz with Bashir” and “Chicago 10,” the blending of animation with documentaries has become a successful sub-genre. This year, it’s pushed further both thematically and stylistically with great impact.

In “Life, Animated,” the autistic Owen Suskind learned to communicate by watching classic Disney animation; in “Floyd Norman: An Animated Life,” Disney’s first African-American animator gets long overdue recognition; and in “Tower,” the use of rotoscope animation helps recreate a 50-year-old mass shooting at the University of Texas Tower.

Read More: How ‘The Red Turtle’ Became an Animated, Cycle of Life Oscar Contender

“Owen was able to have a communication breakthrough when he was a child as a result of watching Disney classics…he used them as a guide to decipher life and to connect to other people,” director Roger Ross Williams told IndieWire. He’s the first African-American director to win an Oscar for the documentary short,...

Folks, a short list has emerged for Academy Award nominating consideration. Yes, we have AMPAS announcing that they’ve pared down the list of films hoping to be nominated for Best Documentary Short Subject rather considerably. There were initially far more entries vying for one of the five available slots, but not it’s just down to ten. Obviously, only half will be among the final five receiving spots in the Oscar race, though that’s pretty good odds, all things considered. This can be a hard category to figure out as I’ve mentioned in prior years, but I can at least try and set the stage for you a bit now. It’s the least I can do, right? As always, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that this is one of the least seen categories at the Academy Awards, if not the absolute least seen.

The Film Society of Lincoln Center today announced the lineup for Convergence, its highly anticipated immersive storytelling program, which will run October 1–4 as part of the 54th New York Film Festival. It includes two U.S. premieres and one world premiere amongst the nine interactive works, as well as five panels from innovators of the field.

Read More: Nyff Reveals Main Slate of 2016 Titles, Including ‘Manchester By the Sea,’ ‘Paterson’ and ‘Personal Shopper’

“The art of immersive storytelling is continually evolving,” said Nyff Convergence programmer Matt Bolish in a press release. “Our mission has been consistent from our first year to this, our fifth: bringing the best survey of interactive work to the Nyff audience.”

Virtual Reality highlights include the world premiere of acclaimed Indian work “Priya’s Mirror,” which fuses augmented reality with a comic book to tell the story of a rape survivor-turned-superhero. Returning for a second...

Chicago – The mystery of the particulars within an autistic mind is a theme in a new documentary, as a man named Owen Suskind is profiled through his personal breakthroughs using the animated films of the Walt Disney Studios. Director Roger Ross Williams introduces the unusual journey in the compelling “Life, Animated.”

Based on the book by main subject’s father, Ron Suskind, the story is about Owen’s struggle to understand the world around him, while his autistic condition prevents clear comprehension. Now a grown man, he must transition into a halfway house to live on his own. All the while, it has been the animated films of the Walt Disney studios that have been his guiding life force, from boyhood to manhood.

The Disney Life of Owen Suskind is Explored in ‘Life, Animated’

Photo credit: The Orchard

Roger Ross Williams is a former broadcast journalist, and won an Oscar...

Thanks to new rules, this year’s Academy Board of Governors race was more intense than usual. The Academy’s 17 branches each has three governors on the board; they can serve three consecutive three-year terms. One seat is up for reelection every year. The Board of Governors actually runs the show at the Academy, determining the strategy and mission, and keeping tabs on its financial health.

(The full list of Governors is here.)

This year, the race was opened up to allow any of the 6200-plus Academy members to run for the board. Before, the membership voted for 50% of a nominating committee that selected candidates to present to the Board. This yielded the same favorites over and over again.

Now, members of each branch can pick their own contenders. Academy CEO Dawn Hudson clearly sees the benefit of a more diverse board of Governors. In an email to members announcing...

Thanks to new rules, this year’s Academy Board of Governors race was more intense than usual. The Academy’s 17 branches each has three governors on the board; they can serve three consecutive three-year terms. One seat is up for reelection every year. The Board of Governors actually runs the show at the Academy, determining the strategy and mission, and keeping tabs on its financial health.

(The full list of Governors is here.)

This year, the race was opened up to allow any of the 6200-plus Academy members to run for the board. Before, the membership voted for 50% of a nominating committee that selected candidates to present to the Board. This yielded the same favorites over and over again.

Now, members of each branch can pick their own contenders. Academy CEO Dawn Hudson clearly sees the benefit of a more diverse board of Governors. In an email to members announcing...

Steven Spielberg, representing the directors branch, and Laura Dern, of the actors branch, are among the new members who have been elected to the Academy’s board of governors for the first time, the organization announced Monday. As the Academy has undertaken initiatives to diversify its ranks, two new minority members have joined the board: African-Americans Sharen K. Davis, a two-time Oscar nominee for Ray and Dreamgirls, who was elected to rep the costume designers branch, and Roger Ross Williams, an Oscar winner for the short documentary Music by Prudence, who was elected to rep the documentary branch. Other new,

read more...

Disney characters are so beloved that it’s easy to forget they’re also commercial products, united by the marketing heft of a massive corporate entity. Their history is also riddled with culturally problematic representations, from the Middle Eastern stereotypes of “Aladdin” to the black crows of “Dumbo.” But such a skeptical reading is irrelevant to the appeal of “Life, Animated,” documentarian Roger Ross William’s straightforward but innately touching look at a young man with autism for whom Disney characters represent salvation from his condition. It’s the best Disney movie that Disney didn’t make.

Williams (who won an Oscar for his short “Music By Prudence”) follows up his look at homophobia in “God Loves Uganda” with a far more intimate project. Based on Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ron Suskind’s book, “Life, Animated” revolves around the plight facing Suskind’s autistic son Owen, who spent several years of...

Another day, another new list emerges to show us what titles are in contention for certain Academy Awards. Yes, today we have AMPAS announcing that they’ve pared down the list of films hoping to be nominated for Best Documentary Short Subject rather considerably. There were initially 74 entries vying for one of the five available slots, but not it’s just down to ten. Obviously, only half will be among the final five receiving spots in the Oscar race, though that’s pretty good odds, all things considered. This can be a hard category to figure out, but I can at least try and set the stage for you a bit now… It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that this is one of the least seen categories at the Academy Awards, if not the absolute least seen. Not only is it the red headed stepchild of the...

While in North America, the battle for equal rights for gays and lesbians has taken great strides, in Africa, just being gay can put your life in danger. And nowhere is this more evident than in Uganda, and director Roger Ross Williams (an Oscar winner for his documentary short "Music By Prudence") explores the intersection of religion and homosexuality in his forthcoming "God Loves Uganda." Premiering at the Sundance Film Festival in January and doing the rounds stopping in San Francisco, Nantucket and more, the doc exposes the unsettling American connection to an extreme brand of evangelicalism in Uganda that is behind some of the more draconian laws being proposed, including the death penalty for homosexuals. It's chilling stuff, and in this exclusive clip, we see the influence of anti-gay activist Scott Lively, a loud fringe element at home, who has a much bigger soapbox to air his hateful views in Uganda.

The Academy has announced this year's field of contending documentary short subject films for the 86th annual Academy Awards. The crop has been trimmed down to eight, from which five nominees will be chosen. Voters from the Academy's documentary branch viewed the 40 eligible entries and submitted their ballots for tabulation. Last year's winner in the category was Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine's "Inocente." Previous winners have included "Saving Face" in 2011, "Strangers No More" in 2010 and "Music by Prudence" in 2009. (I always over-think it and get the category wrong. Sigh.) The eight remaining 2013 titles are listed below...

Variance Films has announced that Roger Ross Williams' "God Loves Uganda" will be released theatrically in New York City on Oct. 11, before expanding to theaters across the U.S. and Canada throughout the fall and into early 2014. In "God Loves Uganda," Oscar-winning filmmaker Williams ("Music by Prudence") explores the role of the American Evangelical movement in fueling Uganda's terrifying turn towards biblical law and the proposed death penalty for homosexuality. Thanks to charismatic religious leaders and a well-financed campaign, these draconian new laws and the politicians that peddle them are...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has revealed its 276-member-strong class of 2013.

The list, published by The Hollywood Reporter, includes actors, cinematographers, designers, directors, documentarians, executives, film editors, makeup artists and hairstylists, "members-at-large," musicians, producers, PR folks, short filmmakers and animators, sound technicians, visual effects artists, and writers.

Jason Bateman, Rosario Dawson, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Milla Jovovich, Lucy Liu, Jennifer Lopez, Emily Mortimer, Sandra Oh, Jason Schwartzman, and Michael Peña are among the roster of actors, while "The Heat" and "Bridesmaids" helmer Paul Feig made the directors' cut.

"We did not change our criteria at all," says Academy president Hawk Koch of this year's larger-than-usual class. "Yes, this year there is a tremendous amount of women, a tremendous amount of people of color, people from all walks of life. This year, we asked the branches to look at everybody who wasn't in the Academy but who deserved to be.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced today the 276 members of the entertainment industry invited to join organization. The list includes actors, directors, documentarians, executives, film editors, producers and more. Of those listed below, those who accept the invitations will be the only additions to the Academy's membership in 2013. "These individuals are among the best filmmakers working in the industry today," said Academy President Hawk Koch in a press release. "Their talent and creativity have captured the imagination of audiences worldwide, and I am proud to welcome each of them to the Academy." Koch also told Variety, "In the past eight or nine years, each branch could only bring in X amount of members. There were people each branch would have liked to get in but couldn't. We asked them to be more inclusive of the best of the best, and each branch was excited, because they got...

The Academy just added 276 Oscar voters.

That’s 100 more than last year, and part of an easing of a longstanding cap on the number of new members allowed to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences each year.

AMPAS usually adds between 130 and 180 new members, replacing those who have quit or passed away. The membership now stands around 6,000.

Jason Bateman, Jennifer Lopez, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Emmanuelle Riva, and Chris Tucker are among the actors who have been invited to join, the organization announced today.

Other interesting additions: the musician Prince, Girls and Tiny Furniture writer/director/actress Lena Dunham,...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is extending invitations to join the organization to 276 artists and executives who have distinguished themselves by their contributions to theatrical motion pictures. Those who accept the invitations will be the only additions to the Academy’s membership in 2013.

“These individuals are among the best filmmakers working in the industry today,” said Academy President Hawk Koch. “Their talent and creativity have captured the imagination of audiences worldwide, and I am proud to welcome each of them to the Academy.”

The 2013 invitees are:

Actors

Jason Bateman – “Up in the Air,” “Juno”

Miriam Colon – “City of Hope,” “Scarface”

Rosario Dawson – “Rent,” “Frank Miller’s Sin City”

Kimberly Elise – “For Colored Girls,” “Beloved”

Joseph Gordon-Levitt – “Lincoln,” “The Dark Knight Rises”

Charles Grodin – “Midnight Run,” “The Heartbreak Kid”

Rebecca Hall – “Iron Man 3,” “The Town”

Lance Henriksen – “Aliens,” “The Terminator”

Jack Huston – “Not Fade Away,” “Factory Girl”

Milla Jovovich – “Resident Evil,...

Roger Ross Williams' dream has come true. He spent a few years interviewing Sundance's competition filmmakers and was so inspired that he told himself he'd one day be on the other side of the camera. Williams, director of "God Loves Uganda," and 2010's Academy Award winning "Music by Prudence," studied journalism as Nyu and then worked making TV documentaries. Having grown up gay in the black church, he has always been drawn to the stories of others that have been rejected by their communities. What It's About: "'God Loves Uganda' is a powerful exploration of the evangelical campaign to change African culture with values imported from America’s Christian Right. The film follows American and Ugandan religious leaders fighting “sexual immorality” and missionaries trying to convince Ugandans to follow Biblical law." What It's Really About: "The film is really about one of the fastest growing...

Roger Ross Williams’ “God Loves Uganda” will premiere in the U.S. documentary competition at the Sundance Film Festival Jan. 18 at the Library Center Theatre. And Indiewire has the exclusive first look at the powerful new poster art. From the producers of “Buck,” which screened at Sundance in 2011, “God Loves Uganda” tells the story of how the anti-gay rhetoric of conservative American evangelicals led to the Ugandan Parliament passing a noxious and deadly anti-homosexuality bill. Julie Goldman (“Ai Wei Wei: Never Sorry,” “Beware of Mr. Baker”) produced. Read More: Sundance 2013: U.S. Documentary Competition Program Williams, who won the best documentary short subjects Oscar in 2010 for “Music by Prudence,” will be in Park City to support the film along with several of the film’s subjects. Josh Braun’s Submarine Entertainment is repping sales on the doc at the festival. ...

Roger Ross Williams may not be a household name (yet), but the man has 2 projects in the works currently, that have attraced the kind of in-development attention that I think many would embrace fully. First, in case you're wondering who he is, Williams' last film, the Zimbabwe-set Music by Prudence, won the 2010 Oscar for Best Documentary Short - the highest filmmaker honor (in ths country anyway). The award made Williams the first African American to win an Oscar for directing and producing a film, short or feature (trivia question). You have to remember him, or at least remember the moment when he went up to the podium to receive his...

The saying goes: If Hollywood is really the movie capital of the world, then Oscar night is the world’s biggest wrap party, and like all parties, each event comes with unwelcome guests, embarrassing situations, strange fashions and controversial moments. In fact, controversy and the Oscars seem to go hand in hand and despite the fact that the Academy Awards are, for the most part, an elegant and tightly controlled affair, some very strange things do occur. Let’s take a look back through the history of the Academy Awards, and some of it’s strangest and more controversial moments – which sadly were also the most memorable.

Shadow Dancers

For the 2007 ceremony, producers hired the dance troop Pilobolus to recreate famous images from that year’s most popular films.

Political Rants

Richard Gere was last asked to present in 1993 when he interrupted the ceremony to give a long speech attacking...

Strange Acceptance Speeches

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Cuba Gooding Jr.’s acceptance speech at the 1997 Academy Awards has topped a list naming the most dramatic, outrageous and unexpected moments in Oscar history. Gooding Jr. was so overjoyed to collect his Best Supporting Actor prize for Jerry Maguire that the actor continued to speak even when the orchestra began playing, yelling “I love you!” to a long list of Hollywood stars, while jumping up and down in excitement.

Jack Palance had been nominated for an Oscar twice, both for best supporting actor, for 1952′s Sudden Fear and 1953′s Shane. Four decades later, he finally won the award for the comedy City Slickers, at the age of 72. In the middle of a rather raunchy acceptance speech, Palance decided to drop down to do a series of one-armed push-ups, proving that age is just a number.

Perhaps not so much a strange nor controversial moment, but...

Actor Tim Blake Nelson will host the awards ceremony at the Sundance Film Festival, which also announced Tuesday the members of the five juries that will determine the winners. The festival runs from Jan. 20-30; the awards will be handed out the evening of Jan. 29. (The Short Film Awards will be named earlier at a ceremony on Tuesday, Jan. 25, at Park City’s Jupiter Bowl.)

The complete list of jurors follows, with bios provided by the festival.

U.S. Documentary Jury

Jeffrey Blitz

Jeffrey’s film career started in 2002 with the Oscar-nominated, Emmy-winning documentary “Spellbound.” His fiction feature debut, “Rocket Science,” became his first to play the festival (Sundance, 2007; Dramatic Directing Award). He has also directed the documentary “Lucky,” (Sundance, 2010) and multiple episodes of NBC’s “The Office.” In 2009, he won the Emmy for comedy directing.

Matt Groening

Matt Groening created the longest-running comedy in television history, “The Simpsons.” As a cartoonist,...

Hey, PopWatchers, remember this? That Wtf moment during the Oscars when Music By Prudence producer Elinor Burkett pulled a Kanye and interrupted director Roger Ross Williams while he was accepting the award for best documentary short? (Burkett told EW in March that the duo, who had been feuding due to creative conflict over the film, had not discussed which would speak on stage if the documentary had won, and she stepped up in order to thank the film’s subjects: “There’s this assumption that had more of a right to speak than I did. His Oscar is not bigger than my Oscar.

There's no real debate about the "viral" moment of the 2010 Academy Awards: when producer Elinor Burkett "Kanye'd" director Roger Ross Williams during their acceptance speech after winning best short documentary for their film Music By Prudence. It was an unknown film for nearly everyone watching the Oscar's that night, except of course for the devoted fans of Last Call with Carson Daly, the late night show that aired a profile on that very film (and its director), just days before they became so widely known.

Roger Ross Williams won the Best Documentary Short on Sunday for "Music by Prudence," but when he went to accept the award, the movie's producer (Elinor Burkett) wrestled the microphone from him. We later found out that Burkett interrupted his acceptance speech as a way to hurt Williams. She gave him the idea for the movie, but then quit, leaving Williams to make the entire documentary on his own. This was her way of getting some credit. Williams later appeared on "Larry King Live" to talk about his win and was promised that he would be able to read his entire Oscars speech during the show. Unfortunately about ninety second into it, producers cut Williams short due to time constraints. King then signaled Williams to sit down and said: "I wasn't cutting you off, Kanye," referring to the MTV VMAs incident where Kanye West interrupted Taylor Swift's acceptance speech.

On the third day of the Music by Prudence Oscar speech fallout, Elinor Burkett, a.k.a. the "Kanye of the Oscars," spoke to Joy Behar. Unlike the previous night's humiliating CNN segment, in which Larry King pulled a one-two-re-interrupt-punch on Prudence director Roger Ross Williams, Burkett immediately asserted good will among viewers and host by heartily agreeing that "yes, the Oscars were so dull that I spent most of the ceremony chain-smoking outside." Charmed, Behar leaned in as her Academy Award-winning doppleganger lurched ahead with a tale of Sunday's events which would pit the raspy documentary producer as the first victim of acceptance speech "bigfooting" in the Academy's history.

Elinor Burkett made headlines last Sunday when she interrupted Roger Ross Williams' acceptance speech for producers of the Academy Award-winning short-subject documentary Music By Prudence. Last night she explained her "Kanye Moment" with Joy Behar and seemed to ignore the graceful route of explanation, choosing instead to remind us all of why we didn't like her to begin with.

Surely Larry King had the best of intentions when he invited Music by Prudence director Roger Ross Williams onto his show last night. Williams, who was subject to the "Kanye moment" at the Oscars, was given the chance for a "speech do-over" on the live show.

All started well, with Williams walking out from behind King's desk with his Oscar in hand and starting his memorized speech — and then there were some production/timing issues. Let's just say, this interruption was no less awkward than the original. Check out the unfortunate moment below.

Next Showing:

Link | Posted 3/10/2010 by reelz

Hollywood Dailies | Larry King | Roger R Williams | Music by Prudence...

Oscar winner Roger Ross Williams with Prudence Mabhena at the Governors Ball after the 82nd Annual Academy Awards at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, CA on Sunday, March 7, 2010. There was a quite a bit of talk after Williams’ speech was cut short by fellow winner Elinor Burkett, who produced the Best Short Film, Documentary, winner Music by Prudence, which Williams directed. Photo: Greg Harbaugh / ©A.M.P.A.S. Click on the photo to enlarge it.

When Music By Prudence director Roger Ross Williams was interrupted during his acceptance speech for Best Documentary Short during Sunday's Oscars, viewers were aghast. Who was the woman who cut him off? Why was she up there? Did Kanye West have something to do with this? Turns out the woman who rushed the stage was Music By Prudence producer Elinor Burkett, whose name had also been called for the award. She tells EW that the confusion began because Williams had refused to discuss beforehand which one of them should speak on stage if they won. (The two aren't on speaking...

The most awkward moment from Sunday night's Oscar telecast was the acceptance speech hijacking from one Music by Prudence key player, Roger Ross Williams, to another, Elinor Burkett, or as Jon Stewart ID-ed her, "the woman who runs the snack counter at my synagogue's Purim festival." But there is only one person in Hollywood who could present Roger Ross Williams with the opportunity to re-do his speech on live television and then, miraculously, make the moment only more awkward. And that person is Larry King.

After the jump, Movieline breaks the awkwardness down into seven cringe-worthy components.

Two of the most astounding video moments this week had to be: Crazy lady Elinor Burkett pulling a Kayne West on director Roger Ross Williams at the Academy Awards during his acceptance speech for the documentary short, Music By Prudence. The Berlin poker robbery where armed gunmen robbed the European Poker Tour in broad daylight. So what if the video of the man never lets the woman talk. Isn't that just the classic thing were combined with the German television footage that captured a $1.2 million heist in action? Hmmm, what would that be like? ...

Sandy Powell takes gong for The Young Victoria as fellow Brit Rob Beckett wins Best Sound Editing for Hurt Locker

It was not, the commentators all agreed, a vintage night for British talent. But while all lenses were focused on Carey Mulligan and Colin Firth trying to look gracious in defeat, the success of two of their compatriots went almost unnoticed.

Sandy Powell's triumph in the Best Costume Design category meant she has now won more Oscars than Marlon Brando, Meryl Streep and Robert De Niro – all of whom have just two to her three. "I already have two of these, but I'm feeling greedy," ran the provocative opening line of her acceptance speech, a quip which went down badly at a ceremony where faux modesty rules the day.

The other British winner was Ray Beckett, who won his first Oscar for sound editing on The Hurt Locker, Kathryn Bigelow...

Documentary filmmaker Roger Ross Williams felt like Taylor Swift at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards when his former producer stole his spotlight at the Oscars on Sunday.

Audience members at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood and viewers around the world were puzzled when Elinor Burkett joined Williams onstage and pushed him aside as he started his Best Documentary Short acceptance speech.

Stunned Williams admits he was too shocked to do anything, but now insists Burkett should never have been there after removing her name from the credits of the film following a bust-up over the film Music By Prudence.

Burkett tells Salon.com, "The director and I had a bad difference over the direction of the film that resulted in a lawsuit that has settled amicably out of court. But there have been all these events around the Oscars, and I wasn't invited to any of them. And he's not speaking to me. So we weren't even able to discuss ahead of the time who would be the one person allowed to speak if we won.

"When we won, he raced up there to accept the award and his mother took her cane and blocked me. So I couldn't get up there very fast."

But Williams tells the website, "Only one person is allowed to accept the award. I was the director, and she was removed from the project nearly a year ago, but she was able to still qualify as a producer on the project, and be an official nominee. But she was very angry - she actually removed herself from the project because she wanted more creative control...

"She just ambushed me. I was sort of in shock... I just expected her to stand there.

"She pulled a Kanye and it's a shame, because this is such positive, happy film."

West upstaged Swift at the MTV Vma Awards last year when he ripped the microphone from her to protest the country music star's Best Female Video win over Beyonce.

And, as for Burkett's claim that the director's mother tried to keep her from going up onstage at the Oscars, Williams adds, "My mother got up to hug me, and my mother is 87 years old."...

The 82nd Academy Awards have come and gone, and, instead of running a copy and pasted list of the winners (and inevitable losers), I’ve decided to grade the awards show itself. There were very few surprises, but, as the following list indicates, there were some interesting take-aways from the festivities.

Here you go:

Hamish Hamilton served as director of the show for the first time. Take from that what you will. Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin were very funny in their roles as co-hosts, but didn’t it seem like they were under-used? Martin was strapped into that cherry picker in the beginning. Baldwin wasn’t. This proves my theory that Alec Baldwin is more of a man than Steve Martin. The faux disdain between Baldwin and George Clooney was brilliant and should have been re-visited throughout the night.

Just for the record, this was a Slanket, not a Snuggie.

Kanye West and Taylor Swift were not in attendance at Sunday's 82nd Annual Academy Awards - but the ceremony still managed to have an interruption heard round world... albeit by two much lesser known people.

When director-producer Roger Ross Williams took the stage at the Kodak Theatre on Sunday to accept the Best Documentary Short award for "Music By Prudence," he was confronted by an unexpected guest onstage - the film's other producer Elinor Burkett - who claims she was shut out the Oscar events related to the award-winning short.

"What happened was the director and I had ...

Copyright 2010 by NBC Universal, Inc. All rights reserved.

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

I'm sure all of you saw how Kanye West interrupted Taylor Swift at the MTV Video Music Awards, well there was something of a "What the hell?" moment at last night's Oscars after Music By Prudence won Best Documentary (Short Subject) and director-producer Roger Ross Williams hit the aisle running and started his acceptance speech before he was interrupted by a woman out of the left field.

Well, that woman was Elinor Burkett, also a credited producer on the film, but it appears the reason she didn't make it to the stage at the same time as Williams is because the director's mother used her cane to keep her in place giving Williams time to claim first dibs on the mic. After that, who thinks anyone is going to make a spectacle of themselves at the Oscars of all places? Burkett is not to be underestimated.

As to the story behind the ordeal,...

There was only one real shock during last night's 82nd Annual Academy Awards -- more specifically, a shock of orange hair that bum rushed the Kodak Theater stage during Music by Prudence director Roger Ross Williams' acceptance speech for Best Documentary Short. Perhaps more stymying than the onstage assault was the one detail that separates the woman underneath the orange hair, Elinor Burkett, from the other delinquent stage-rusher she is being most compared to today, Kanye West. Unlike West, who crashed Taylor Swift's acceptance speech during this year's VMAs to proclaim that another artist deserved the honor, Burkett was actually attached to the category's winner, Music of Prudence, as a producer. So what's the big deal?...

The HBO Documentary Films presentation Music By Prudence received an Academy Award in the category of Best Documentary (Short Subject) at the 82nd annual Academy Awards, presented at the 2010 ceremony of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on March 7. The short film tells the inspiring story of a band of disabled Zimbabwe teenagers and their lead singer, Prudence Mabhena. The film follows Prudence and her fellow musicians as they find social acceptance in a society where physical disabilities are seen as a curse and the afflicted are often disowned by their families. The film from Director/producer, Roger Ross Williams; producer, Elinor Burkett debuts May 12 on HBO2.

Chicago – It was a triumph worthy of David and Goliath at The 82nd Annual Academy Awards on Sunday, March 7th, 2010. Summit Entertainment’s ‘The Hurt Locker’ became the lowest-grossing picture to take home the Best Picture Oscar, while its director, Kathryn Bigelow, became the first woman in history honored with the Academy Award for Best Director. The film won six awards total, including trophies for Best Original Screenplay, Best Editing, Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing.

Kathryn Bigelow

Photo credit: Craig Sjodin

“The Hurt Locker”’s biggest competitor couldn’t have been more formidable, considering it is now the highest-grossing film of all time. Yet “Avatar” ended up claiming only three awards, while “Crazy Heart,” “Up” and “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ By Sapphire” racked up two apiece. The major wins for “Hurt Locker” were a thrilling finale to a rather lackluster evening, devoid of the vitality and excitement found in recent years.

One of the craziest moments of last night’s Oscar ceremony was when Music By Prudence director Roger Ross Williams was cut off by producer Elinor Burkett in the middle of his emotional acceptance speech for Best Documentary Short—not that hardly anyone in the audience at home knew who these people were at the time of her “Kanye moment.” Burkett, a Salon contributor, gave her side of the story to the webmag:

What happened was the director and I had a bad difference over the direction of the film that resulted in a lawsuit that has settled amicably out of court. But there have been all these events around the Oscars, and I wasn’t invited to any of them. And he’s not speaking to me. So we weren’t even able to discuss ahead of the time who would be the one person allowed to speak if we won.

As the Oscar telecast advanced towards its conclusion (and some major spoils for The Hurt Locker), many people were wondering who would take home the final statuettes.

But still others wanted an answer to a different question: What the heck was the deal with the woman who jumped up on stage with Kanye-like gracelessness and stole the mic away from director Roger Ross Williams, who had just won Best Documentary Short for Music by Prudence?

As it turns out, said woman was one of the movie's credited producers, Elinor Burkett. Salon managed to get ahold of both Williams and Burkett and inquire about the incident, and there is a not-so-pretty history between the two regarding the development of the project.

According to Burkett, she and Williams differed over the direction of the movie, and this difference resulted in a lawsuit that was settled out of court. The movie is about Prudence Mabhena,...

If you're like me, you were refilling your beer during the acceptance speech for Best Documentary Short, but if you were watching, you saw a rather odd moment with a confused black dude and a crazy white woman. I just figured they were rushing through their speech from what I could hear, but what actually happened is far more interesting. The guy was Roger Ross Williams, the director of Music By Prudence (which totally won me a point in the Joblo Oscar pool) and the woman was Elinor Burkett,...

Easily, the most cringe-worthy moment of yesterday’s Oscars telecast came during the Best Documentary Short award, which went to Music By Prudence. From my perspective (I wasn’t paying much attention), it looked like a man had won and some crazy drunk lady had jumped on stage to talk about bands and other things that made no sense. Turns out that lady was Elinor Burkett (producer), who was nominated alongside Roger Ross Williams (director) for Music By Prudence. She explained her actions to Salon Magazine soon after the embarrassing incident.

Read more on The story behind Elinor Burkett and Roger Ross Williams’ Oscar confrontation…...

So yeah, the Oscars. Too long, too boring, what the fuck was with that dance bullshit, etc. etc. Same as it ever was (as Dustin said last night, though, "good for the fucking Dude"). The lowlight was clearly seeing Tyler Perry on stage, particularly because his comment about how that was the only time you'd see him up there wasn't self-deprecating as much as it was laced with "they'll never appreciate and reward my greatness." Fucking smug prick. The highlight could have been, of all things, Best Documentary Short. That was where the crazy white lady apparently Kanye'd shit up, bum-rushing the black director and going on a rambling minute long speech.

Shortly after the awards, Salon tracked down both the director/producer of the award-winning Music By Prudence, Roger Ross Williams, and that crazy lady, producer Elinor Burkett. Turns out, these two fucking hate each other and had been...

If you missed our live-chat for the 82nd Annual Academy Awards this evening, don’t fret, we have the winners and a brief recap of the ceremony for you. In short, The Hurt Locker took home the big categories, beating out Avatar and the predictable choices won for the four acting categories.

Check out the official list of 2010 Oscars Winners and our recap of the main event!

The Hurt Locker took home the most awards

The Winners

Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz, for Inglourious Basterds

Best Animated Feature Film: Up

Best Original Song: The Weary Kind (Theme From Crazy Heart), music and lyrics by Ryan Bingham and T-Bone Burnett, for Crazy Heart

Best Original Screenplay: Mark Boal, for The Hurt Locker

Best Documentary Short: Music By Prudence

Best Makeup: Star Trek

Best Short Film (Animated): Logorama

Best Short Film (Live Action): The New Tenants

Best Adapted Screenplay: Goeffrey Fletcher,...

War movie The Hurt Locker was the toast of Hollywood on Sunday night after leading the Oscars with six honours, including Best Director and Best Picture.

Kathryn Bigelow made Oscars history when she became the first female to land the top director honour, beating ex-husband James Cameron in the process.

Calling the huge win "the moment of a lifetime," Bigelow dedicated the award to "the women and men in the military who risk their lives on a daily basis in Iraq and Afghanistan and around the world."

The gritty film also claimed the night's sound awards, film editing and original screenplay prizes - as it collected six of the nine accolades it was nominated for.

Avatar, the world's biggest grossing movie ever, was a triple winner and Up, Crazy Heart and Precious won double.

All the pre-show favourites won the big acting prizes with Jeff Bridges claiming Best Actor, Sandra Bullock Best Actress, Mo'Nique Best Supporting Actress and Christoph Waltz Best Supporting Actor.

Bigelow led what became a great night for firsts - Bullock became the first star to land a Golden Raspberry dishonour the same year as an Oscar - she picked up the Worst Actress Razzie for All About Steve on Saturday; Bridges won his first Oscar for Crazy Heart after five attempts, and 33 of 39 Academy Award winners took home their first Oscars, with The Hurt Locker trio of Bigelow, writer Mark Boal and sound editor Paul N.J. Ottosson picking up their first and second accolades at the 82nd annual prizegiving.

The full list of winners at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood is:

Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds)

Best Animated Feature Film: Up

Best Original Song: The Weary Kind by Ryan Bingham & T-Bone Burnett (Crazy Heart)

Best Original Screenplay: Mark Boal (The Hurt Locker)

Best Animated Short: Logorama

Best Documentary Short: Music by Prudence

Best Live Action Short: The New Tenants

Best Make-Up: Barney Burman, Mindy Hall & Joel Harlow (Star Trek)

Best Adapted Screenplay: Geoffrey Fletcher (Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire)

Best Supporting Actress: Mo'Nique (Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire)

Best Art Direction: Rick Carter, Robert Stromberg & Kim Sinclair (Avatar)

Best Costume Design: Sandy Powell (The Young Victoria)

Best Sound Editing: Paul N.J. Ottosson (The Hurt Locker)

Best Sound Mixing: Paul N.J. Ottosson & Ray Beckett (The Hurt Locker)

Best Cinematography: Mauro Fiore (Avatar)

Best Original Score: Michael Giacchino (Up)

Best Visual Effects: Andrew R. Jones, Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum & Richard Baneham (Avatar)

Best Documentary Feature: The Cove

Best Film Editing: Bob Murawski & Chris Innis (The Hurt Locker)

Best Foreign Language Film: El secreto de sus ojos (Argentina)

Best Actor: Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart)

Best Actress: Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side)

Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker)

Best Picture: The Hurt Locker...

Here it is at last! The 2010 Academy Awards! Who’s bringing home the Oscars? James Cameron or Kathryn Bigelow, or will Tarantino stage an upset? Will The Dude Lebowski have a best actor win under his belt? The stars are crossing the Red Carpet right now and in a few hours Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin will be hosting 82nd Academy Awards.

Prior the main event, you can check out the AP staff picks for all of the winners and check back often as I’ll be updating all the wins with my own commentary as the evening progresses. Feel free to drop your own guesses and thoughts on the evening as it progresses.

Me, I’m pulling for District 9 for best screenplay!

See you at the Oscars!

Updated! The entire list of winners with my thoughts and earlier predictions below:

— Motion Picture: “The Hurt Locker.”

— Actor: Jeff Bridges,...