The 84th Academy Awards ceremony

The 84th Academy Awards ceremony will honor the best films of 2011 and will take place on February 26, 2012, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, California. It will be televised in the United States on ABC. The host was originally going to be Eddie Murphy. However, after Brett Ratner resigned as producer after using a gay slur when talking about rehearsals, Murphy also stepped down.

Billy Crystal will be taking over as host. This will be Crystal's ninth time hosting the awards ceremony.

On June 14, 2011, Academy President Tom Sherak announced that the Board of Governors approved changes to the following categories:

Best Picture: The final nominees can now range from anywhere between 5 and 10. The nomination voting process will be the same as before, through preferential balloting, but now only films that receive a minimum of 5% of total number one votes are eligible for Best Picture nominations. "A Best Picture nomination should be an indication of extraordinary merit. If there are only eight pictures that truly earn that honor in a given year, we shouldn’t feel an obligation to round out the number," Academy executive director Bruce Davis explained.

Best Animated Feature: This is now a permanent competitive category, and no longer requires the Board to annually "activate" it. Additionally, rules were amended to give the category more flexibility in terms of the number of nominees it can allow.

Best Documentary Feature: The category's eligibility period has been modified. Prior to 2011, documentaries that screened theatrically between September 1 and August 31 of the following year were eligible. This has now been changed to match the calendar year from January 1 to December 31. As a transition period, the 84th Academy Awards will accept documentaries that were released between September 1, 2010 to December 31, 2011.

Best Visual Effects: Previously, seven shortlisted visual effects contenders were announced several weeks before the official nominations announcement. This number has now been changed to 10 to coincide with last year's expansion of the category from 3 to 5 nominees.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/84th_Academy_Awards#Honorary_Academy_Awards

2012 Oscar Predictions

for the 84th Academy Award nominations

Best Picture*

 Locks:

1. The Artist

Looking Very Good:

2. The Descendants

3. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

4. War Horse

5. Hugo

READ MORE: http://www.indiewire.com/article/2012_oscar_predictions