With the Oscar nominations out terrorizing the community, we turn to IMDB Managing Editor Keith Simanton to discuss why the Academy Awards still matter, how the voting environment works, and why Harvey Weinstein always seems to control the conversation. Plus, Landon Palmer explores the death of the movie star and the rise of franchises. Could it help the revival in independent filmmaking? As if that weren’t enough, Cinema Blend‘s Editor-in-Chief Katey Rich squares off with Hollywood.com Movies Editor Matt Patches in a Movie News Pop Quiz that will change everything. Download This Episode

Germany! The home of beer and brats! The stomping grounds of Beethoven and Bach! The only economically viable country in the Eurozone! As some of you may know, our beloved Managing Editor Cole Abaius (me) will be moving there over the next two months, which means that we’ll be opening up the European Bureau Office of our Eastern Hemisphere Headquarters in 2012. It will, hopefully, have its own built-in sauna. But won’t this move be debilitating for movie coverage focused on the American film scene? Just the opposite!

Every week, Landon Palmer and Cole Abaius log on to their favorite chat client of 1996 as Expressionalism23 and 5DollarMilkshake in order to discuss some topical topic of interest. This week, we avoid paradigm-shifting seriousness in favor of discussing what we love about film festivals. The energy, the electricity, the discovery, all of it comes together to create a communal experience that film demands but rarely sees anymore out of the festival circuit. We both missed SXSW, but that doesn’t mean we’re not there in spirit.

Will the young festival’s move to a ski resort in the dead of winter be counter to its celebration of small, independent film?

This week, on a very special episode of Reject Radio, we get experimental and allow you to listen to Neil Miller sleep for two hours. Andy Warhol would have been proud. Also…SXSW coverage.

With movie websites getting clogged with stories and reviews about movies that will never reach the public, are film festivals more ado about nothing than we’d like to admit?

Earlier this evening I was reading an excellent piece over at Cinematical by Jenni Miller. In a meditation about the state of affairs of director Roman Polanski, she asks a few interesting questions. Can we separate the artist from their personal life? It’s an interesting discussion to be had — and the situation surrounding Polanski is the perfect catalyst for such a discussion. It seems as though the jury in Berlin had that discussion, and we now have their answer.

With its vast and ever-evolving film library the cable channel Turner Classic Movies is a cinephile’s dream and serves as a benchmark to other movie channels. Since its debut in 1994, TCM has offered a wide array of movies covering the medium’s history, from silent pictures to foreign films, all uncut and commercial free. This spring the brand will be venturing out with the inaugural TCM Classic Film Festival, scheduled for April 22-25 in Hollywood, CA.

Grab your Sony Handicam and a few friends that claim they can act. It’s time to submit your entry into AFF.

We’ve been training all our lives for this, and it’s finally here. Fantastic Fest 2009 promises to remove our eyeballs, pour blood, sex and ninja moves all over them and then shove them right back in our face. These are the 20 films that have us most excited about that upcoming amateur surgical procedure.

Notorious for its surprise screenings and its launching platforms for legit Oscar contenders, this little town in Colorado is about to get some serious attention…

I braved the wilds of Austin’s Alamo Drafthouse in order to get pummeled Inglorious Basterds and 5 other fantastic, fireball-laden, violently satisfying films that left my blood-lust quenched and me questioning whether or not I’d lost my sanity before or after the marathon began.

Everyone’s in San Diego. Except those with ADD. They’re in LA, at the LA Shorts Film Festival.

Familiar names like Almodovar, Tarantino, Lee, Von Trier, Noe, Campion, Loach, and Haneke will all be vying for the Palme d’Or.

The folks at CineVegas have officially announced their 2009 film lineup for their 11th annual engagement, set to run from June 10-15, 2009. Among the selections are some awesome Sundance and SXSW graduates…

As you’ve probably already figured by now, I am whisking my way off to the snowy, majestic mountain town of Park City, Utah for the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. And just like last year, I will be bringing you updates from the ground all week long, including reviews, news and spotlights on the festival’s hottest tickets and events.

The folks at South by Southwest (SXSW), the American film festival second only to Sundance in my mind, have announced that John Hamburg’s I Love You, Man starring Paul Rudd and Jason Segel will open next year’s festival.

A tribute to the abundance of compelling new voices and the creative spirit in independent filmmaking, the Spectrum program presents out-of-competition dramatic and documentary films from some of the most promising filmmakers in the world today.

Park City at Midnight offers eight films that are likely to amuse, surprise, or shock the bleary-eyed viewer and offer a lively last stop in the nightly film-going circuit.

To showcase the diversity of contemporary independent cinema, the Sundance Film Festival Premieres section offers the latest work from American and international directors and world premieres of highly anticipated films.