Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro in "Silver Linings Playbook"

Credit: The Weinstein Company

To say that comedies find difficulty being nominated for Best Film Editing would be quite the understatement. So the nomination of Jay Cassidy and Crispin Struthers for David O. Russell’s “Silver Linings Playbook” is a testament to the esteem in which their colleagues hold them and their film.

The editing of "Silver Linings Playbook" is not as showy as some of the work from the duo's fellow nominees, such as “Argo" or "Zero Dark Thirty,” but they never felt the need to be excessively flashy with their craft. “The first obligation is to tell the story,” Cassidy says. “We have to just to go with the material and tell the story as [director] David [O. Russell] has conceived it.”

But there were still challenges. In particular, Cassidy notes the difficulty in balancing the comic and serious tones of the film. Even so, they knew what they were getting into. “The bipolar shifting back and forth was in the script," he says. "That part of the road map was very clearly articulated by David before we got involved.”

"Paperman"

Credit: Walt Disney Pictures

In what could be a rather smart campaign move in a tight race for Best Animated Short, Disney have decided to make their charming black-and-white romance "Paperman" -- previously shown in theaters ahead of "Wreck-It Ralph" -- available for all to view online for three weeks, starting today. Film critic Tim Robey, however, doesn't believe the film even needs such an advantage, claiming "the race looks pretty much over" -- on merit alone. "Paperman is the best thing Disney have done in years," he writes. "There are only seven minutes of it, but they’re perfect ... It may, in its modest way, point towards a new frontier in animation, where computer-generated visuals are brought face to face with old-style hand-drawing, because it uses both at once." I'm not entirely sure I agree, and I suspect underdog power will prevail in the Oscar race, but it's a popular point of view. [The Telegraph]  

Earlier this week, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced a major gift of 1,088 of posters from the golden age of Hollywood.  These pieces of art were donated by Dwight Cleveland, a Chicago real estate developer.  According to the Academy, Cleveland has amassed one of the largest and most historically significant collections of movie posters in the world.  His gift includes posters of westerns, war films, musicals, biblical tales, and social problem films.

Bradley Cooper in "Silver Linings Playbook."

Credit: The Weinstein Company

An accidental blessing it may be -- and one that has only come into effect since the Academy moved its calendar forward a few years ago -- but situating the Sundance Film Festival in the middle of Oscar season is a blessing nonetheless. A week of conversation about freshly unveiled, critically malleable films is a necessary tonic at a stage when the same small selection of Academy-approved contenders has been discussed, debated and designated for anything from two months to an entire year.

"Redemption"

Credit: HBO

(The Oscar Guide will be your chaperone through the Academy's 24 categories awarding excellence in film. New installments will hit every weekday in the run-up to the Oscars on February 26, with the Best Picture finale on Friday, February 22.)

This year's Oscar nominees in the Best Documentary, Short Subject category are, as ever, a varied an eye-opening bunch. But emotion reigns throughout, always a key to capturing voters' hearts and securing support.

The doc shorts were not, however, part of the three categories newly opened to the entire membership. It will go at least one more year of providing select screenings of the contenders and therefore all voters will have to prove that they attended the screening in order to vote. Recent winners in the category have included "Saving Face," "Strangers No More," "Music by Prudence" and "Smile Pinki," and there's really no connective tissue there. Sometimes you have to just go with your gut on what might win the day.

The nominees are...

Steven Spielberg

Credit: AP Photo/Chris Pizzello

As strongly as "Lincoln" has been performing throughout the season, Steven Spielberg has yet to receive much in the way of individual recognition for the film. That could change on Oscar night, of course. Until then, however, the American Cinema Editors have taken it upon themselves to reward the director, naming him the recipient of their annual Golden Eddie Award for Filmmaker of the Year.

Harvey Weinstein

Credit: AP Photo/John Carucci

Harvey Weinstein has had enough success in the Oscar campaigning game -- including twin Best Picture bids this year for "Silver Linings Playbook" and "Django Unchained" -- that it can't pain him too much to admit to the odd miscalculation. Still, it's interesting to see him do so in an interview with Deadline's Mike Fleming. Weinstein blames Quentin Tarantino's absence from the Best Director category (hardly an easy race to crack this year, as Ben Affleck can tell you) on his own tardiness in sending out DVD screeners. He also claims he mismarketed Paul Thomas Anderson's "The Master": "I think the audience had trouble with the movie and needed to be guided and eased into it ... My attachment to 'The Master' was not the Scientology or religion; it was that in WWII, people like my dad and other combat veterans came back and were just lost after the war. Maybe if I’d explained the movie in those terms, that it was more of a spiritual quest for a veteran who had seen action and got lost, people might have responded differently." [Deadline]

Will "Argo" win best picture without a directing nomination like "Driving Miss Daisy" or will it sweep the guild honors and falter without a directing nod like "Apollo 13"?

It's strange times in Oscarland. "Argo's" wins at the PGA Awards and SAG Awards have jolted a best picture race that seemed squarely in "Lincoln's" corner.  Now, are all bets off or is it just a mirage we've seen play games with Academy Awards pundits before?

Bradley Cooper, Jacki Weaver and Robert De Niro in "Silver Linings Playbook."

Credit: The Weinstein Company

For the second year, the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts -- which hands out their own local industry awards on their home turf -- held a separate ceremony in LA to honor their top international choices. And it turns out the Aussies like "Silver Linings Playbook." A lot.

The romantic dramedy, which led the AACTA nominee list with five mentions, won Best Picture, Director and Actress for Jennifer Lawrence, while the Board of Governors handed it two extra awards for the supporting performances of Robert De Niro and Jacki Weaver. (You might detect some national favoritism in the award for Weaver, as well as in a couple of nominations -- notably Ben Lewin for Best Director.) "Lincoln" and "Django Unchained" were the only two other films to get a look-in at last Friday's ceremony, which was hosted by Russell Crowe. Full list of nominees and winners after the jump, and at The Circuit.

John Krokidas and Daniel Radcliffe at the world premiere of "Kill Your Darlings" at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.

Credit: AP Photo/Danny Moloshok

PARK CITY - To say the filmmaker sitting in front of me is having a good week is something of an understatement.  John Krokidas and I may share 24 mutual Facebook friends, but I don't know him well enough to gauge if his current euphoric demeanor is his normal disposition or the result of too many energy drinks combined with the thin air of Park City, Utah.  I'll take a wild guess that only an upbeat and energetic person could have spent nine long years endeavoring to shoot his first feature.  I'll also assume having said film, "Kill Your Darlings," debut at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival to strong reviews might be a huge relief. Moreover, having distributor Sony Classics acquire "Darlings" a few days after can't hurt either.  Yes, it's been a great festival for Krokidas.