All the glitz and glamour of Tinsel Town’s Academy Awards night once again came to the annual Capital City AIDS Fund benefit gala, Oscar Night Sacramento. Chosen by the Academy of Motion Picture and Arts and Sciences, Oscar Night Sacramento is one of only 49 sanctioned events in the country. Oscar Night America is a "grassroots program that enables local charities to host glamorous Oscar viewing parties and raise money for their organizations," according to an AMPAS press release. To set these parties apart from the thousands of unsanctioned events on Oscar Night, each ONA party receives copies of the official commemorative poster and show program among other items. The downtown Hyatt

A couple of weeks ago I reviewed the five live action and five animated Academy Award nominated narrative shorts playing at the Crest Theatre.  Those two programs are continuing for another week and the original article can be found here. But on Thursday (Feb 23), for the first time in Sacramento, there's a chance to see the nominated documentary shorts.  Well, four of the five films - as one is missing.  This isn't that unusual, in fact it's more remarkable that the distributors of the shorts programs could corral the other 14 films into 3 programs, than it is that they couldn't get the 15th.  It's conjecture on my part, but I'd guess that there was a problem securing distribution right

Oscar Shorts 2012 This week, the Crest Theatre continues its tradition of bringing the Academy Award nominated short films to Sacramento in time for eager Oscar-watchers to fill out their ballots. And watching them in these special screenings puts you on an even footing with Academy members who are required to watch them in the same manner in order to be qualified to vote in these categories. In order to qualify for Oscar contention, short films (under 40 minutes) have to have had a run in theaters or to have won a top award in at least one Academy sanctioned film festival. The nominated films are packaged together by Magnolia Pictures and Shorts International to form theatrical packages

A veteran of the Vietnam War, writer, director and producer, Oliver Stone began his movie career as a screenwriter in the late 1970s with credits that included “Midnight Express,” “Conan the Barbarian” and “Scarface.” He won an Oscar for best director for “Platoon,” his semi-autobiographical film about the ground war in Vietnam. He went on to make a string of successful and controversial films like “Salvador,” “Born on the Fourth of July,” both Wall Street sagas, and “The Doors.” His historical dramas “JFK” and “Nixon” earned Stone a reputation as a historical pragmatic and paranoid conspiracy theorist. Stone is currently producing a movie to be released this summer, “Savages.” The stor

After two long years of tilling, sowing and watering the fields, Documentary Foundation, a local film organization, will finally be able to reap the rewards of its labor, making its debut at the prestigious Silverdocs Film Festival in Washington, D.C., on June 19. Producer of the film and Managing Director for Documentary Foundation Keith Ochwat said he and Creative Director Christopher Rufo grew up in Sacramento.  When they got into film after college, they realized that the city had a lot to offer and they wanted to contribute to that as much as possible, especially with the next generation. As a result, the nonprofit Documentary Foundation was born in 2007.   Based in Midtown, its mis

The Volunteer Center of Sacramento will hold its first-ever Academy Awards Night fundraiser on Sunday, February 27, 2011, from 4:30-8:30pm at the new Tex Mex Bar & Grill at 2326 J Street in midtown Sacramento. Proceeds from the event will benefit Center programs, such as BirthdayMAGIC — a program that coordinates personalized birthday parties for Sacramento area children living in homeless shelters, transitional living facilities, or residential treatment centers.  In addition to watching the Academy Awards on televisions around the restaurant, attendees will be able to test their movie trivia knowledge, guess who will win Hollywood's biggest night, win fabulous prizes in our raffle draw

Hal Holbrook has over 120 film and television credits stretching back to 1954.  In addition to his Tony Award for portraying Mark Twain and four Emmy Awards (with six additional nominations), he became the oldest male actor nominated for an Academy Award for his performance in 2007's "into the Wild." His new film "That Evening Sun," a co-presentation of the Crest Theatre and the Sacramento Film & Music Festival, opens at the Crest on Friday, March 5th.  Holbrook plays an aging farmer who escapes a nursing home only to have to fight to regain his family farm. "That Evening Sun" has won at least 15 film festival honors, including two Special Jury Awards from South by Southwest.  Joe Leydo

Academy Award season is here. On March 7, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will present the winners with an Oscar, one of the world's most famous and coveted statues. Categories include Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay. A lesser known category is for short films, animated and live action. The Crest Theatre, 1013 K St., is showing the Oscar-nominated shorts through Feb. 25. Each program, animated and live action, lasts about one and a half hours. The animated program contains five Oscar-nominated shorts and three bonus shorts. They aren't just pen and pencil animation; claymation and computer animation also are included. "This is great," said attendee Maggie