The Nominations Are In!

This morning was one of the biggest moments of the year for Hollywood. At 5:30 a.m., the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the nominees for the 85th Annual Academy Awards. The Academy Awards — also known as the Oscars — are the most prestigious honor handed out to movies in America.

Oscars are awarded in 24 categories, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Actress. These awards usually go to grown-up movies, but there's a category for movies kids have probably seen, too. This is the Best Animated Feature award. This year, the five nominees are Brave, Frankenweenie, ParaNorman, The Pirates! Band of Misfits, and Wreck-It Ralph.

As it turns out, Kid Reporters have written about all five of these movies! Revisit their stories on the Scholastic News Kids Press Corps website, then let us know what movie you think should win the Best Animated Feature Oscar!

The Oscars will be awarded on February 24. 

Photos: (from left to right) A still from Brave (Disney/Pixar. All Rights Reserved.); a still from The Pirates! Band of Misfits (Aardman Animations for Sony Pictures Animation); a still from ParaNorman (LAIKA, Inc.); a still from Wreck-It Ralph (Disney. All Rights Reserved.); a still from Frankenweenie (Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

—Editor Dante A. Ciampaglia 

Braving my first press junket

After seeing the movie Brave last weekend, I went to a press conference in Hollywood on Monday afternoon to interview some people who had a role in making the movie. I checked in with the Disney publicity team, then went to the room where the interviews were going to take place.

At exactly 1 p.m., the publicist started announcing the actors and actress, Craig Ferguson, who played Lord Macintosh, Kevin McKidd, who played Lord MacGuffin, and Kelly MacDonald, playing the voice of Merida. The stars sat on a stage in front of the audience.

The questions then began. Reporters would raise their hands, and the publicist would signal for his two assistants to give the microphone to whoever he chooses. I raised my hands many times, hoping that I would be chosen to ask a question. However, when the publicist announced that the last question would go to another reporter, all my hopes vanished. I was a little discouraged since I wasn’t able to ask any questions. The 30-minute period with the stars was not enough for all questions to get answered.

The director and producer of Brave, Mark Andrews and Katherine Sarafia, were the next people introduced. Once again, I eagerly raised my hand. This time, the publicist signaled for his assistant to hand me the microphone. I waited for my turn to ask a question, and when I did I felt proud to talk in the microphone.

“How was directing or producing Brave different from the other Pixar works that you have done?” I asked.

Mark Andrews answered, “Each film has its own challenges. I was the head of the story of The Incredibles and Ratatouille, and those were very different in aspects of their story. I think that’s one thing for me as a storyteller that gets me is that I’m going to encounter something I haven’t encountered before with whatever story I’m going to be working on. Brave was chock-full of story challenges.”

Katherine Sarafian added: “Definitely one difference was that we were going into an ancient time period. Pixar has never done that before, we never went way back in time, and stuff looked different then: teeth were crooked in this region, something growing on every thing, the castles are worn and run down.”

I was very happy that the filmmakers answered my question, even though I didn’t have the opportunity to ask any of the stars a question. Maybe the next press conference will be different.

—Kid Reporter Aminah Tamimi

Photo: Director Mark Andrews talks to reporters at the press junket for Brave. (Photo courtesy Aminah Tamimi)