Oscar magic brewing in gritty Chicago factory

CHICAGO: Oscar magic is brewing in a gritty Chicago factory where the statues soon to be hoisted in victory by the stars of the silver screen are born in a bubbling vat of britannia.

The pewter-like alloy is poured slowly into a mold and cools quickly. But it takes 40 hours of precise and delicate work before Oscar is ready for the bright lights of Hollywood.

The heart of the trophy - with its iconic square jaw, broad chest and sword - is swiftly hammered out in preparation for careful polishing.

Once every blemish is erased and Oscar shines like a mirror, the statue is hand-dipped in electrically-charged tubs of molten copper, nickel, silver and 24-carat gold.

Then it's on to more polishing and a blinding lacquer before Oscar is finally screwed into his heavy base and carefully boxed using white gloves.

Hand-casting is a dying art, but one the Academy is willing to pay dearly for as it jealously guards the reputation of one of the most sought-after and recognized trophies in the world.

The perils of seeking cheaper alternatives were on display at the Golden Globes last year when Robert De Niro showed up empty-handed in the press room after receiving a lifetime achievement award. (AFP)

'DAM 999', its three songs in Oscar race

"DAM 999", a movie that has been in the news for being banned in Tamil Nadu, has been shortlisted among the 265 films contending for the Best Picture nomination at the Oscars.

This apart, its three songs are among the 39 shortlisted for nominations in the Original Song category for the 84th Academy Awards.

The three songs from the film that are vying to be in the final nomination list include "Dakkanaga Dugu Dugu", "DAM999 Theme Song" and "Mujhe Chhod Ke".

The film's director, Sohan Roy, a marine engineer by profession, is upbeat about the news.

"This is a crowning achievement for 'DAM 999' and my dream project has attained the true recognition it deserves," Roy said in a press statement.

The movie, a USD 10 million production, tells the tale of a cracking dam built during colonial rule and revolves around nine characters and their emotions. The lives of all the nine characters revolve around the central edifice - the pressure-mounted dam.

"DAM 999" was released in the last week of November across the country barring Tamil Nadu, which banned the film, as the dispute between Tamil Nadu and Kerala reached a crescendo over the Mullaperiyar Dam, which is 115 years old and has started to leak.

The movie had a week-long Oscar qualifying screening at Los Angeles from Oct 28.

The final 84th Academy Awards nominations will be announced on January 24, 2012, in the Academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theater.

Oscar-Nominated Short Films 2011: Animated

There are no handy publicity campaigns to introduce you to the five live-action shorts and five animated shorts nominated for Oscars, but I can help. Here's what's in the running — and which are my favorites. Then it's your turn to take a look — in theaters, on demand, or on iTunes — and pick your own. (As for Oscar odds, you're asking the wrong bookie.)

I'd give the Oscar for Best Animated Short to the gorgeous, infinitely inventive Madagascar, Carnet de Voyage by Bastien Dubois — a vivid travel scrapbook that's an artful riot of drawing styles. But I wouldn't mind sharing a little love with the Australian fantasy The Lost Thing, based on a book by Shaun Tan about a boy who finds a...thing. Let's Pollute, a satire of our wasteful society by Geefwee Boedoe, goes for a swingin' faux-retro look to get the irony in the title across. Uncoupled from its place as a Pixar short before Toy Story 3, Teddy Newton's Day & Night is a friendly, bland lesson in appreciating people different as, oh, you know, night and day. As for The Gruffalo, well, it's got some fun movie-star voices in the mix, including Helena Bonham Carter, Robbie Coltrane, John Hurt, and Tom Wilkinson. But it's still a dippy story (from a kids' book by Julia Donaldson) about a brave mouse in the forest. Feel free to disagree. Animated shorts

Oscar-Nominated Short Films 2011: Live Action

There are no handy publicity campaigns to introduce you to the five live-action shorts and five animated shorts nominated for Oscars, but I can help. Here's what's in the running — and which are my favorites. Then it's your turn to take a look — in theaters, on demand, or on iTunes — and pick your own. (As for Oscar odds, you're asking the wrong bookie.)

In a generally unexciting live-action field, Na Wewe, by Belgian filmmaker Ivan Goldschmidt, gets my vote, since it's the only entry with any storytelling ambition or curiosity about real people in the big world. Set in Burundi in 1994, when civil war raged between Hutus and Tutsis, it's an admirably compact story about identity that's both tense and darkly funny. (The title means ''you too” in Kirundi.) Among the other, more navel-gazing entries is God of Love, a self-consciously cool-looking, Brooklyn-y, New Wave-y hipster love story by Student Academy Award winner Luke Matheny, who also stars as a lovelorn nightclub crooner. The Crush, by Michael Creagh, about an Irish schoolboy who's sweet on his pretty lady teacher, insists on its own dramatic arc with little credibility to back it. Tanel Toom's The Confession tells a wee tale of boys, first confession, and the early onset of Catholic guilt. Wish 143, by Ian Barnes, mixes humor, pathos, and a virginal teenage cancer patient who wishes he weren't. A virgin, that is. Live-action shorts