Academy Awards come to Hollywood (preview)

Ashley Wells, Seven, CC Liu, Amber Larson, Dev, Wisdom Quarterly; AirTalk's Mantle, Loewenstein, and guest film critics prerecorded at the Egyptian Theatre (KPCC FM, SCPR.org)

Golden Oscar overlooking Hollywood lights, L.A., viewed from Griffith Observatory (below); golden Buddha towering over Nan, Thailand (above) in a haze (abilityriddle/flickr.com).

Oscar statue seen high atop space observatory in view of the stars, Hollywood, CA before 83rd Annual Academy Awards to be held Sunday, March 2, 2014 in rain-soaked LA (KAT/WQ).

   
Oscar ballots at the ready! Academy Awards preview

Oscar statue (Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images)

KPCC film critics give the how and why on marking viewing-party ballots for awards-worthy films. For the 11th annual “FilmWeek on AirTalk” Academy Awards preview, Host Larry Mantle is joined by Wade Major of boxoffice.com, Tim Cogshell of Box Office Magazine, Alynda Wheat of People Magazine, Peter Rainer of the Christian Science Monitor, Henry Sheehan of dearhenrysheehan.com, Charles Solomon of amazon.com, regular KPCC Film Critic Lael Loewenstein, and Justin Chang of Variety.

• AUDIO: LISTEN NOW

COMMENTARY

Give me an award for my art!

The most important category this year is "Best Documentary," and we have our fingers crossed for Jeremy Scahill and Richard Rowley's "Dirty Wars: The World is a Battlefield" (Democracy Now!). But it is a tough category this year with other great choices such as The Act of Killing (about Indonesia, its military regime, and the million Indonesians they killed to stay in power and enrich themselves), The Square (about Egypt's Arab Spring centered in Tahrir Square), and 20 Feet from Stardom (about the best part of most pop music, the amazing and unsung back-up singers). 

Hollywood Oscar, Griffith Park (ocio.go)

And then there's "Magnetism" in space between Sandy Bollocks and Ceorgie Glooney, which will probably sweep the whole show along with Jared Leto's "San Antonio Sellers Club" ably supported by Matt Mc Something or other. And we have our fingers crossed that this is finally Johnny Depp's year for his fantastic work as the pirate in "Saving Capt. Phillips." *Wink* See all of the nominees in all of the categories so as to memorize all of the fine minutiae for your Sunday viewing party: oscar.go.com/nominees

• LIVE: Full Oscar coverage, breaking news (Huff Post)
• "12 Years a Slave" sweeps Spirit Awards! (LN/LA Times)

OSCARS 2014: Complete LIST of nominees and WINNERS

"White Rabbit" Arabic version by Mayssa Karaa for "American Hustle"

Los Angeles skyline in window as viewed from Tinsel Town/Hollywood

World Cup: Iceland, Ireland's 33rd county

Pat Macpherson, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly; Producer Clark Boyd (TheWorld.org)

Icelandic bhumi-devi and pop idol Bjork's call for Tibetan freedom at a Shanghai concert unnerves Chinese communist officials (Hannah Johnston/Getty Images/Epoch Times).

  

Kill 'em all in the name of my lord!

It’s nail-biting time for many soccer fans out there -- the World Cup playoffs. Over the next week, national teams will do crippling, brain-trauma inducing, war-like battle to try and snag one of the few remaining tickets to next year's World Cup in Brazil.
 

The smallest nation with a dog still in this fight is Iceland, who plays Croatia on Friday. Now, Iceland has a very small population, and thus a small pool of professional players to choose from. And yet, they have a chance, however slim, of making it to Brazil. That's more than IRELAND can boast.

 

Yay, we have Saint Patrick's blessing! We have Saint Patrick's blessing! (theworld.org)

  

Not my Iceland, Patty, no way! (DMSI)

The Irish national [soccer] team has already been eliminated, and most Irish fans are already looking well beyond Rio. But not Eoin Conlon.

 

Over a drink of yeast-contaminated carbs with a Brazilian co-worker in Dublin recently, Conlon started wondering out loud about throwing his support behind ICELAND.

 

“And we kind of laughed, saying: ‘Well, that’s as close as Ireland's going to get to Brazil. It's only a letter difference. A “c” for an “r.” We might as well be brothers,’” says Conlon. Conlon and his friend work for a digital agency, so they did what comes naturally. They built a website in support of Iceland's soccer team.

 

Then, they started a Twitter feed urging Irish soccer fans to back Iceland. The campaign is called County Iceland. Ireland already has 32 counties. So, Conlon says, why not make Iceland the 33rd?

 

“There are only about 320,000 people in Iceland. So if they were a county in Ireland -- I'm calling them the 33rd county -- it would [be] only the fifth-largest county in Ireland. It's incredible the success they've had. And I hope it continues,” he says.

 

Conlon says the website is just a bit of fun. All a visitor has to do is click a "support" button. LISTEN