If this is your first time here, welcome. For repeat offenders, you’ll notice that the site has gotten a complete overhaul. This has been a long time coming and it has not been easy deciding a new look and feel for the candler blog. So while you’re here, take a look around and tell us what you think of our new digs. There are certainly going to be a few kinks to be ironed out now that we’ve gone live with this. We’ll get to everything, but don’t be shy, let us know when you find something that looks out of place. If you want to know the thinking behind this overhaul, and get a little history about the site too, click through for the full story. Read on…

I’m sorry, but I am going to have to hike up my crotchity old man pants and whip my suspenders; it’s time to do a little ranting about the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS).

Recently, outgoing President Sid Ganis announced that next years Oscar ceremony will feature 10 Best Picture nominations instead of 5. This unprecedented (at least in 60 years) announcement was followed by a few lesser publicized changes. The rules for Best Original Song are now such that there may not even be an award every year and supplemental awards, such as the Thalberg or the Honorary Oscar, will be distributed at a separate event. It is great to see AMPAS blow the dust off of the arcane rule book they have been following for nearly a century, but other changes are needed. Like what, you may ask? Good thing you came to the candler blog.

Axe the Best Animated Feature Category, and Fast

Part of the thinking behind expanding the Best Pic pool is to give films that rarely make it into the running a fighting chance. Comedies, summer blockbusters and animated features are rarely nominated, but only one of those genres has been pushed out of the running completely. Instituted in 2001, with the first award going to Shrek, the Best Animated Feature award was meant to get gold into the hands of animated filmmakers whose work accounts for an incredible amount of box office grosses yet is rarely honored at the annual ceremony. Instead, it has pigeonholed all animated films into one giant lump that is out of the running of the Academy’s top honor.

Over the last decade, Hollywood and audiences have taken note of animation auteurs. So many people are required to make an animated film, the makers often get lost in the shuffle. However, Brad Bird has now become a marketable name, as have Andrew Stanton and John Lasseter. (These are all Pixar guys, I know, but hey, they’re the major studio) As films become more closely linked to specific names, they start to feel more like works of art rather than DVDs to keep the kids happy in the back seat. With a bigger Best Pic pool, there is no longer a need to push animators into a corner with this useless, offensive award. Read on…

While I gear up to give you up to the minute coverage from Oklahoma City, I figured I would let you in on a little known feature of the candler blog. When you are out and about, you may find yourself in need of a little pop culture deconstruction with nary a laptop in sight. No fear, just pull out the ol’ cell phone and point to http://m.candlerblog.com and our full canon will come up. There is also a “secret” link at the bottom left hand corner of the site.

The demo still here is from an iPhone, but this should work on pretty much anything with a browser. Let us know in the comments if there are any problems. What’s that? You’d rather just check us in a feed reader? We’ve got you covered yet again. We’ve got RSS 2.0 and Atom feeds at your disposal. If that’s not enough, just ask and we’ll find a way to get you what you need.