Kathryn Bigelow has become the first woman to win the Best Director Oscar - beating her ex-husband James Cameron - as her low budget film The Hurt Locker beat his - the most expensive film of all time, Avatar - to the Best Picture honour.The Hurt Locker - about an

BEST FEATURE: PRECIOUS (Sin Nombre, The Last Station, 500 Days of Summer, Amreeka)BEST DIRECTOR: LEE DANIELS - PRECIOUS (James Gray - Two Lovers, Michael Hoffman - The Last Station, Coen Brothers - A Serious Man, Cary Joji Fukunaga - Sin Nombre)BEST FIRST FEATURE: CRAZY HEART (The Messenger, Easier with Practice,

One of the four producers of The Hurt Locker, nominated for the Best Pictures Oscar at this weekend's ceremony, has been banned from attending the Kodak Theatre for the event, in a row over the promotion of his film.Nicholas Chartier violated the rules of the Academy by emailing voters to

Shorts International and Magnolia Pictures will present “The Oscar Nominated Short Films 2010” (Live-Action and Animation) in theatres in the US, Canada and the United Kingdom.The Oscar® Shorts program will open in theaters from February 19th, expanding to 100 cities in the following weeks, giving people around the world an

This morning, Matt Dillon and Taraji P. Henson announced the Spirit Award nominations at the Sofitel L.A. Hotel. The winners will be announced March 5, two days after the Oscars. This year, the ceremonies will be held in downtown L.A. instead of the traditional site at Santa Monica beach.“Precious,” the

A brand new filmmaking scheme, iFeatures, is open for filmmakers across the UK. It aims to help the brightest Britain’s filmmaking talent make the leap to feature films.iFeatures is a microbudget digital filmmaking scheme which has been developed by South West Screen with the support of BBC Films and Bristol

A new initiative funded by the European Union’s MEDIA international and the Nigerian Film Corporation, European filmmakers will have the opportunity to work together with African colleagues on script and story development, production technique, and access to the international marketplace via BABLYON’s network of industry consultants, funders, international sales agents

Andrea Arnold’s “Fish Tank” received 8 nominations for the British Independent Film Awards, including best screenplay, director and actress.It was followed by Duncan Jones’ “Moon” with 7 nomination; Lone Scherfig’s “An Education,” Armando Lannucci’s “In the Loop” and Sam Taylor Wood’s “Nowhere Boy,” with 6 nomination each and Jane Campion’s

UK Film Council reports that the Independent UK film production has remained steady for the first nine months of 2009, with 62 UK films made, up from 61 in the same period in 2008. The number of inward investment films increased from 22 to 28 in the same period.Total spend

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts has selected Havana Marking’s documentary “Afghan Star” to represent the UK in the Oscar’s Foreign-language film race.The documentary follows competitors, males and females, entering the Afghan version of “Pop Idol” that is aired on Afghanistan TV.The selection of this Afghan-UK production was