Bret McKenzie News

The first TV spot has aired for Peter Jackson's highly anticipated film THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY. The film opens December 14th. Check out the ad below!

TheOneRing.net reports that New Zealand musician Neil Finn will provide the ending credits song for the highly anticipated film THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY. Finn is best known as the lead singer and guitar player for the band Crowded House.

Sundance Institute today announced the six projects selected for the New Frontier Story Lab that will take place from October 21-26 at the Sundance Resort in Utah. Inspired by New Frontier at the Sundance Film Festival and built on the Sundance Institute Lab model, the Lab is supporting projects that use technology to deepen story and engage audiences.

Billy Crystal was nine for nine with his stupendous hosting - particularly thanks to his superlative musical material courtesy of Tony-winning tunesmith Marc Shaiman - yet, the 2012 Oscars were all about the awards, for once, with a heavy helping of superstars and surprises. A glamorous and generally genial broadcast, more than many in recent years this years, last night's top entertainment honors came across as a class act on the elegantly produced and impressively rendered broadcast, from beginning to end - unscripted screenwriters' Angelina impressions aside. Crytal's hilarious opening montage allowed the Oscar host extraordinaire the opportunity to enact his oh-so-idiosyncratic take on the year's top nominated films - including a kiss with George Clooney ala THE DESCENDANTS and a Justin Bieber/Sammy Davis, Jr. skit inspired by Woody Allen's MIDNIGHT IN PARIS, both of which went on to win the Best Screenplay categories - and remind us why he is tops. The portrait of the winner of Best Picture may have been painted long before last night for THE ARTIST, yet the 2012 Academy Awards show was packed with a plethora of surprises in technical and even some major categories, with Martin Scorsese's HUGO also scoring big and Meryl Streep winning her third statuette, this time for her Best Actress turn in THE IRON LADY, uncanny in her portrayal of British prime minister Margaret Thatcher. Additionally, THE ARTIST's Jean Judarjin took home Best Actor - over Hollywood titan George Clooney, no less - for his superb performance as a Gene Kelly-esque silent film star (save a few words at the very meta finale). The supporting categories showed some love to expected winners Octavia Spencer - for the audience hit, THE HELP - as well as veteran actor Christopher Plummer - for the indie release, BEGINNERS. Cirque Du Soleil afforded us some spectacle in the form of a 3D aerial classic film homage as only they could create and present, but Crystal's inimitable opening sequence - film sequence and crisply amusing song acting as the ideal entree into the awards season's show of shows - were the night's undeniable highlights. So, too, on the performance front did the In Memoriam sequence shine thanks to a soulful rendering of "What A Wonderful World" by Esperanza Spalding. Many of the major categories may have went the way we have all predicted, yet important categories also went to a surprisingly large smattering of the year's other fine filmatic achievements, as well, making it an entertaining and overall quite pleasing broadcast when considering the conservative slate of films nominated this season.

The 84th Annual Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2011, hosted by Billy Crystal were presented on February 26, 2012 at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center, and televised live on the ABC Television Network. The Oscar presentation was televised live in more than 200 countries worldwide. Check out photos below of the winners in the press room!

En esta noche de cine, la edición número 84 de los Premios de la Academia, 'The Artist' y 'Hugo' se han alzado con cinco Oscars cada uno, en una gala presentada por Billy Crystal en la que se ha vuelto a un estilo más clásico de ceremonia lleno de fantasía y entretenimiento que en anteriores ediciones.

The 84th Annual Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2011, hosted by Billy Crystal were presented on February 26, 2012 at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center, and televised live on the ABC Television Network. The Oscar presentation was televised live in more than 200 countries worldwide.

THE 84th ANNUAL ACADEMY AWARDS will be broadcast live on February 26th on the ABC network. Nominations were announced this morning

The Broadcast Film Critics Association (BFCA) has announced the nominees for the 17th annual Critics' Choice Movie Awards.

The Broadcast Film Critics Association has announced its nominees for the 17th annual Critics' Choice Movie Awards. 'The Artist' and 'Hugo' tie for first place with 11 nominations each, while 'Drive' and 'The Help' each garnered 8 nominations.

The International Animated Film Society, ASIFA-Hollywood proudly announces the nominations and award recipients for the 38th Annual Annie Awards. Click here to see the complete list of nominees and award winners. Award recipients will claim their trophies at the 38th Annual Annie Awards scheduled for Saturday, February 5, 2011 at UCLA's Royce Hall in Los Angeles, California.

Glee's Lea Michele, Cory Monteith and Amber Riley will all be guesting on The Simpsons- in animated form!

Lea Michele, Cory Monteith, Amber Riley, Hugh Laurie, Halle Berry, Ricky Gervais, Daniel Radcliffe, Jon Hamm and Martha Stewart are among the guest voices in the upcoming 22nd season of THE SIMPSONS premiering Sunday, Sept. 26 (8:00-8:30 PM ET/PT) on FOX.

The last New Zealand Fringe Festival ended with a question mark over its head about whether it would continue. It did, it rocked, and it will continue. Now Fringe 2010 has ended with a glorious bag with the naming of the best of all there is in 2010 and a new inductee for the Fringe Hall of Fame.

The Grammy Award-winning Flight of the Conchords, featuring New Zealand comedy folk duo Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie, are set to perform at the Fox Theatre at 8 p.m. Friday, April 24. Flight of the Conchords' comedy and acoustic folk music became the basis of a BBC radio series and then an American television series on HBO in 2007, also called Flight of the Concords.

Since it?s inception in 1993, The NZ Fringe Festival has hosted 16 seasons and given countless artists the opportunity to take their art to a wider audience. This has propelled many into professional careers and some to amazing heights.

The New Zealand Fringe Festival capped off the one of the biggest festivals in its 19-year history by naming Flight of the Conchords' Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement as the inaugural members of the New Zealand Fringe Festival Hall of Fame.

The Grammy Award-winning Flight of the Conchords, featuring New Zealand comedy folk duo Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie, are set to perform at the Fox Theatre at 8 p.m. Friday, April 24. Flight of the Conchords' comedy and acoustic folk music became the basis of a BBC radio series and then an American television series on HBO in 2007, also called Flight of the Concords.

So far at this evening's Emmy Awards, theater stars Jeremy Piven, Dianne Wiest, Laura Linney, Dame Eileen Atkins and Zeljko Ivanek are among the winners.

This morning, July 17th 2008 the nominations for the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards were announced by Kristin Chenoweth and Neil Patrick Harris. The awards ceremony will be held on Saturday, September 13th at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles.