It's that time of year again where stylists dress actors to within an inch of their true personalities for the red carpet and product endorsement deals. That is to say, it's Academy Awards time! Where will you be watching the Super Bowl of cinema come Sunday? At a bar? At a chatty Oscar party? At home alone wondering why once again you haven't made the move to Hollywood to take a stab at The Industry? Have no fear. SFist is here to tell you where to go on Sunday night. Whether rooting for The Descendants, The Artist, or (the dreadful) Midnight in Paris, here are just a few places in San Francisco where you can cheer on your favorites of 2011. more ›

The Financial District's noted restaurant of glitz and glamour, Quince, just concocted several new cocktails to coincide with Oscar season. (Pst, the Academy Awards fall on Sunday, February 26th.) Most of the drinks sound irresistible like the Chinatown Collins (a gin and lime brew) or the Casablanca Cobbler (with quince-infused cognac, lemon, Meyer lemon tincture and sparkling wine). Yet a couple brews, based off of Two Women and Papillon, are unusual cinema choices for festive cocktails. (The former film is about a mother and daughter's brutal gang-rape by Moroccan soldiers; the latter involves Dustin Hoffman famously shoving something up his butt.) more ›

We're into the final stretch of award show season, folks. The nominees for the 2012 Academy Awards (now hosted again by your grandmother's favorite, Billy Crystal, not Eddie Murphy) are out! more ›

Have a happy and properly sauced Oscar night, folks. (Also, go Black Swan!) more ›

Well, both Mila Kunis and Barbara Hershey were snubbed for their work in Black Swan, and Christopher Nolan was nixed from the Best Director category for Inception at this morning's Academy Award nominations announcement. Other than that, the usual suspects were richly rewarded for their work. The King's Speech, a film about speech therapy and Britishness, received 12 nominations, including thespian honors for Colin Firth, Helena Bonham Carter and Geoffrey Rush. more ›

by Chloé Harris At the 82nd Annual Academy Awards, Madame Streep had the post-orgasmic glow of a woman who has snuggled in a foxhole with Clooney, sizzled with Tucci and romped in the hay with a Baldwin—all during this year of the Meryl. But last night, in what was the 15-time Oscar nominee's most stunning red carpet appearance yet, the Hollywood royal played muse to a San Francisco queen... more ›

The ingenious and famously hardworking folks at Pixar must be celebrating today. The Emeryville studio's animated feature Up received a total of 5 nominations -- almost tying Disney's Beauty and the Beast, who received 6 nominations in 1991 -- including Best Picture. more ›

CORRECTION: Zennie contacted us to clarify that he was, as he explains in the video, invited by AMPAS to apply for a credential, only to be rejected later in what he feels was a discriminatory process. It appears there is some discrepancy between who they invite to apply and the 3,000 members of the press to whom they grant credentials. more ›

As refined "commie, homo-loving sons-of-guns" approached last night's Oscars, here's what they were greeted with before arriving to the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles. The folks from God Hates Fags ilk. Yep, they showed up in full regalia last night, coagulating at the corner of Sunset Blvd. and Highland Ave. They even managed to garner a cocked eyebrow from Sean Penn during his acceptance speech. more ›

Nominated for eight Academy Awards, Gus Van Sant's Harvey Milk biopic Milk took home two awards last night: Best Original Screenplay (Dustin Lance Black) and Best Actor (Sean Penn). This makes win number-two for Bay Area local Penn (first being for Mystic River) who jokingly called the audience "commie, homo-loving sons of guns" as he took to the stage to collect his booty. Heh. Yeah. That was kind of rad. more ›

What with the Academy Awards happening on Sunday -- the biggest night of the year, period -- the good folks over at The Sword have searched the internets to come up with a gallery of (almost) all of the best actor nominees sans shirts. Sean Penn, Brad Pitt, Mickey Rourke, Josh Brolin, Robert Downey Jr., and Heath Ledger are all in there. Michael Shannon, Frank Langella, and Richard Jenkins, however, are notably (mercifully?) absent from the list. more ›

Need to catch all of the Best Picture nominees before Oscar night? We can help. SFist is offering one (yes, just one) ticket to a screening of Milk, The Reader, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Slumdog Millionaire, and Frost/Nixon, all of which will play in one dedicated auditorium back-to-back throughout the day. It's all part of the AMC Best Picture Showcase. The film marathon screens on Saturday, February 21, the day before the Academy Awards telecast. more ›

Gus Van Sant's Milk, the biopic about slain San Francisco supervisor and gay activist Harvey Milk, was nominated for eight Oscars this morning. In addition to a Best Picture nomination, Dustin Lance Black (Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen), Van Sant (Best Directing), Josh Brolin (Best Supporting Actor), Sean Penn (Best Actor), and Danny Elfman (Best Score) all received Oscar love. more ›

With over a dozen or so problems that the above graffiti could have critiqued about this poster advertising the Academy of Friends annual "gala" fundraiser for HIV/AIDS -- such as paying to attend an event to watch the Oscars; or the lack of originality with this year's title, "Shaken Not, Stirred" -- he or she takes the easy route here, pointing out the obvious homosexual nature of the event. Meh. more ›

• Laughing Squid’s Last Minute Unholiday Party: Scott Beale and the gang will be having a most splendid post- and un-holiday party/experiment with social media. Although LS will be "providing some beer and buying pizza, but please feel free to bring some more beer, wine, leftover holiday food, etc." The mood is low-key and geek-filled, and we mean that in the best possible way. Starts at 7 p.m. at Citizen Space.
• Ben-Hur (1959): Not only did this William Wyler-directed epic saga about a Jewish prince sold into slavery (and something or other about bare chests and chariot racing) win a record-breaking 11 Oscars, but finely-aged ham Charlton Heston also picked up the best actor award for it, too. See, miracles really do happen. Screens tonight at 7 p.m. at The Castro Theatre; $6-9
• Barracuda: (Now, wouldntcha?) DJs Damon, Heiko, and Phillie Ocean turn what could be an ordinary '80s night into something extraordinary. Chic, rather than humorous or ironic, '80s attire is highly encouraged. The beats go from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. at 111 Minna Gallery; $5-10.

It was a deadly weekend to be famous, that’s for sure. As one commenter already pointed out today, famous people tend to die in threes: Bill Walsh, Tom Snyder, and of course, ABC 13’s Marvin Zindler from Houston, who -- while still tied-up with breathing tubes, in his hospital bed, and very pissed off at 24-Hour Fitness -- gave and gave until the very end. more ›

, called "John Thomas and Lady Jane." more ›

, Morgan's movie for the BBC about the unusual power-sharing arrangement and strained friendship between Tony Blair and chancellor of the exchequor Gordon Brown to let Blair lead the Labour Party first, and then hand it off to Brown next. more ›

Last week's winner, the Bay Guardian. Tim Redmond says the progressives need something to do (so why not run a mayoral candidate?). Too many skyscrapers. Wi-fi and sunshine laws, Ruby Rippey-Tourk, cars in Golden Gate Park, and SF is totally unprepared for global warming. The gay porn Oscars! Cover articles: Noise Pop! SFist Elaine says to check out Scissors for Lefty. Dude, there's like a review for every band playing! Yay Noise Pop! L.E. Leone goes to lunch with Lisa Jervis, co-founder of Bitch Magazine. Lucky L.E.! We're friends with Lisa and she's totally fun to go out to eat with. And Gavin Newsom's horoscope: Stop drinking so much, "lay off the chemical distractions and take a break from relationships." Michelle Tea and Jessica Lanyadoo, are you specifically writing the Libra horoscope FOR Gavin now? Next week: Libras -- Give Matt Gonzalez a big hug the next time you see him! more ›

The San Francisco Film Critics Circle announced their season ending yesterday, something of which we are constantly told could mean something when it comes to the Oscars. The idea, we guess, being that these awards are like the NCAA brackets: Movie A wins the SF Flim Critics and movie B wins the LA Film Critics award, then they go off to meet the winner of the New York Critics Awards with the winner being the front-runner for Oscar gold. Or something like that. more ›

Look, we love the 90s as much as anyone. We loved the Smashing Pumpkins and the whole grunge thing and we loved Pubic Enemy and watching "BH 9'er" and "Melrose Place" back-to-back and we loved being in our twenties and partying all night in our tiny apartment in North Beach and actually being able to dream of a Democratic President. But as much as we love the idea of those days, we also realize we can't go back to them. Among other things, it's pretty much near impossible as we don't have a space ship we can slingshot around the sun with. And second of all, we're old enough to realize that, as a wise man once said, you can't go home again. Which brings us back to the Warriors who this morning fired Mike Montgomery and re-hired Don Nelson. That Don Nelson. You know, crazy, eccentric, mad-genius basketball coach known for employing smallish lineups with an emphasis on scoring and well-known inability to go anywhere in the playoffs. That Don Nelson. The Don Nelson who helmed the last hey-day of the Warriors, the RUN-TMC Warriors. The one who accidentally started the whole free-fall downfall of the franchise when he got into it with Chris Webber. And yes, the one who coached the Mavs and couldn't take them to the Finals until he retired and handed the team over to Avery Johnson. more ›

Saturday: It's POMO 2006, which means all sorts of Filipino stage performances at YBCA. Our POMO pick is "Bronze Lit: FilipinoAmerican Voices in Literature", at 2 p.m. today, in which writers including Jaime Jacinto, Jason Bayani, Jason Perez, Jean Vengua, Leny Strobel, Marianne Villanueva and Barbara Jane Reyes read from their works. And it's free! more ›

Torontoist throws down the gauntlet and challenges all comers: pillow fight, bitch. They also stand up for a fellow blogger taking heat from the TTC and welcome city-wide WiFi. more ›

The food blog world is aflutter over the biggest awards ceremony of the year. The Oscars? Don't be silly. It's all about the food, baby. The 2006 Independent Food Festival and Awards are open source awards, only with taste buds, not coding. And just as Firefox kicks Redmond's butt, the winners of these awards are worth seeking out. Some are national, some are local, all are good. Those golden statues barely got a mention in the food-o-sphere. Seemingly only Bruce Cole, editor of Edible San Francisco, deemed them worthy of talk and then only as a way to explain why you're better off cooking red meat than watching the red carpet. His technique sounds good, but would some pictures kill him? As long as we're in meatlandia, let's just go all out: Bacon for dinner! More meat (goat and crab), SFist Sam, and liquid nitrogen ice cream, after the jump. SFist Jacob, contributing more ›

Saturday: We're heading over to the Pacific Film Archive for the Women of Color Film Festival. We're especially interested in the documentary feature , A documentary about a Chinese American man mistaken for Japanese and beaten to death by unemployed white auto workers, who were convicted with the lightest possible sentences. See the complete schedule here. more ›

Have you seen many of the Oscar nominees? We haven't (which doesn't make this excellent Fametracker post any less funny to us -- the Brokeback Mountain TV series pitch with Gavin in the sweeps episide left us with chest pains of hilarity). more ›

Hollywood is busy getting botoxed and tuxedoed in preparation for the Oscars this Sunday, and the host isn't the only thing that's changing this time around. In the past, viewers on the east coast could prep themselves beforehand with a viewing of "The Barbara Walters Oscar Special." Those on the west coast had to wait until the end of the ceremonies to catch it. But this time, Barbara's foregoing Oscar night altogether, instead bringing the special to us this evening at 10 p.m. on ABC, (right after a new episode of "Lost"). more ›

We here at SFist like our celebrities like we like our men: insane, rude, dirty, and fabulous. Oh, wait, that's NOT how we like our men anymore (that's 12 years of therapy finally paying off, folks.) But any celebrity who seems too classy, clean, or "just like us" is not who makes us buy that Us magazine at the Cala point of purchase. more ›

SFist inteviews Jeffrey Anderson aka Movie Jeff of combustible Celluloid more ›

This week on stage: a revolutionary "Richard III," the traveling medicine show returns, a piece about the American Taliban, and some shows you should see before they close. more ›