OSCAR NOMINAtING BALLOTS: THEY’RE IN THE MAIL

Oscar nomination ballots were sent out on Tuesday to the 5,783 voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. They have until Jan. 13 to return them. As usual, the votes will be tallied by the accounting firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers, and the winning nominees will be announced on Jan. 24. Winners are due to be revealed on Feb. 26, when the annual Oscar ceremony — usually the second-highest-rated telecast of the year, behind the Super Bowl — hosted by Billy Crystal, is held in Hollywood at the Kodak Theater. Meanwhile, the Academy today (Wednesday) unveiled its poster for this year’s affair, showing an Oscar statue on the right and still shots of seven movies. nearly all of them best-picture winners, on the left. In a statement, Academy President Tom Sherak said, “The Academy Awards not only honor the excellence of these movies, but also celebrate what they mean to us as a culture and to each of us individually.”