The annual Hollywood issue of Vanity Fair recently hit newsstands and it's chock-full of great articles on the biz. It has some old (RAGING BULL, JOHN HUGHES, the animated SNOW WHITE, and LOVE STORY) and some new -- specifically, Annie Leibovitz photographs many young Hollywood ingenues, as well as photographs of the people behind Oscar contenders THE HURT LOCKER, AVATAR, INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS, and CRAZY HEART.  See below for more details.

While The Oscars gets most of the attention (Sunday, March 7, at 8pm EST on ABC), there are plenty of other enjoyable awards shows that we recommend.  The Globes were fun last weekend, particularly with Ricky Gervais as host, and below are the details on a few more shows we like to turn into, including the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) awards and Film Independent Spirit Awards.

The 2010 Sundance Film Festival starts today and the New York Times had a nice piece on it today entitled New Director Seeks to Put the Indie Back in Sundance. We've heard that before but, given today's economic environment, maybe it'll have to be true this year out of sheer necessity.  We're optimistic and like the new "Next" initiative launching this year for "low-or-no-budget" films.

As 2009 comes to a close over here in Southern California, we thought it'd be a good time to highlight some of our favorites entries from our blog during the past year.  We covered a wide range of Media-and-Entertainment topics over the year, and listed below are some of our favorites.  We hope everyone has a happy and safe New Year, and we'll see ya on the other side!

A recent article in Los Angeles Magazine had a short blurb on "Movie Magic", disclosing some unique tricks of foolery behind many famous movies. Cutting across many decades and films as diverse as THE BIRDS, THE EXORCIST, STAR WARS, MY DINNER WITH ANDRE, and BOOGIE NIGHTS, it brings to light how creative things can get on the set.  Here are a few of our favorites from the article, as well as a listing of some of the DIY spirit we promote via our how-to videos.

If you’ve never heard of Scenario Magazine, we highly encourage you to seek out every back issue you can find and read them cover-to-cover. Released during the late 1990’s, each issue is packed with fantastic screenplay reprints and interviews with screenwriters and filmmakers. The pub’s tagline was “The Magazine of Screenwriting Art” and it takes that tagline seriously – by treating screenwriting as an ART. But if you think it’s just for screenwriters, think again.

MY NAME IS JERRY, a movie that we blogged about in a 7-piece production diary (thanks to co-producer, Zach Baliva), was just named Best Feature Comedy for the 2009 Route 66 Film Festival in Springfield, Illinois. The movie stars Doug Jones (Pan's Labyrinth, Silver Surfer, Hell Boy) in a somewhat rare, non-costume role. Congrats to cast & crew.  If you missed any of the production-diary series, packed with fantastic indie filmmaking tips, look for convenient links after the fold.

The San Diego International Comic Convention (Comic-Con) is coming to San Diego Thursday, July 23rd through Sunday, July 26th, with the (now) traditional preview night on Wednesday, July 22nd. This one's a little extra special, what with it being the 40th anniversary of the Con. And since FiveSprockets is headquartered in beautiful San Diego, we'd be remiss if we didn't have something to say about it. And we do. In fact, we're going to dedicate our blog over the next two weeks to this year's Con.

FiveSprockets is very proud to be named one of MovieMaker Magazine’s “Top 50 Websites for MovieMakers” in their most recent issue entitled, “The Future of MovieMaking 2009.”  Read the article HERE.

I was happy to read THIS STORY by Tanya Mannes in last Saturday's San Diego Union Tribune about Mary Pickford being honored this year by the Library of Congress for the 100th anniversary of her film debut in 2009.