The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug has been nominated in the 86th Annual Academy Awards!

Just this morning, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced their nominations for the 2014 Annual Academy Awards! The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug received three of these nominations, matching The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. 
Christopher Boyes, Michael Hedges, Michael Semanick, and Tony Johnson were nominated for Best Sound Mixing; 
Brent Burge was nominated for Best Sound Editing; 
Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton, and Eric Reynolds were nominated for Best Visual Effects. 
There are some pretty tough competitors for the visual effects award this year! The winners will be announced as the ceremony on March 2. For the full list of nominations, go here. 

A new page is being added to the Blog of the Hobbit!

Here is the newest addition, the Awards and Nominations page. On it, you will find every award and nomination received by the Hobbit movies. However, you will not find it among the other tabs, but you can access it through this link: Awards and Nominations. 

I mentioned in an earlier post that Simon Clutterbuck, James Jacobs and Dr. Richard Dorling won the Scientific and Engineering Oscar for developing a technique which makes computer-generated characters more life-like than ever before. Here is a video from Weta Digital explaining how they were able to do it.

If you watched the Academy Awards last night, and if you are a fan of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, then you know that things did not turn out the way you wanted them to. Alas, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey did not win any of its three nominations. Best Visual Effects went to Life of Pi, Best Production Design went to Lincoln, and Best Makeup & Hairstyling went to Les Misarables. We can only hope for better for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug in 2014!

I though I should re-post which Oscars The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey has been nominated for, as the Academy Awards are just a few hours away. I  mentioned in an earlier post that the film has already received an award for Technology & Science, but The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey has also been nominated for three more: Best Production Design, Best Visual Effects, and Best Makeup & Hairstyling. With the count already at one, we can hope for possibly three more!

If you saw The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, you would have noticed that it had fantastic special effects, all thanks to Weta Digital. They were so good, in fact, that Weta Digital has been nominated for the Visual Effects Oscar. Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton, and R. Christopher White of Weta Digital could be the ones who receive the golden statue this Sunday at the Academy Awards.
Weta Digital has released six showcase videos on YouTube, all concerning their outstanding performance in the creation of the computer-generated imagery for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. I have collected them all in one place, right below these words, so you can observe them at your pleasure!

Visual effects of The Hobbit: Fantastical Creatures; Lands of Epic Beauty; Darkness

Visual effects of The Hobbit: Gollum

Visual effects of The Hobbit: The Goblin Caverns

Visual effects of The Hobbit: Creating Rivendell

Visual effects of The Hobbit: The Goblin King

Visual effects of The Hobbit: Azog

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey has received an early Oscar. Simon Clutterbuck, Richard Dorling, and James Jacobs of Weta Digital were recognized on Saturday night for their outstanding performance in the creation of Andy Serkis' character, Gollum. As a reward for the excellent and very hard work of Weta Digital, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey has received an early Oscar for technology and science. 

As the title denotes, there will not be very many more posts concerning The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. In fact, this will most likely be the second-to-last. (The last will be the one detailing the awards the film receives.) I have already started the transition to The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, having posted a few speculations about what the movie may be like.
In the 43 days it has been out, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey has grossed a very handsome $922,863,000 worldwide. It is expected to reach one billion by March this year, which will move it well into the top 20 highest grossing films ever. I have made a separate page for pictures, which can be visited here. (sorry if it takes forever to load) I have also created a separate page for the trailers and tv spots, which can be visited here. Finally, the original trailer has been posted below, if you would like to watch it again.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey has managed to get many nominations, mostly concerning it fantastic computer-generated imagery. The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) gave The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey three nominations, for Sound, Special Visual Effects and Hair & Makeup. For the Oscars, perhaps the most anticipated awards, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey received three nominations, which are Best Production Design, Best Visual Effects, and Best Makeup & Hairstyling. The film also earned seven nominations for the 11th annual Visual Effects Society Awards. They are as follows: