The “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” film has been chosen as a finalist in the Achievement in Visual Effects category for the 82nd Academy Awards.  Fifteen semi-finalists were narrowed down to the following seven who are in contention for the award:

• “Avatar”
• “District 9”
• “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”
• “Star Trek”
• “Terminator Salvation”
• “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen”
• “2012”

On Thursday, January 21, all members of the Academy’s Visual Effects Branch will be invited to view 15-minute excerpts from each of the seven shortlisted films. Following the screenings, the members will vote to nominate three films for final Oscar consideration.

The 82nd Academy Awards nominations will be announced on Tuesday, February 2, 2010, at 5:30 a.m. PT in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater.

Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2009 will be presented on Sunday, March 7, 2010, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center, and televised live by the ABC Television Network. The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 200 countries worldwide.

Good Luck Half-Blood Prince!

The ballots are ready for the 2010 Empire Awards and we all need to vote for Half-Blood Prince, the actors and director to win awards!  Follow this link to enter your votes.  The categories we can vote for HBP in are:

Best Newcomer (Jessie Cave, Freddie Stroma, etc)
Best Sci-Fi / Fantasy (Half-Blood Prince)
Best Actor (Dan, Rupert, etc)
Best Actress (Emma, Bonnie, Evanna, etc)
Best Director (David Yates)
Best British Film (Half-Blood Prince)
Best Film (Half-Blood Prince)

Thanks to Oclumencia we have some new High Resolution Promotional photos from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. The photos are of teenage Tom Riddle, Ginny Weasley, Draco Malfoy and Narcissa Malfoy.

See them here in the gallery!

According to ScreenDaily, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is the highest grossing film of 2009, worldwide!  The article states: “Warner Brother’s Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Price has topped the worldwide box office so far this year, taking $929.4m.”

In Worldwide sales, the film was followed by Ice Age: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs, Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen and Walt Disney/Pixar’s Up.

Domestically, it came in second place after Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen and Internationally it was beaten by Ice Age: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs.

Thanks to DanRadcliffe.com we have the full two-and-a-half-hour audio of the BD Live chat with Dan Radcliffe and David Barron, downloaded here (mirror here).

Also, Warner Bros has announced that the BD-Live screening will be shown on BD-Live’s site in a few weeks, I will post when it’s available.

As many of you probably know, the BD Live Event where fans can watch the Blu-Ray with Dan and David Yates (now David Barron as Yates is ill) is taking place right now.  A few Potter sites were able to watch the event and have been Tweeting updates about it.  Some of the more exciting things are as follows:

• Dan and David confirmed that the five actors, Dan, Rupert, Bonnie, Emma, and Tom, will play their adult selves in the epilogue. (via SS)
• On Deathly Hallows filming, Barron said that filming will end around late-spring early-summer, then there’s the dubbing stage, and post-production. They will be doing work on it for another year, at least. There are plans for Leavesden after the movies are done. (via SS)