Here we go again. Another Oscar telecast has passed, and, once again, a precious few of my top choices actually won. If I had the opportunity to legimately vote, I wouldn't have contributed to any winners beyond the Supporting Acting categories. The biggest winner of the night was my fifth favorite film of the best picture nominees, and it didn't even crack my annual ten best list. Than why I do I feel oddly satisfied about the outcome for the most part? Perhaps because I was spared of a bullshit, self righteous "King of the World" speech from you know who. Perhaps because this year proved that a small 14 million dollar grossing idie could beat a 700 million dollar phenomenon. People may argue that in the Weinstein era, this was a regular occurence. But, remember, SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE and SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE both may have started small, but were eventual 100 million dollar grossers in wide releases. The July released HURT LOCKER never received the chance to get even close. Perhaps because I sense that the controversial 10 Nomination Best Picture race may come to an end. Let's face it. Did anyone REALLY feel THE BLIND SIDE or DISTRICT 9 even had a CHANCE! History tells us that a film with no director, screenplay, or even a single technical nomination has about as much chance to take home a Best Picture Oscar as Shaq has to win a free throw competition. Based on other nominations in other major categories (particularly director) it was clear that PRECIOUS, AVATAR, UP IN THE AIR, HURT LOCKER, and INGLORIOUS BASTERDS would have been the core five, while AN EDUCATION, A SERIOUS MAN, UP, DISTRICT 9, and THE BLIND SIDE were clearly fillers, vying for a couple more million (or even just tens of thousands) in box office money that wouldn't have made a difference anyway. Let's face it again, of those five, it was clear this was a two dog race. In the unlikely event that it helped with the ratings, what did 5 extra nominess add other than 15 extra minutes of clip footage? Have Ralph Nader and Pat Buchanan taught them ANYTHING!

[Read more after the jump...]

A good movie year can be measured by compiling a good ten best list. If you write down 50 or movies as potential candidates and your 20th favorite is as good as your 2nd favorite from last year, you know that this year was something special. The first decade of the 21st century had at least one such year (2007), producing well acted visual complexities like The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, There Will Be Blood, I™fm Not There, and Southland Tales (well, an achievement to me, anyway). The same cannot be said for the decade's last year, 2009. Arguably the worst movie year of the decade, 2009 offered a series of high profile let downs (Lovely Bones, Brothers, Taking Woodstock, Public Enemies) and few films that made a potent impact even a day after an initial viewing. While my top 3 films usually slap me right in the face in the immediately, I wasn't sure what my top choice was going to be until I sat down to narrow down my choices. While my top five choices remained solidly intact, my 6th through 23rd favorites shuffled around more than female DAs on Law & Order. In a way, this may have been a good thing. A weak year makes smaller, quirkier titles like Crank 2, Tetro, Precious and Tokyo Sonata stick out just a little bit more. On the flip side, it also makes one appreciate the value of well made studio entertainment like Star Trek, The Hangover, and I Love You, Man. 2009 was, however, a remarkable year for animated films, ranging in style, execution, audience, and subject. It's easy to be taken by the visual splendor of animation, but 2009's animated films offered compelling narratives, even dealing with difficult themes like mortality yet balancing them with a whimsical style. They still brought out the Saturday Morning Cartoon watching kid in all of us. Animated films made up a whopping forty percent of this years list, and there were even worthwhile titles in the also rans.

Here are my top ten films of 2009, bearing in mind that entries 6-10 are all very neck and neck.

[read the rest after the jump...]

One of the reasons we like Terrance Zdunich here is that he truly pours himself into his projects. Not only has he developed some reknown for his creation of and performance in "Repo! The Genetic Opera," but he has also proven himself to be an accessible and thoughtful commenter on his work. We're always glad to see Zdunich crossing the country to present screenings of "Repo..." and entertain fans with discussion afterward. When he started publishing his own comic, "The Molting," we knew we had to get our hands on it to see what his creativity would spawn next. Best yet? He's a geek just like us - he's a fan of horror, sci-fi, comics and all the geeky pursuits that make us proud.

Here, our own Televixen catches up with Zdunich to talk over the current release of "The Happiest Place on Earth," issue 2 of "The Molting," its future and what plans he has in store...

A 450-page-illustrated novel is quite an ambitious undertaking. What inspired you to write The Molting series?

It was the setting. I grew up in Santa Ana, California, which is a neighboring city of Anaheim, which is where Disneyland is located. At the time that I was growing up Anaheim was really a slummy neighborhood and so even as a kid I remember looking at basically the happiest place on Earth and it was smack dab in the middle of a really grimy city with overcrowded houses and a lot of illegal immigrants and crime and I just thought what a weird paradox. [Full interview after the jump...]

Our friends at the SciFi Diner Podcast had so much fun dishing with Mary, our Televixen, they brought her back for more lively conversation about all that is new in the world of SciFi entertainment.

They dish about "Dollhouse," "Heroes" the recent settlement with Harlan Ellison's claim over story rights for Star Trek's "City on the Edge of Forever" and much more. There are also a few words about Robert Beltran's seemingly off-color remarks about "Voyager" in a video interview.

Stick around for their interview with "Battlestar Galactica" star Richard Hatch and more!

 Give them a listen here !