Voting for the 85th Annual Academy Awards nominations will open at 8 a.m. Monday, December 17, 2012, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said Friday.

December 14, 2012–The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) has officially sanctioned 282 feature films as eligible for the 2012 Academy Awards.

Every time I start working on a new film, I always start from zero, so it is always a challenge,” says Kim Ki-Duk, whose 18th feature film “Pieta,” a drama about a thug and his would-be mother, won the Venice Film Festival’s top prize. “For me, an original story, a new film, is what I struggle with most.”

A large number of foreign-language Oscar swntries this year deal with political issues: totalitarian governments, repressive groups, and entrapped individuals who struggle against them.

Amour was voted Best Picture of the Year, it was announced today the Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA).