I finished sorting through all the pictures of Marion at the Oscar ceremony on Sunday, and added a total of 210 (mostly HQ) pictures, including arrivals, ceremony, pressroom & after parties. I hope there are no photo duplicates. Many thanks to my friend Mariana for her help with the pictures. Marion was pictured with Penelope Cruz, Sophia Loren, Guillaume Canet and Kate Winslet. Enjoy!

Marion changed for the Vanity Fair After Party into a (probably) more comfortable dress which didn’t feature black tulle but kept the lovely blue theme. And she let her hair down.

165 81st Academy Awards
004 81st Academy Awards – Governor’s Ball
041 81st Academy Awards – Vanity Fair Oscar Party

Wow! That was a beautiful & entertaining show! Hugh Jackman can host the Oscars every year from now on if I have a say. They did break with the afore-mentioned tradition of having last year’s Best Actress present Best Actor. But I wasn’t sad at all as they really had the genius idea of assembling 5 previous winners of the same category on stage and have each address one nominee personally. So when it was time to announce this year’s Best Actress Marion Cotillard together with Halle Berry, Nicole Kidman, Sophia Loren and Shirley MacLaine appeared on stage. Marion movingly paid tribute to Kate Winslet and also ended up handing her the well deserved statuette.

Marion looked dazzingly beautiful in a night-blue/black Dior Couture dress, Dior shoes and matching Chopard jewellery. She was accompanied by Guillaume Canet and was seated just behind Amy Adams and Meryl Streep in the second row pretty much in front of the podium during the ceremony. I know there are already pictures available but I need my sleep right now and will probably put them – as well as videos – online tomorrow evening. Until then preview some pics at Just Jared and GettyImages.

Will the Oscars break with the lovely tradition of having last year’s Best Actress hand out the Best Actor award? I hope that this will be one of the few things that remains unchanged during the “all new” Oscar ceremony tomorrow. It is to be assumed that by now Marion herself does know but we’re bound to have to wait for tomorrow. Be sure to watch the entire ceremony on TV in order not to miss Marion!

Marion Cotillard, last year’s best actress winner, told me she will be one of the presenters at Sunday night’s Oscar show, but she won’t know the category until she attends rehearsals later today and tomorrow.

Usually, the previous year’s best actress winner hands over the Academy Award to the new best actor, and so on.

‘I don’t know if that’s happening this year,’ Marion explained when we bumped into each other at the Chateau Marmont on Sunset Boulevard, which seems to be party central this week.

‘They don’t want the usual expectations this year,’ Marion said of the Oscar show producers, who have pledged to ‘shake’ the show up.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences who hands out the Oscars invited all the nominees in the “Best foreign language film of the year” category to a special reception event. Laurent Cantet, Gotz Speilmann, Uli Edel, Yojiro Takita and Ari Folman were handed a certificate of their nomination and hosting the event were AMPAS president Sid Ganis and Marion Cotillard.

005 Foreign Language Film Award Reception

In recent weeks we’ve heard a lot about the all new Oscars – how the ceremony will be different and especially no presenters were confirmed. Of course it seemed highly unlikely that Marion Cotillard wouldn’t be on the list but we couldn’t be sure. No need to worry though, apparently Marion arrived in LA and is all set to appear on stage this coming Sunday – but even she doesn’t know – yet – which award she’ll present at what moment:

Oscar Week is here, and so are the stars. Many of them are staying at the Chateau Marmont including last year’s Best Actress Marion Cotillard (La Vie En Rose). I ran into her last night in the lobby of the famed West Hollywood hotel. She told me she’s been so busy making films since she won the Oscar “I haven’t been home in a year!” Cotillard will present an award on Sunday’s show although she’s not sure which one or what point in the proceedings. “They haven’t told us anything yet!”
• source: FoxNews.com

So be sure to tune into the Academy Awards ceremony this Sunday, February 22!

Even though I have a strict “No paparazzi pictures” policy here on the site I’d like to point out this entry on a Marion Cotillard LiveJournal with pictures of Marion arriving in LA. She looks happy and doesn’t seem to mind being photographed.

She’s also all set to attend Prince’s post-Oscar bash:

Prince didn’t know he was having an Oscar party — until he read about it in the papers.

The singer was in the middle of band rehearsals when he saw a story that claimed he was throwing “the Oscar bash of the century.”

The musician finally decided to host an Academy Awards bash after Marion Cotillard — who won last year’s Oscar for Bestt Actress for her portrayal of a French singer in La Vie en Rose — called to RSVP to “the Purple Party.”

Not only will Prince host, but he will also be allowing a film crew to record the whole event for release on his upcoming website, LotusFlow3r.com.

The party will take place after the awards ceremony this Sunday.
• source: US Magazine

As reported by The Hollywood Reporter (and many other news outlets) the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has sent out this year’s invitations to invite new people as voting members. The Academy is each year selecting the winners at the Academy Awards also known as the Oscars. Not surprisingly, Marion Cotillard – who was named best actress at this year’s ceremony – is among the 105 artists and executives who received such an invitation. Other invited actors are Sacha Baron Cohen, Josh Brolin, Ruby Dee, Allison Janney, Jet Li and Ray Winstone. To find out who the other 105 new members of the Academy are click here.

The membership policies that the Academy adopted in 2004 in order to slow the growth of the organization would have allowed a maximum of 137 new members in 2008, but the various branch committees endorsed fewer candidates than that. With the new infusion of members, voting membership is expected to hold steady at just under the 6,000 mark.

New members will be welcomed into the Academy at an invitation-only reception at the Fairbanks Center for Motion Picture Study in Beverly Hills in September.