• Patrick Goldstein defends his paper’s perceived hit campaign against “The Hurt Locker,” calls quoted second-hand information that wasn’t properly vetted “the most in-depth piece written about the film’s complex mixture of questionable dramatic license and vivid authenticity.” Ahem, indeed. [The Big Picture]
• Cathy Yan on Scott Cooper, Neill Blomkamp, Cary Fukunaga, etc. — the Oscar season’s rookies of the year. [Wall Street Journal]
• How to make an Oscar-winning sci-fi film. [io9]
• Anne Thompson caught up with Nicolas Chartier (he of “EmailGate”) at a pre-Oscar party Wednesday night. [Thompson on Hollywood]
• David Thomson, who has left his 21st century mark as the guy who hyperbolized “Red Riding” as “better than ‘The Godfather,’” wants to know who cares about the Oscars. [The Guardian]
• Steve Pond sits down with the Oscarcast producers — again — as they take another stab at assuring us all that the show won’t be a train wreck. [The Odds]
• The Gray Lady talks to a bunch of lofty sorts and asks whether the Oscars undermine artistry. [New York Times]
• The local paper, meanwhile, goes for a hit grab (55 pics in a gallery!) by asking a bunch of random peeps to name their favorite movie of 2009. [The Envelope]