The AWN/Acme Filmworks party was overflowing with a who's who of the animation community.

The Oscar tour winds down each year with a host of parties. Check out the pics.

DreamWorks had a full day for the Oscar nominees when they came to visit. Here are their adventures in pictures.

Ron Diamond leads the Q&A at ICM with The Lady and the Reaper's Javier Recio Gracia, Enrique Posner and Raul Garcia.

In L.A., the nominees visted agencies ICM, CAA and William Morris. Here are their visits in pictures.

The nominees get a bit of the MGM backlot history.

On the first day of the Los Angeles leg of the Oscar Showcase tour, the nominees had a chance to see the famed MGM backlot and the new Sony studios. Here are a collection of pics from the day.

DreamWorks' Pierre-Olivier Vincent gives his POV on the How to Train Your Dragon designs.

written by Rick DeMott

For the third day of the L.A. leg, DreamWorks put together a full day of events for the nominees. Katie Koskenmaki, our host and artistic development coordinator for the studio, said that different departments were fighting to get a chance to meet the nominees. For the first time, French Roast director Fabrice Joubert joined the festivities.

First up, designer Pierre-Olivier Vincent, aka POV, ran through the visual development on DreamWorks' upcoming How to Train Your Dragon. The project began with the designs of the book, which was written and illustrated by Cressida Cowell. The designs and tone of the book was cartoony, but over the course of the film's development, which included three director changes, the script became more dramatic. For Cowell, she didn't mind the tone shift, but insisted that the core of the story remain the relationship between the main character Hiccup and his father Stoick.

The Lady and the Reaper's producer Raul Garcia, director Javier Recio Gracia, and exec producer Enrique Posner chat with ICM agents.

On the first day of the L.A. leg, the tour swung by agency ICM. Due to another special Irish screening Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty's director Nicky Phelan and producer Darragh O'Connell couldn't make the event, but The Lady and the Reaper's director Javier Recio Gracia, producer Raul Garcia, and exec producer Enrique Posner were on hand.

More than a dozen agents showed up to watch the nominated films. Agent Craig Bernstein said that agents look at shorts to find the next hot filmmaker. They want to see that a filmmaker can tell a story with a beginning, middle and end in a short period of time. This shows a real solid understanding of story. One of the agency's success stories is hooking Oscar-nominated student filmmaker Shane Acker up with the deal to transform his short 9 in a feature.

After the screening in chatting with the agents, Raul said that in Spain they have to make their films in English because it makes it much easier to get international distribution. Right now Kandor's productions cost around $30 million, but still need to compete with the Pixar and DreamWorks films with budgets five times the size.

The tour swings into the famed MGM studio lot.

written by Rick DeMott

The L.A. leg of the Oscar Tour kicked off at the Sony lot. For the first time in the tour's history the participants, who include The Lady and the Reaper's director Javier Recio Gracia, producer Raul Garcia, and exec producer Enrique Posner, and Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty's director Nicky Phelan and producer Darragh O'Connell, received a tour of the legendary MGM Studios.

Stops included the Thalberg Building where the studio showcases its Best Picture Oscars, as well as the offices of Sony's top execs including Amy Pascal. For the game show fans out there, the nominees got a chance to see the sets of Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune. The legendary Stage 30 was being used as a commissary for Adam Sandler's new film, The Pretend Wife. But most of the time, the stage is known for housing the largest water tank where films such as The Curious Case of Benjamin Button were filmed. The nominees were treated to the stages were Wizard of Oz and Married with Children were filmed, and there was some debate with our tour guide Tony on whether Oz is the most beloved movie in America or not. Along our walk through the backlot, we had the chance to see the art department building a New York city street set for the upcoming film Burlesque.

Who says there are no celebrities in Animation?  We arrive at Pixar an hour early, the van is buzzing with excitement.  We are about to meet some of the ROCK STARS of animation.  To be granted a tour at Pixar is a privilege not extended to everyone!

Pixar is living through a new golden age.  The string of hit films, the triumph of Up, the promise of the studio’s ambitious new projects, all fill the space with a glow.  I’ve visited Pixar before, and each time I’m aware that someday I’ll be telling people not yet born that, yes, I visited Pixar.

SF’s Dolby Laboratories in Potrero Hill hosts tonights screening of the Oscar-nominated shorts for SF’s ASIFA chapter.  As if I’d had any doubts that I was among serious animation fans,  chapter president Karl Cohen’s next announcement, that the Balboa Theater will be screening some Gumby shorts in honor of the recently-deceased Art Clokey earns an audible gasp from the audience.  This group loves animation, and lives animation.