First came Joaquin Phoenix’s masterful summation of the inanity of film awards season in Interview magazine. Now, courtesy of Huffington Post Entertainment editor Christopher Rosen, it’s Sir Anthony Hopkins’ turn. The star of Hitchcock ended his recent via-telephone-from-London conversation with Rosen at the New York press junket for that film with some choice observations about the worst aspect of film awards season:

“People go out of their way to flatter the [Oscar] nominating body and I think it’s kind of disgusting… You know, kissing the backside of the authorities that can make or break it; I can’t stand all that. I find it nauseating to watch and I think it’s disgusting to behold. People groveling around and kissing the backsides of famous producers and all that. It makes me want to throw up, it really does. It’s sick-making.”

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Its name is Hitchcock. Not long ago, we interviewed UCLA film prof Howard Suber about his visit to the downtown LA set of that movie, on the last day of filming. Per THR awards watcher Scott Feinberg, here is just one of the many ways Fox Searchlight’s decision to move up release to Thanksgiving could impact this fall’s film awards season:

While the best actor race is already extremely crowded, which may make Anthony Hopkins’ path bumpy, the road to a best actress nom for 2006 winner Helen Mirren, who I’m told goes toe-to-toe with Hopkins in this film, looks a lot clearer. Indeed, that category is so thin this year… that studios at recent fests were clamoring with each other over any film featuring even a so-so leading performance from a female.

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“In the UCLA Film and Television Producers Program, which I chaired, we have 300-400 hotshots from the industry in to speak every year, so there’s enormous interchange about what’s going on today in the business,” Suber (pictured) tells FishbowlLA. “But, curiously, this is the first set visit of a class that I recall in 30 or 40 years. Seeing the students’ excitement, I wrote the chair afterwards that we should try to arrange set visits much more regularly.”

Gervasi, who scripted Steven Spielberg’s 2004 drama The Terminal and directed the great 2008 documentary about heavy metal band Anvil, took Suber’s class a decade ago. Students came and went from the set all night through to 2:00 a.m. wrap, getting to meet Anthony Hopkins as well as watch him interact on set with co-stars Helen Mirren and Toni Collette.

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Morgan Freeman

Winners are chosen by the Hollywood Foreign Press Ass. board of directors, composed of foreign journalists who cover Hollywood. Freeman has been nominated for five Oscars, picking up the win for Best Supporting Actor in 2005 for his role in Million Dollar Baby.

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The man who brought us an alien-loving Jane Fonda in a plastic bustier was also a the producer of Academy Award-winning foreign films “La Strada” and “Nights of Cabiria,” both directed by Federico Fellini. His prolific career spanned over six decades and was wildly varied in nature, from early Italian New Wave to big-budget blockbusters. Some of his better known titles include David Lynch’s “Blue Velvet” starring Isabella Rossellini and Dennis Hopper, “Three Days of the Condor” with Robert Redford and Faye Dunaway, “Ulysses,” starring Kirk Douglas, and “Hannibal” with Anthony Hopkins and Julianne Moore.

We also have him to thank for “Conan the Barbarian,” starring our very own Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Thank you, Mr. De Laurentiis.

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