There’s no shortage, as usual, of exasperated critics this morning in the wake of the announcement of nominees for the 84th Academy Awards. Our quick first favorite is the rant from the eminently qualified Richard Roeper.

He starts off his look a this year’s Oscar snubs with an always welcome Shawshank Redemption reference, followed by a salient media observation:

Amazing, but these guys still think the best way to announce the Oscar nominations is to hold a press conference at 5:30 a.m. Pacific time in order to get maximum coverage from the morning chat shows.

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From Funny or Die: A brief retrospective on the history of Twitter, since Ashton Kutcher invented it back in 2006.

“Little known fact: the past tense of tweet is ‘twote.’ And the future perfect is Tilda Swinton.”

Ha! Hilarious.

L.A. based Wall Street Journal style columnist Christina Binkley (pictured) checks in this week with another fantastic profile piece. Her latest subject is New York designer Maria Cornejo, whose work is regularly sourced by First Lady Michelle Obama. Cornejo’s firm, Zero + Maria Cornejo, recently expanded to L.A. with a store on Melrose Avenue.

A prominent part of Binkley’s weekly fashion musings is the way she deftly personalizes her article ledes. In this instance, she is writing from a mother-to-mother POV. Binkley has two children and her profile of Cornejo begins with a look at how the designer is intent on balancing the demands of fashion and family.

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AFI Fest 2008 will open Nov. 5 with Joe Wright’s “The Soloist” to kick off a two-and-a-half-week run of major indie fare.

Actress Tilda Swinton and director Danny Boyle will be feted with AFI’s awards, with Swinton getting a career achievement nod, while Boyle will be there to screen his latest film, “Slumdog Millionaire.”

The fest will close with close with Edward Zwick‘s “Defiance.” In between is a decidedly international selection of fest faves with few world premieres.

“This year’s selection of international films shows a commitment to cinematic innovation and a renewal of a tradition of realism in cinema,” artistic director Rose Kuo said.

In line with that trend, the World Cinema section includes a number of pics with stark themes including Cannes winner “The Class,” about the French school system; Matteo Garrone’s Italian crime pic “Gomorrah”; and Steve McQueen’s “Hunger,” which dramatizes IRA member Bobby Sands’ prison hunger strike.

The narrative competition will see Alejandro Tocar’s coming-of-ager “Acne,” Yemil Sefani’s family drama “Lake Tahoe” and one of the few world preems in Rafael Monserrate’s comedy “Poundcake.”

Julian Schnabel’s paintings of bones (used in the credit sequence of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) are on view at Gagosian Gallery, with a preview party last night. Schnabel’s at work on his next film, because he evidently needs no sleep.

Tilda Swinton, Lauren Hutton, Ben Silverman, the Weinsteins, Brett Ratner, and Diane Keaton were sighted.

Fashion icon Lisa Eisner (she owns Sammy Davis Jr.’s wardrobe) and Nicky Hilton both looked great but not together, naturally.

We said hi to Roger Friedman but didn’t recognize David Carr from the NY Times. (We don’t seem to be the only ones.) Gabe Snyder took a smoke break with Schnabel, but we were too busy feeling inept.

We were just about to snap John Waters with our Speed Graphic camera disguised as a phone, when the official photog hissed at us to get out of his way. Waters told us he never watches The Wire, as it’s too depressing, and that he’s delighted for Patty Hearst and her show dog, but no, he’s not making a movie about dog shows.

Outside, the paparazzi were getting soaked.