MyOuterSpace seeks creative people with a passion for the arts, who are Sci-Fi, Horror or Fantasy fans, or who are looking for a career in those fields.

“Welcome to My Outer Space,” said Shatner in a video hosted on the site. “A brand-new community of sci-fi, horror and fantasy lovers. I’m William Shatner and I’d like to invite all of you who wish to act, perform, write, direct or compose music. From actor to animator, register now on the planet that hosts your specific talent. Join us today as we aim for the stars.”

There are twelve planets and starships on MyOuterSpace. The planets represent subcategories in the entertainment arts. The starships each represent a larger creative project.

One of the planets, Creatia, “hosts a creative environment for thinkers of all kinds like writers, directors and playwrights.” Fans are encouraged to “turn to Creatia’s Sci-Fi news section for the latest articles and videos; watch live interviews with legendary directors, peruse columns on the best writers in the business, and read the newest Sci-Fi book reviews.”

The Starship Aurora section explains that the “Captain and Crew aboard this Starship will be working on a hot major production together, and will be recruiting talent from the six United Planets. Submit your resume, if you can take the heat.”

John Eaves, concept designer and illustrator, designed all of the starships and all of the planets for the website.

In one of four categories for which it was nominated, Star Trek XI won an Academy Award.

In the Makeup category, Star Trek XI (Barney Burman, Mindy Hall and Joel Harlow) won, beating out Il Divo and The Young Victoria for the honor.

Burman, Hall and Harlow were on hand to accept the award, thanking J.J. Abrams, Bad Robot and their co-workers.

In the Sound Editing  and Sound Mixing categories though, Star Trek XI lost out to The Hurt Locker, and Avatar beat out Star Trek XI in the Visual Effects category.

Michael Giacchino (Star Trek XI) won his first Oscar in the Music (Original Score) category for his work in Up.

While most Oscar fans will be waiting to see whether Avatar or The Hurt Locker will walk away with Best Picture honors, Trek fans are hoping that at the end of the night Star Trek will have laid claim to its first Oscar.

Four separate Star Trek movies have been nominated for ten Oscars, but all came away empty-handed. The nominations were for Star Trek: The Motion Picture (3), Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (4), Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (2) and Star Trek: First Contact (1).

This year, the nominations and competition are as follows:

Makeup:

• Il Divo. Aldo Signoretti and Vittorio Sodano
• Star Trek. Barney Burman, Mindy Hall, Joel Harlow
• The Young Victoria. Jon Henry Gordon and Jenny Shircore

Sound Editing:

• Avatar. Christopher Boyes and Gwendolyn Yates Whittle
• The Hurt Locker. Paul N.J. Ottosson
• Inglourious Basterds. Wylie Stateman
• Star Trek. Mark Stoeckinger and Alan Rankin
• Up. Michael Silvers and Tom Myers

Sound Mixing:

• Avatar. Christopher Boyes, Gary Summers, Andy Nelson and Tony Johnson
• The Hurt Locker. Paul N.J. Ottosson and Ray Beckett
• Inglourious Basterds. Michael Minkler, Tony Lamberti and Mark Ulano
• Star Trek. Anna Behlmer, Andy Nelson and Peter J. Devlin
• Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Greg P. Russell, Gary Summers and Geoffrey Patterson

Visual Effects:

• Avatar. Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham and Andrew R. Jones
• District 9. Dan Kaufman, Peter Muyzers, Robert Habros and Matt Aitken
• Star Trek. Roger Guyett, Russell Earl, Paul Kavanagh and Burt Dalton

Hopefully tomorrow will break the losing streak.

Star Trek XI has been nominated for awards in the following categories: Best Sci-Fi or Fantasy movie, Best Director (J.J. Abrams) and Best Film.

Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy

• Moon
• Star Trek
• Avatar
• District 9
• The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

Best Director

• James Cameron (Avatar)
• J.J. Abrams (Star Trek)
• Neill Blomkamp (District 9)
• Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds)
• Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker)

Best Film

• Avatar
• Star Trek
• District 9
• Inglourious Basterds
• The Hurt Locker

In addition to the above, Star Trek XI’s Zoë Saldana (Uhura) was nominated for Best Actress for her work in Avatar.

The 2010 Jameson Empire Awards takes place on Sunday, March 28 at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel.

Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci were nominated in the Best Adapted Screenplay category by the WGA, and they were up against Crazy Heart, Julie & Julia, Precious: Based on the novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire and Up in the Air. Up in the Air was the winner.

The next day, the BAFTA award ceremony was held. Star Trek XI was nominated in two categories, Best Sound and Special Visual Effects.

In the Best Sound category, Star Trek XI ’s competition was: Avatar, District 9, The Hurt Locker and Up. The Hurt Locker won.

For Special Visual Effects, Star Trek XI was up against: Avatar, District 9, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and The Hurt Locker. Avatar won the award.

According to the full list of nominations posted on the SF Site, Star Trek was nominated as Best Science Fiction Film, while both director J.J. Abrams and writers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci were nominated in their respective categories. The full list of nominations for Trek, as well as the films it will be competing against, can be found below the jump:

Best Science Fiction Film

The Book of Eli
Knowing
Moon
Star Trek
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Best Director

J.J. Abrams (Star Trek)
Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker)
Neill Blomkamp (District 9)
James Cameron (Avatar)
Guy Ritchie (Sherlock Holmes)
Zack Snyder (Watchmen)
Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds)

Best Writing

Neill Blomkamp, Terri Tatchell (District 9)
James Cameron (Avatar)
Spike Jonze, Dave Eggers (Where the Wild Things Are)
Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci (Star Trek)
Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds)
Alex Tse, David Hayter (Watchmen)

Best Make-Up

Barney Burman, Minday Hall, Joel Harlow (Star Trek)
Joe Dunckley, Sarah Rubano, Frances Richardson (District 9)
Sarah Monzani (The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus)
Gregory Nicotero, Howard Berger (The Book of Eli)
Gregory Nicotero, Howard Berger (Drag Me to Hell)
Mike Smithson, John Rosengrant (Terminator: Salvation)

Best Production Design

Rick Carter, Robert Stromberg (Avatar)
Scott Chambliss (Star Trek)
Stuart Craig (Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince)
Sarah Greenwood (Sherlock Holmes)
Philip Ivey (District 9)
Alex McDowell (Watchmen)

Best Special Effects
Tim Burke, John Richardson, Nicholas Aithadi, Tim Alexander – (Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince)
John DesJardin, Peter G. Travers, Joel Whist, Jessica Norman – (Watchmen)
Volker Engel, Marc Weingert, Mike Vezina – (2012)
Roger Guyett, Russell Earl, Paul Kavanagh, Burt Dalton – (Star Trek)
Dan Kaufman, Peter Muyzers, Robert Habros, Matt Aitken – (District 9)
Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham, Andrew R. Jones – (Avatar)

For the full list of nominations, head over to the SF Site.

The two award ceremonies were the Art Directors Guild (ADG) Awards, held Saturday, and the American Cinema Editor’s (ACE) Eddie Awards, held yesterday.

For the ADG awards, three categories of films received awards. The categories were for contemporary, period and fantasy films. Star Trek XI’s Scott Chambliss was up for an Art Directors Guild award for Production Design in a Fantasy Film, but lost out to Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg (Avatar).

The 60th Annual ACE Eddie Awards ceremony was held yesterday. Star Trek XI’s Maryann Brandon and Mary Jo Markey were up for the Best Edited Feature Film – Dramatic award. The award went to Bob Murawski and Chris Innis for The Hurt Locker.

Star Trek XII, scheduled for a June 29, 2012 release, may face some stiff competition with the announcement that Spider-Man will be released on July 2, 2012.

The newest Spider-Man movie will be released in 3D, according to Sony Pictures. “Spider-Man is the ultimate summer movie-going experience, and we’re thrilled the filmmakers are presenting the next installment in 3D,” said Sony Pictures Chairman Jeff Blake. “Spider-Man is one of the most popular characters in the world, and we know audiences are eager and excited to discover Marc [Webb's] fantastic vision for Peter Parker and the franchise.”

It remains to be seen if these dates will be the final release dates or if there will be some shuffling around of one or both of the movies.

Viacom, which owns media properties such as MTV and Nickelodeon cable networks, as well as Paramount, attributes the increase in profitability to its Filmed Entertainment segment as well as to cost containment measures throughout the company.

“Viacom’s results over the past year have been extraordinary and illustrate the value of a well planned strategy and execution,” said Viacom Executive Chairman Sumner M. Redstone. “Despite the economic challenges, we performed extremely well across our media networks and motion picture operations. As a result of the quality of our operations and wealth of creative talent throughout the company, we are well positioned for success not only today but long into the future.”

“Paramount Pictures significantly boosted its profitability in 2009 as the studio’s strategy of producing a smaller slate of films, anchored by franchises, began to pick up momentum,” said Viacom President and CEO Philippe Dauman. “We also were pleased to see renewed consumer demand for our new DVD and Blu-ray releases in the fourth quarter.”

Star Trek XI was part of the reason for the increase in profitability in the fourth quarter of 2009, as noted in the corporate report.  “Worldwide home entertainment revenues of $1.15 billion represent a 12% increase over the prior year’s fourth quarter results and reflect the strong performance of the DVD and Blu-ray releases of Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen, Star Trek and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. Worldwide television license fees grew 27% to $445 million.”

For the full year, “…adjusted operating income grew 1% to $3.0 billion versus $2.98 billion in 2008, reflecting a significant increase in profitability in the Filmed Entertainment segment primarily fueled by the success of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Star Trek and Paranormal Activity as well as the benefit of restructuring and other cost-containment initiatives.’

Star Trek: The Experience has been closed for more than a year now and while plans are still in progress to open a new attraction in downtown Las Vegas at the Neonopolis development, CBS has decided that not all of the items used in the Las Vegas Hilton attraction and stored in a warehouse when the attraction closed will be needed for the Neonopolis location.

The Star Trek: The Experience relocation to Neonopolis is still in the cards, although progress is slower than expected due to the downturn in the economy. While no date has been set yet, a possibility would be 2012, when Star Trek XII is expected to be released.

CBS released a statement reaffirming their commitment to the attraction. “We continue to work with our partners at Neonopolis regarding the development of a new Star Trek: The Experience in Las Vegas. In the interim, there are elements from the original Star Trek: The Experience that we know will not be utilized in any new attraction and plan to make those items available to the many wonderful fans of Star Trek: The Experience either by sale or auction in the near future. The final dates and details of such sales are in progress and we hope to announce more very soon.”

Further details will be announced as they become available.