As the fifth TCM Classic Film Festival comes to a close today, I want to share my interview with the belle of its opening-night ball -- last Thursday's kickoff screening of the 1955 film Oklahoma! at the TCL Chinese Theatre -- the great actress-singer Shirley Jones.

I met up with Jones and her entourage -- Marty Ingels, her irrepressible second husband, to whom she has been married since 1977, plus her manager and publicist -- across the street from the theater at the Grill restaurant shortly after she introduced the screening of the beloved musical that she shot 60 years ago.

Can Jones, who turned 80 two weeks ago, fathom that it has been so many years since her work opposite Gordon MacRae and Rod Steiger in Fred Zinnemann's film made her a star? "I can't believe it. I was a little girl. The years just seem to have flown by," she says.

The recent documentary Casting By, which celebrated the career of the late casting director Marion Dougherty, helped call widespread attention to the impact of practitioners of her profession and led to the Academy's creation of a casting directors branch, a major step in the direction of perhaps one day having a best casting director Oscar -- which seems only fair, considering that every other profession that receives an opening credit mention has one.

But while Dougherty, who was based in New York, was undeniably one of the greats, so, too, was -- and is -- her West Coast counterpart who was the first casting director to receive an opening credit mention (on 1968's The Thomas Crown Affair) and who helped bring to light many of the finest talents in film history. His name, which you'll see a lot if you pay attention to the credits of great movies, is Lynn Stalmaster.

A few days ago I met up with Stalmaster at his Century City apartment to look back on his remarkable life and career in advance of his numerous appearances throughout this long weekend at the TCM Classic Film Festival in Hollywood, which will celebrate movie legends known the world over -- such as Jerry Lewis and Kim Novak -- but also often-overlooked people who arguably shaped the movies just as much, like this warm, sharp 86-year-old who seems much younger than his years, save for a whistling hearing aid.

PHOTOS: TCM Classic Film Festival's Opening Night Gala

An abbreviated version of this story first appeared in the April 18 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine.

My name is Jason Cozier and, at 23, I am one of the youngest members -- possibly the youngest -- of the TV Academy, which represents a very big and important part of my life. If you've ever attended one of the TV Academy’s functions, mixers or panel presentations, chances are we've met. I first met Lucy Hood, our president and COO, at the breakfast that followed the announcement of the Emmy nominees last July. I introduced myself to Ms. Hood, who had been appointed to her position just a month before, and she immediately posed a question to me, with deep and genuine interest in my answer: "How can we get more young people involved in the Academy?"

STORY: NATAS Chair on Just Exactly Who Votes on the Awards 

On Wednesday night, following a Los Angeles screening of Rachel Boynton's documentary Big Men -- an edge-of-your-seat film that offers an unprecedented inside look at how American oil companies and African governments interact when oil is discovered in Africa -- The Hollywood Reporter met up with Boynton and one of the film's executive producers, Brad Pitt, to discuss how the project came together and what they hope people will take away from it.

Boynton spent seven years of her life making the film, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in April, screened theatrically last year (unfortunately rendering it ineligible for Oscar consideration this year) and is now playing in select theaters across the nation.

PHOTOS: George Clooney, Brad Pitt With Their Motorcycles

It seems to be the hope of Boynton and Pitt -- whose Plan B production company champions films of social value, such as this year's best picture Oscar winner 12 Years a Slave -- that Big Men will raise awareness and bring about reforms that will benefit the people of African nations who have heretofore rarely shared in the profits of the discoveries of oil within their borders.

Here is a transcript of our conversation.

Jose Antonio Vargas' Documented will be released in select New York and Los Angeles theaters prior to its television broadcast on CNN, The Hollywood Reporter has learned exclusively. The move will qualify the film for Oscar consideration.

The documentary -- which was written, produced and directed by the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist -- centers on Vargas' experience as an undocumented immigrant and a crusader for immigration reform. It will be released theatrically and digitally by his nonprofit Define American media and culture campaign, along with BOND/360, in New York at the Village East Cinema on May 2 and in Los Angeles at the Landmark Regent on May 9. It will then air on CNN in the summer.

THR is also exclusively debuting the film's official trailer. (See above.)

As you are presumably aware, the 2013-14 awards season -- the longest and most competitive in the 13 years I've been covering this stuff -- came to an end Sunday night at the 86th Academy Awards in Hollywood. Because I've been spouting Oscar opinions, analysis and predictions on this blog ever since the Cannes Film Festival in May, I think that it's only right to now provide you with a full and candid postmortem of the results, my predictions and the show itself. And to share a few thank-yous.

This is the eighth of eight "brutally honest" Oscar ballots shared with THR by Academy members, one of which will post each day leading up to the Oscar ceremony on Sunday, March 2. (Also available for you to review: the first, the second, the third, the fourth, the fifth, the sixth and the seventh.) Beware of spoilers. And remember, these voters' views are not necessarily endorsed by Scott Feinberg or THR.

PHOTOS: OSCARS 2014 Red-Carpet Arrivals

VOTER PROFILE: This Oscar voter is a member of the Academy's 377-member directors branch.

This is the seventh of eight "brutally honest" Oscar ballots shared with THR by Academy members, one of which will post each day leading up to the Oscar ceremony on Sunday, March 2. (Also available for you to review: the first, the second, the third, the fourth, the fifth and the sixth.) Beware of spoilers. And remember: these voters' views are not necessarily endorsed by Scott Feinberg or THR.

PHOTOS: Oscars 2014 Red-Carpet Arrivals 

VOTER PROFILE: This Oscar voter is a longtime member of the Academy's 450-member executives branch.

This is the sixth of eight "brutally honest" Oscar ballots shared with THR by Academy members, two of which will post each day leading up to the Oscar ceremony on Sunday, March 2. (Also available for you to review: the first, the second, the third, the fourth and the fifth.) Beware of spoilers. And remember, these voters' views are not necessarily endorsed by Scott Feinberg or THR.

STORY: Todd McCarthy on Who Should Win at Oscars

VOTER PROFILE: This Oscar voter is a longtime member of the Academy's 450-member executives branch.

The 29th annual Independent Spirit Awards, which were voted upon and presented by Film Independent, were held this afternoon in a tent by the beach in Santa Monica as the rain poured down outside. Every year, the Spirit Awards -- which were hosted this year by Patton Oswalt, to lukewarm reviews in the room -- bring together the best and brightest of the indie film community on the day before the Academy Awards. The ceremony is always lots of fun -- what's better than day drinking? -- but it is decidedly not known for picking winners who go on to win again on Sunday.

PHOTOS: Independent Spirit Awards Blue-Carpet Arrivals

Indeed, over the past 28 years, only two winners of the Spirit Awards' top prize, best feature, have gone on to win the best picture Oscar: Platoon (1986) and The Artist (2011). Only 14 of the 108 performances that have been rewarded with Spirit Awards were subsequently recognized with Oscars. And only six Spirit Award-winning screenplays went on to win in either of the Academy's two screenplay categories. Moreover, in the 13 years in which there has been a Spirit Award for best documentary, only three of its winners went on to Oscar glory.

This year, however, could prove to be an historic exception to that rule, as virtually all of the frontrunners for the major-category Oscars took home prizes. (The Spirit Awards' and Academy Awards' four acting winners have never matched perfectly, but many oddsmakers, including this one, believe that will change this year.)

There are many wonderful things about writing for an outlet that has both a print edition and a website, as I do. One of them is not, however, having to lock in one's Oscar predictions before voting is even over in order to make the deadline for the print edition, as I have to do each year, since voter preferences -- and/or my read of them -- can change during the period between my deadline and theirs. (I know that writers at other outlets who hold the same position that I hold at THR feel the same way.)

STORY: Oscar Voter Reveals Brutally Honest Ballot 

This has never really caused a problem for me in the past because I always felt confident enough in my print edition picks to stand by them all the way to the big night. This year, though, that is not the case, at least as pertains to one category. So, in a year in which the Academy rescinded an Oscar nomination, I am going to rescind an Oscar projection, with apologies to anyone who may have already plagiarized my picks for their own Oscar pool entry. (Sorry to go all Election 2000 on you, guys.)