Welcome to Oscar Talk.

In case you’re new to the site and/or the podcast, Oscar Talk is a weekly kudocast, your one-stop awards chat shop between yours truly and Anne Thompson of Thompson on Hollywood. The podcast is weekly, every Friday throughout the season, charting the ups and downs of the year’s contenders along the way. Plenty of things change en route to Oscar’s stage and we’re here to address it all as it unfolds.

Today marks our first podcast at the new HitFix digs (see, I promised we’d push forward without a hitch). And there’s a lot to discuss. It’s been a busy week of screenings and interviews and more. “Moneyball” kind of announces the start of the season’s major Oscar hopefuls by releasing today and the Academy has made a change to its rules and regulations that deserves addressing, to say nothing of the various films that have screened that are worth chewing on. So with all that in mind, let’s see what’s on the docket today…

• We both saw Tomas Alfredson’s hotly anticipated “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy” this week after the film bowed in Venice a few weeks back. And we have a lot to say on that.

• With “Moneyball” opening today, to very strong reviews, we come back around to the Oscar question on the film. We’re both still somewhat reserved but we recognize the film is landing just right with the critical set. Now the question is box office and, most especially, Academy reaction.

• The Academy implemented a rule change on campaign regulations this week. Most are calling it a “cracking down” thing but it actually opens the flood gates to a big extent. We discuss.

• The trailer for Clint Eastwood’s “J. Edgar” dropped this week, putting Leonardo DiCaprio in the thick of the Best Actor discussion. With little to chew on yet, we consider.

• I happened to see “The Ides of March” this week. (Anne will see it at the premiere on Tuesday.) And I’m a huge fan, so I go on briefly about that.

• I also caught Cameron Crowe’s rock doc “Pearl Jam Twenty” this week, which I liked very much. I dig in on that a little bit.

• Back to things we can both comment on, I finally caught up with Lars Von Trier’s “Melancholia,” which Anne saw in Cannes. I’m not nearly as over the moon for it as she is, though.

• And, don’t hate me, but no questions this week. I never got around to putting up a solicitation post, and even though I asked for some questions on Twitter, I never even got around to looking at them. I know, I’m sorry. Next week we’ll be on all cylinders. Promise!

Have a listen to the new podcast below, with a little Pearl Jam leading the way. If the file cuts off for you at any time, try the back-up download link at the bottom of this post. And as always, remember to subscribe to Oscar Talk via iTunes here.