Actress in a Supporting Role  Ruby Dee
Art Direction  Arthur Max (Art Direction); Beth A. Rubino (Set Decoration)

When the Oscar nominations were unveiled two days ago, one name I felt certain would pop up was cinematographer Harris Savides, who was responsible for the lensing of two well-respected genre pictures in 2007: David Fincher's "Zodiac" and Ridley Scott's "American Gangster."  Alas, it wasn't to be, as the nominees included Seamus McGarvey, Robert Elswitt, Janusz Kaminski and Roger Deakins (squared).

It may not have been surprising to other Oscar forecasters out there, seeing as Savides hadn't necessarily popped up during the precursor season and has found himself coming up short in the awards arena for some time.  But there is certainly no shortage of respect for the lenser, considered by many to be the most talented photographer in the business.  It didn't take Tony Gilroy, for instance, more than a moment's thought to call Savides "probably the greatest working cinematographer there is" when I interviewed him back in October, and any given colleague I spoke to over the course of the season (Kaminski, Deakins and Elswitt among them) was quick to call him a personal favorite.

Why, then, has Oscar glory eluded Savides so far?

Granted, the lion's share of his work to date has been in the independent arena.  Savides has found himself the lenser of choice for helmer Gus Van Sant ("Elephant," "Gerry," "Last Days"), having brushes with mainstrem Hollywood entertainment here and there ("Heaven's Prisoners," "The Game," "Finding Forrester").  Perhaps his greatest work behind the camera so far came for a tiny, yet brilliant film that no one might have seen had Nicole Kidman not been in the lead (Jonathan Glazer's "Birth").  But 2007 was a real opportunity for Savides' fellow craftsmen to honor his work, as he had a chance to chew on some of his most commercially accesible material to date.

But a nomination just wasn't in the cards.  Maybe someday soon Savides will get that tip of the hat that his colleagues clearly feel he deserves.  He's hard at work preparing Van Sant's "Milk" at the moment, which may or may not provide that opportunity.

I had the pleasure of speaking to Savides back in December.  Ironically enough, he first called when I was vacationing in San Francisco, the setting of Fincher's grisly account of the Zodiac murders which has become one of the most critically acclaimed films of the year.

On the project, Savides treaded out into the unfamiliar territory of mixing his work with CGI material.  A number of sequences in the flm were manufactured through visual effects technology, something of a necessity, given the urban development of the Bay Area since the days of the Zodiac killer.

Savides and Fincher took a good look at Alan Pakula's "All the President's Men" while prepping, mainly for the simplicity of structure and, of course, the grit of the newsroom.  The filmmaker had already amassed a considerable amount of research before Savides came on board, but the real starting point for the lenser was studying still photography for the film's ultimate look.

"Steven Shore had these banal kind of images of America in the 70s, which were a great reference for colors and for props, and for the world that we were to inhabit and make the audience feel they were watching," he said.  "Something that did concern me, however, was that it was very dialogue-driven, and I wanted to do things that were more cinematic.  But all of David's references were these wonderful movies that had this structure that I became interested in.  The approach that he wanted to take was exciting for me."

Fincher proposed Eric Rohmer's "La Collectionnuese" and Ingmar Bergman's "The Passion of Anna" as source viewing on the project.  Savides says he is quite the fan of Bergman, and that Fincher's preparation techniques have made him an even bigger fan of Rohmer than he already was.

"I didn't come to appreciate Rohmer's movies until I studied this film," he said.

When it came to preparing the Frank Lucas biopic "American Gangster" with Ridley Scott, Savides found himself again digging into still photography as source material, perhaps even more so than on "Zodiac."

"There's a book by Bruce Davidson called East 100th Street, one of those classic black and white monograph collections of Harlem," he said.  "It was the first night Ridley and I met in person, and everything he showed me was black and white, a style which I think was en vogue if you look at the time of Nicky Barnes and Frank Lucas."

Savides also referenced photographer Helen Levitt, looking at her work for color detail.  Scott's mandate, Savides said, was to make a color movie that felt black and white.  Savides took this as a broad gesture and set out to refrain from producing an over abundance of color in the lensing of the pic.

As for compositional techniques, Savides and Scott set out to film the Lucas sequences in a more formal fashion, while looseness was the key to the Richie Roberts portions.

"That's one of the rules I remember us laying down," he said.  "But in retrospect, I don't know if we actually did it!"

If nothing else, Savides comes across as truly passionate about the medium that employs him.  He sounds like the wide-eyed kid who grew up and pinches himself every day because he gets to soak in the fruits of photography and the moving image.  A somewhat raspy but soothing voice, peppered with just the right amount of Big Apple inflection, reveals the thoughts of a man happy to find himself transfixed by what he might find on screen.

"Only movies can to that, to your heart and and your mind," he said, "making this event happen to you.  And even though I'm saying that now, I don't think a movie can sustain that for the whole time.  But if it can do it two or three times while you're watching, that's a great thing."

Here's hoping Oscar catches up to him one of these days.

I came across this Reuters story today by way of Tom O'Neil's Gold Derby blog.  It turns out three former DEA agents are suing Universal Pictures for defamation to the tune of $55 million.  Their claim: the Ridley Scott helmed, Steven Zaillian penned "American Gangster' has "tarnished hundreds of reputations.  Take a look:

Former DEA agents Louis Diaz, Gregory Korniloff and Jack Toal said NBC Universal, the owner of Universal Studios, falsely claimed the movie was based on a true story and misrepresented the events surrounding Lucas and New Jersey Detective Richard Roberts, depicted by Russell Crowe.

The movie hurt the agents' reputations by falsely claiming in text at the end that a collaboration between Lucas and Roberts "led to the convictions of three-quarters of New York City's Drug Enforcement Agency" agents between 1973 and 1985, according to the suit, which seeks class action status.

"With this utterly false and defamatory statement, the defendant has ruined and impugned the reputations of these honest and courageous public servants in the eyes of millions of people," the suit said.

NBC Universal, owned by General Electric, denied the allegations, saying: "American Gangster does not defame these, or any, federal agents."

"The end legend specifically refers to members of 'New York City's Drug Enforcement Agency' -- not the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, where the plaintiffs formerly worked. We believe the lawsuit is entirely without merit," NBC Universal said.

Kinda sounds like the sort of thing that will blow over to me.  So much drama this season.

This is a guild that nominates 15 films in three categories, so it's a little difficult to judge how they may or may not translate in the actual Art Directio category (beyond knowing that contemporary films are almost always left out of the mix).  But it is certainly beneficial to see which films have clear insustry support.

The usual suspects are here: "Michael Clayton," "No Country for Old Men," "There Will Be Blood."  No "Juno" or "Into the Wild," but neither film showcases this craft.  However, with that in mind, "The Bourne Ultimatum" continues a stealthy trek through the guild precursor circuit by showing up in the contemporary category today.

"Atonement" gets its first guild mentions since the ASC mention at the beginning of the week (and what a long week it must have seemed to the Focus camp in that regard).  "American Gangster" also found its first industry love since two SAG nominations last month.

Finally, it has to be encouraging for Miramax to have "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" surprisingly pop up in the contemporary field.  As it continues to make a case for a Best Picture nomination, these guild citations only fuel the cause.

Here are the nominees:

PERIOD FILM:

"American Gangster" (Arthur Max)
"Atonement" (Sarah Greenwood)
"Elizabeth: The Golden Age" (Guy Hendrix Dyas)
"Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" (Dante Ferretti)
"There Will Be Blood" (Jack Fisk)

FANTASY FILM:

"The Golden Compass" (Dennis Gassner)
"Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" (Stuart Craig)
"Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" (Rick Heinrichs)
"Ratatouille" (Harley Jessup)
"300" (James Bissell)

CONTEMPORARY FILM:

"The Bourne Ultimatum" (Peter Wenham)
"The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" (Michel Eric and Laurent Ott)
"The Kite Runner" (Carlos Conti)
"Michael Clayton" (Kevin Thompson)
"No Country for Old Men" (Jess Gonchor)

Another feature from Variety this week, the Eye on the Oscars: The Look special, which focuses on design elements in 2007's awards hopefuls.  There are 8 films featured specifically, in addition to two separate feature pieces.

First, Kathy A. Macdonald takes a look at the mixture of authenticity and post-modern spin in the year's frontier pics: "3:10 to Yuma," "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" and "There Will Be Blood."  The costume and production design heads from each are quoted.

Addmie Morfoot, meanwhile, looks at the spectrum through the other lens, detailing depictions of and diversity on location in the Big Apple.  "Across the Universe," "American Gangster," "The Brave One," "Enchanted," "The Hoax," "I Am Legend," "Michael Clayton" and "We Own the Night" are all featured.  I didn't realize how much NYC played into this year's product until I read that piece...interesting.

Yes, the BFCA awards are tonight, but tomorrow brings the most anticipated announcement of the Oscar season: the Directors Guild of America's list of feature film nominees.  According to the DGA's official site, Guild president Michael Apted will make the announcement at 10:00 a.m. (PT).

The DGA has long been considered the best predictor of the eventual Best Picture outcome at the Academy.  Going back over the last 35 years, the Guild has picked 139 of 170 nominees for an accuracy rate of 80% or so.  That's better than any of us "pros" could ever hope to manage, that's for sure.  The Guild has displayed 100% accuracy on nine separate occassions, the four of the last five years being chief among them.  Prior to 1970, the DGA sported 10 nominees for feature films, which makes tallying those totals kind of pointless, but this sufficient chunk of data ought to be enough to persuade you that tomorrow's announcement is an important one.

Tom O'Neil has been collecting predictions from various Oscarweb prognosticators over at Gold Derby, yours truly included.  You can see my black and white take on tomorrow's likely five over there, but let's take a moment to dig into the hopefuls in this space as well.

No one but no one can be considered a shoo-in except for the Coen brothers, whose "No Country for Old Men" has shown up this naysayer by already displaying some grit last month, taking down two Screen Actors Guild nomiantions.  (Critics awards just don't compute for me as great indicator of an industry award.)  Beyond that, it's really a free-for-all.

Sean Penn has been getting stellar reactions at DGA screenings of "Into the Wild," a film already leading the way at the BFCA and SAG.  One would have to consider the actor/director to be on solid ground.

Ridley Scott is a helmer clearly revered by his guild, taking down nominations in some cases that didn't correspond to Best Picture nods ("Thelma & Louise," "Black Hawk Down").  "American Gangster" was the only film to be making any box office headway until "Juno" came around, and two SAG nominations (in surprising categories) indicate industry love for the product.

Speaking of "Juno," Jason Reitman's film has been unfairly relegated to consideration as "the 'Little Miss Sunshine' of 2007," when that's really not a computeable comparison.  Nevertheless, naysayers have been left mouth agape as the film has taken some major monetary strides on its way to potentially securing the light-hearted slot of the season with AMPAS.  Reitman's showing up here tomorrow should come as no surprise if it comes to pass, especially given all those TV directors in the guild with ties to actors like Allison Janney, Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner.

There is a real opportunity for spoilerific things to happen, I think, outside of these strong potential candidates.  Tim Burton, for instance, has already nabbed a nomination from the BFCA and a win with the National Board of Review for helming the screen adaptation of "Sweeney Todd."

Denzel Washington, meanwhile, has seen his film, "The Great Debaters," met with standing ovations at DGA screenings.  But then, who wouldn't stand for Denzel?

Julian Schnabel's "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" has been a critical darling throughout the precursor season, but did his Los Angeles antics while promoting the film leave a bad taste in voters' mouths?

Any number of peripheral surprises could pop up, from James Mangold ("3:10 to Yuma"") to Tony Gilroy (one to really watch for "Michael Clayton"), even Sidney Lumet ("Before the Devil Knows You're Dead"), a nominee here even when ignored by the Acadey ("Serpico," "Murder on the Orient Express").  David Fincher could even make good on a year-end rally of support for "Zodiac."

The real spoiler to watch, however, might just be Paul Thomas Anderson, whose "There Will Be Blood" has been the talk of the town, at least for the past two weeks.  A nomination tomorrow could be the first real step toward Best Picture aspirations, as an endorsement from the DGA has proven itself to be a telling seal of approval indeed.

But the safe bet always seems to surface, no?  Which leaves us with the very real possibility that Joe Wright could slide in for "Atonement," a film that lost steam after the festival circuit and a strong HFPA showing, but is still lingering in the mix nonetheless.

What do I know, right?  Whatever happens tomorrow, it still ain't the end of the road.  Crazy things happen, like Christopher Nolan grabbing a mention for "Memento" in 2000 or Robert Zemeckis sliding in for "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" in 1988.  You just never can be too sure, so we'll have to see what the directors have in store for us in the morning.

The Screen Actors Guild announced its list of nominees in five cateogries today, and boy did Focus Features' "Atonement" take a major hit.  The Golden Globe nom leader showed a big goose egg from the actors, leaving some serious doubt for its Best Picture prospects this season.

On the other hand, Paramount Vantage's "Into the Wild" picked up a major head of steam after a weak HFPA showing by grabbing four nods, including a mention for Best Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.  The film led the pack with four nods altogether.

Surprises included Johnny Depp (and his film, "Sweeney Todd") being absent from the roster, the first major mention of the season for Ruby Dee's supporting performance in "American Gangster" and, in a total head-spinner, "3:10 to Yuma" picking up some attention for its enemble.

Regarding the latter, it seems all the hard work Ben Foster and Peter Fonda have been putting into Q&A appearances for the film, not to mention Christian Bale's latest wave of December publicity here in town, paid off in the long run.  I couldn't be happier as I've been waiting patiently for some awards notice for the film all season long.

Typically SAG gets the ladies' categories right when i t comes to forecasting Oscar, especially in the leading category.  So we might have those arenas sewn up.  The fellas' areas are a different bag of tricks, however, seeing past mentions for actors like Russel Crowe ("Cinderella Man"), Don Cheadle ("Crash") and James Garner ("The Notebook") that didn't carry over with AMPAS.  With that in mind, I would personally say the weak spots are Ryan Gosling ("Lars and the Real Girl"), Viggo Mortensen ("Eastern Promises") and Tommy Lee Jones ("No Country for Old Men").

Today's announcement is significant in that it is the first set of nominations to come from the industry rather than critics groups and journalists.  The guilds are where it's at where predicting Oscar is concerned, so stay tuned over the next couple of weeks.

The full list of nominees:

Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role
George Clooney, "Michael Clayton"
Daniel Day-Lewis, "There Will Be Blood"
Ryan Gosling, "Lars and the Real Girl"
Emile Hirsch, "Into the Wild"
Viggo Mortensen, "Eastern Promises"

Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role
Cate Blanchett, "Elizabeth: The Golden Age"
Julie Christie, "Away from Her"
Marion Cotillard, "La Vie en Rose"
Angelina Jolie, "A Mighty Heart"
Ellen Page, "Juno"

Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role
Casey Affleck, "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford"
Javier Bardem, "No Country for Old Men"
Hal Holbrook, "Into the Wild"
Tommy Lee Jones, "No Country for Old Men"
Tom Wilkinson, "Michael Clayton"

Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role
Cate Blanchett, "I'm Not There"
Ruby Dee, "American Gangster"
Catherine Keener, "Into the Wild"
Amy Ryan, "Gone Baby Gone"
Tilda Swinton, "Michael Clayton"

Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
"3:10 to Yuma"
"American Gangster"
"Hairspray"
"Into the Wild"
"No Country for Old Men"

Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture
"300"
"The Bourne Ultimatum"
"I Am Legend"
"The Kingdom"
"Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End"

•  Variety has a SAG Awards preview, including Zachary Pincus-Roth's chat with casting directors about finding the right balance in front of the camera. [Variety]

•  According to Tom O'Neil, Russell Crowe will be competing against himself in the lead category at the Golden Globes. [Gold Derby]

•  Sasha Stone catches up to "Charlie Wilson's War." [Awards Daily]

•  Pete Hammond scopes out the screening and Q&A scene, including a "rare" appearance by Jack Nicholson in front of the SAG earlier in the week. [The Envelope]

•  Gerard Kennedy surveys the Best Film Editing landscape. [In Contention]

•  Brian Kinsley makes some Golden Globe comedy/musical predictions. [In Contention]

•  Todd McCarthy digs into "The Golden Compass." [Variety]

•  So does David Poland. [The Hot Blog]

•  Poland also has lunch with the stars of "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly." [The Hot Blog]

•  Martin Grove, meanwhile, talks to director Julian Schnabel. [The Hollywood Reporter]

•  The Gurus o' Gold make acting category calls. [Movie City News]

•  The year's first top 10 list surfaces...well, top 50.  [Paste Magazine]

•  Lou Lumenick calls "Atonement" the "most achingly romantic movie since 'Titanic.'" [New York Post]

•  Peter Knegt makes another set of predictions. [indieWIRE]

•  Oh yeah, and non-review reactions to "Sweeney Todd," from Tom O'Neil... [Gold Derby]

•  ...and yours truly. [In Contention]

•  Yours truly takes a look at "The Great Debaters." [In Contention]

•  Anne Thompson offers some hard Oscar knocks for "Into the Wild," "Zodiac," indicates potential awards greatness for "Enchanted." [Thompson on Hollywood]

•  T.L. Stanley wonders if "August Rush" could be this year's "Mr. Holland's Opus." [Gold Rush]

•  The Envelope continues to give more and more tech category consideration due, one would assume, to Sheigh Crabtree's spirited efforts...bravo.  Today, Patrick "I hate Oscar bloggers" Goldstein talks to Harris Savides, largely about "American Gangster."  [The Envelope]

•  Meanwhile, Elizabeth Snead talks to Alexandra Byrne about the one nomination you can put money on for "Elizabeth: The Golden Age": Best Costume Design. [The Envelope]

•  Mark Olsen chats it up with Todd Haynes re: "I'm Not There." [The Envelope]

•  Choire Sicha has a profile of "Diving Bell" star Emmanuelle Seigner. [Los Angeles Times]

•  According to the AP, a judge argues against the sale of two Mark Pickford Oscars in Los Angeles county. [Variety]

•  Tom O'Neil updates us on what films guild and Academy members have recieved, though he leaves off the Focus titles (which shipped this week). [Gold Derby]

•  Jeffrey Wells thinks Time magazine has "damned" the Oscar chances of "Charlie Wilson's War" by talking about the film with a light and whimsical syntax. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

•  Lou Lumenick responds to the documentary feature shortlist. [New York Post]

•  Documentary director A.J. Schnack does the same...in fact, he's a little pissed, to be quite honest. [All These Wonderful Things, indieWIRE]

•  Ryan C. Adams takes us back to "Waitress." [Awards Daily]

I thought I'd waste a few brain cells this morning and dig through all these prognosticative charts to see what the consensus is amongst those of us crazy enough to go on the record with predictions months out from the Oscar ceremony.

For those unaware, there is the Buzzmeter at The Envelope, a group comprised of 21 critics, columnists and awards analysts; the Gurus o' Gold at Movie City News, a smaller group of 14 similar types (with some Buzzmeter overlap); Gurus 2.0, also at Movie City News, a collective of 15 self-starting webmasters and contributors from some other sanctioned outlets not typically considered for their Oscar coverage; and newly formed, the Sultans of Bling at Awards Daily, a unique group comprised of 22 "civilians," if you will, individuals without outlets or platforms beyond comments sections in this site or that (save AW contributors Ryan C. Adams and Sasha Stone).

If you're not tongue-tied yet, I'll continue.

Three of the groups use a ranking system of 10 for their panelists.  A #1 choice gets a score of 10, a #2 a score of 9, etc.  The only group that uses a five-list system is the Buzzmeter, which obviously gives that collective less opportunity to add other titles to the ring beyond their respective top fives.  One might expect, therefore, a lesser amount of films to be represented by the Buzzmeter.  They list 16, but the Gurus o' Gold list a total of 17 films, with each panelist having the opportunity to list up to ten films.  But to be fair, the Buzzmeter also has seven extra members, so it's kind of a give and take.

I tallied up the scores from each of the films predicted for Best Picture today and came to some interesting findings.  First and foremost, "Into the Wild" gets a huge boost (landing in the #6 spot) by being a clear favorite for two groups, Gurus 2.0 and the Sultans.  The main Gurus and the Buzzmeter, however, have the film listed at #12 and #10 respectively.

Many films, of course, are listed across all four groups, but the Sultans, for instance, are the only group to include "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford," "Beowulf," "Control," "The Golden Compass," "I'm Not There," "Lars and the Real Girl," "Ratatouille," "Rescue Dawn" and "We Own the Night."  Of those nine, I don't think it is out of bounds to say at least six have no shot at Best Picture contention, but the unique flavor is certainly welcome.

The Sultans, also, join Gurus 2.0 as the only groups to include "Zodiac" in their lists, while the latter is the only collective to feature "In the Valley of Elah" and "Things We Lost in the Fire."  The main Gurus group, meanwhile, is the only group to list "The Savages."

31 films are represented in total, while the Buzzmeter's 16 are the only ones shared across the board.

Now, let's get to the consensus chart.  Here's the full, ranked list of 31 films predicted for Best Picture by the four prognosticative groups out there on the Oscarweb:

01. "Atonement" (482)
02. "No Country for Old Men" (472)
03. "There Will Be Blood" (248)
04. "American Gangster "(231)
05. "The Kite Runner" (223)
06. "Into the Wild" (188)
07. "Charlie Wilson’s War" (173)
08. "Sweeney Todd" (170)
09. "Michael Clayton" (167)
10. "Juno" (144)
11. "Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead" (114)
12. "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" (84)
13. "3:10 to Yuma"(56)
14. "Once" (47)
15. "Zodiac" (34)
16. "Eastern Promises" (16)
17. "Hairspray" (13)
18. "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" (12)
19. "In the Valley of Elah" (12)
20. "I’m Not There" (11)
21. "Ratatouille" (7)
22. "Rescue Dawn" (7)
23. "The Savages" (7)
24. "Elizabeth: The Golden Age" (6)
25. "Gone Baby Gone" (3)
26. "Control" (3)
27. "Things We Lost in the Fire" (2)
28. "The Golden Compass" (2)
29. "Lars and the Real Girl" (2)
30. "We Own the Night" (1)
31. "Beowulf" (1)

Obviously -- and as if this wasn't clear to begin with -- "Atonement" is the frontrunner for a nomination in this year's Best Picture race, if we're to go by what these collectives have to say.  This seems to have been the case ever since the Venice bow of the film back in September.

Meanwhile, "No Country for Old Men" and "There Will Be Blood" follow right behind, two films that, interestingly enough, are beginning to split some inside and outside of these groups regarding Oscar potential.

Universal's "American Gangster" has seemingly become the prognosticators' film of choice from that studio, while murmurs of "Charlie Wilson's War" being considered a comedy continue to cycle through, amongst other concerns.

"The Kite Runner," clearly an Oscar-bait contender, rounds it out in a list that I truly think will change substantially over the next couple of months.  We'll keep an eye out, but one thing is for sure -- we aren't short on Oscar predictions and opinions this season.

•  Michael Fleming, Tim Gray get into the specifics of the strike's effect on Awards shows. [Variety]

•  Gerard Kennedy talks to the muti-nominated, yet winless, cinematographer Roger Deakins about his trio of projects this season. [In Contention]

•  Elizabeth Snead talks the fashion of Cate Blanchett. [The Envelope]

•  Speaking of fashion, the Gray Lady spotlights "Control" star Sam Riley in the Style section. [New York Times]

•  Randy Kennedy sits down with Best Director hopeful Julian Schnabel. [New York Times]

•  Dave Kehr digs into the technology behind "Beowulf." [New York Times]

•  Jeffrey Wells talks with Keri Russell about "Waitress," landing on DVD later this month and still an awards push for Fox Searchlight. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

•  Nathaniel Rogers expresses more interest in Russell Crowe's Richie Roberts than Denzel Washington's Frank Lucas. [The Film Experience]

•  Martin Grove makes a case for Frank Langella and "Starting Out in the Evening." [The Hollywood Reporter]

Really getting into the thick of the awards season, Variety's special issues are starting to heat up.  In print today: "The Contenders."

Yours truly (with major contributions from the industrious Sharon Swart) kicks things off with a glimpse at most of the players, some inside chatter, and an attempt at contextualizing the already steam-rolling season.

There are also a number of profiles for films in play.  Of the perceived heavies, Steven Gaydos tackles box office champ "American Gangster," Peter Debruge tries to get a bead on the unseen "Charlie Wilson's War" and Tim Gray gets into the gore of "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street."

As for the dark horses, Debruge sizes up "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford," Gaydos gets into "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" and Anthony Kaufman showcases "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly."

And we're off!  More and more special issues stuff to come, including the always revealing actor/actress profiles edition.  Stay tuned.

•  "American Gangster" draws heat and accusations of drifting a bit too far from the truth from the real Richie Roberts. [New York Post]

•  Lou Lumenick talks about it in his blog. [New York Post]

•  Tom O'Neil responds to all. [Gold Derby]

•  And Jeffrey Wells takes the wrong-headed approach. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

•  O'Neil also stirs the waters of a potential smear campaign to come, yet AGAIN pulling out the old "A Beautiful Mind" scenario from 2001. [Gold Derby]

•  Lots of action at The Envelope, as Paul Lieberman talks to Nicole Kidman about "Margot at the Wedding." [The Envelope]

•  Mark Olsen, meanwhile, dishes "Gone Baby Gone" with supporting actress hopeful Amy Ryan. [The Envelope]

•  Susan King has a chat with harm-warming favorite Hal Holbrook. [The Envelope]

•  And Elizabeth Snead discusses the threads of "The Golden Compass" with veteran costume designer Ruth Myers. [The Envelope]

•  Anne Thompson responds to yesterday's Gurus o' Gold director and screenplay predictions. [Thomspon on Hollywood]

•  Admitted Jonny Greenwood fan Ryan C. Adams gets into Entertainment Weekly's holiday preview tid-bit on the score of "There Will Be Blood," with a couple of other interesting insights. [Awards Daily]

•  A far cry from "A Mighty Heart," Angie talks macabre delights and "Beowulf" with William Keck. [USA Today]

•  Old news, but Steve Daly -- one of the chosen ones who has seen "Sweeney Todd" -- talks the bloddy musical up and down in a cover story. [Entertainment Weekly]

•  Karen Valby has a Diablo Cody profile. [Entertainment Weekly]

•  Eugene Hernandez launches his "Awards Watch" articles... [indieWIRE]

•  ...and offers his first set of predictions at his blog, "Eugonline." [indieWIRE]

•  Peter Knegt does same at "The Lost Boy." [indieWIRE]

•  "But seriously, folks"...amidst all the awards chatter, Variety launches a new blog dedicated to WGA strike talk and coverage. [Scribe Vibe]

•  In a fantastic column, Nathaniel Rogers contemplates a 1999-like middle-brow Oscar response to a high-brow year, expresses doubts for the Coen brothers' "No Country for Old Men" (finally someone joining me in being even-handed about that film's Oscar potential) and Paul Thomas Anderson's "There Will Be Blood." [The Film Experience]

•  Anne Thompson comments on a record-breaking weekend for "American Gangster." [Thompson on Hollywood]

•  Jeffrey Wells talks "No Country" with Josh Brolin. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

•  Also passes on some second-hand information about Amy Adams' supposedly awards-quality performance drowning in the "timidity" of "Enchanted." [Hollywood Elsewhere]

•  Michael Ordoña talks to Best Supporting Actor contender Paul Dano about taking risks, passion and "There Will Be Blood." [Los Angeles Times]

•  Rachel Abramowitz spit-balls "Persepolis" with the brilliant Marjane Satrapi. [Los Angeles Times]

•  Chris Lee spotlights Will Smith and "I Am Legend."  (Here's a crazy idea: supposing Francis Lawrence and Akiva Goldsman didn't rape and pillage Richard Matheson's brilliant work, could Smith be a surprise lead actor contender?  Seriously.  It's a fantastic role.  Well -- yeah - I guess it IS Francis Lawrence and Akiva Goldsman.) [Los Angeles Times]

•  Rounding up the holiday movie love fest, Gina Piccalo talks "The Golden Compass" with director Chris Weitz. [Los Angeles Times]

•  Caryn James gets into the subject of violence in the season's cinema.  I just finished a piece for this trade on the VERY SAME SUBJECT.  At least we're all on the same page...it'll be a Bloody Christmas indeed. [New York Times]

•  Sylviane Gold talks to Stephen Sondheim, Tim Burton and Johnny Depp about "Sweeney Todd." [New York Times]

It seems my Monday item regarding the category placement of Steven Zaillian's "American Gangster" screenplay is being read too hastily as indicative of an actual decision within Universal Pictures.

Nikki Finke clarified the matter yesterday with a comment from Uni that pretty much says the same general thing I did on Monday, that the article was heavily expanded upon, the decision was the guild's and not Uni publicity's and that the studio followed suit for the Oscar campaign.

Got it?

Of course, things can always change in this crazy thing called Oscar season.  I'm not saying as much will happen with "Gangster" or even "In the Valley of Elah," but it's worth recalling the situation with "Syriana" in 2005.

After being nominated by the WGA in the adapted category and nearly winning USC's Scripter Award, Stephen Gaghan's screenplay was designated an original work by the Academy's screenplay committee when someone in the group who had read Robert Baer's "See No Evil" spoke up and said that the script had deviated considerably from that work.

So nothing is ever written in stone just because of For Your Consideration ads, mind you.

•  Anne Thompson speculates about a wide open fifth slot for Best Actor and offers her own thoughts about the ladies' categories. [Thompson on Hollywood]

•  The Buzzmeter launches at The Envelope, 26 pundits weigh in on picks in the top races. [The Envelope]

•  The Gurus o' Gold assess the races for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress. [Movie City News]

•  Tom O'Neil looks at how an unusual race for Best Director might skew the Best Picture landscape. [Gold Derby]

•  Jeffrey Wells talks to darkhorse Best Actor contender Frank Langella about "Starting Out in the Evening." [Hollywood Elsewhere]

•  With "American Gangster" and director Ridley Scott in the heat of the Oscar derby this year, Noah Forrest proclaims the helmer overrated... [Movie City News]

•  ...and gets a rush of hate mail for his troubles, with his own editor calling him "short-sighted." [The Hot Blog]

•  Argentina's foreign Oscar entry "XXY" tops the list of noms for the Sur awards of the Argentine Film Arts and Sciences Academy. [Variety]

•  Oscar-nominated director Paul Greengrass takes Variety's U.K. Achievement in Film Award. [Variety]

•  Isabel Kershner digs into the controversy over Israeli film "The Band's Visit," both at home and with Oscar. [New York Times]

•  Ramin Setoodeh calls "Atonement" the best film of the year ("maybe"), points us to an apparent Facebook account calling for a supporting actress nomination for Romola Garai. [The Gold Digger]

•  Scott Bowles talks "American Gangster" with the film's on- and off-screen talent. [USA Today]

•  A drop in the bucket of critical approval for the film, Bob Mondello says Oscar may come calling for Sidney Lumet's "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead." [NPR]

It seems Universal Pictures will be campaigning Steven Zaillian's screenplay for "American Gangster" in the original screenplay category this year at the Oscars.  But conventional wisdom had it that the script was based on Mark Jacobson's New York Magazine article "The Return of Superfly," which recounted the life and times of Frank Lucas (portrayed by Denzel Washington in the film).

The fact is there is actually no major mention of Detective Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe's cleaner-than-thou cop) in the article and that the screenplay was "not based on the article at all," according to somone close to the campaign.  "Articles in magazines or newspapers," he adds, "are oftentimes not enough for the [writers] branch or WGA to measure it as a 'based on.'"

The things we learn along the way.  Though I probably could have just been a little more observant at my screening of "Gangster" last month during the closing credits.

Also, a brief glance at a "For Your Consideration" ad for the film "In the Valley of Elah" shows that Warner Independent is going with the original screenplay rather than positioning it as adapted from the article Mark Boal wrote for Playboy in 2005.  Maybe there's something to this.

I called the guild to inquire about these designations and a representative (a rather snooty one, mind you -- but I guess there's a lot going on over there this week, huh?) said that there is indeed a gray area with magazine articles.  It's not like a novel or a play.  An article could be telling a story but have no narrative to speak of, and that's kind of the situation with "American Gangster."

I haven't read Boal's article, so I can't speak to that.