•  Tom O'Neil has a little inside scoop from yesterday's National Society of Film Critics awards voting. [Gold Derby]

•  Sasha Stone, meanwhile, perhaps jumps the gun by insisting "There Will Be Blood" is the Best Picture frontrunner (with nothing to go on but critical awards and one nomination in the guild arena thus far). [Awards Daily]

•  Speaking of which, Ed Pilkington sits down with "Blood" helmer Paul Thomas Anderson. [Guardian]

•  Jeffrey Wells talks "Sweeney Todd" with the "affable" Tim Burton. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

•  The Oscar season gets a hard look from the Gray Lady's critics, starting with a love letter to "Zodiac" from Manohla Dargis. [New York Times]
    
     Dargis' original review of the film dated Mar. 2, 2007. [New York Times]

•  A.O. Scott, meanwhile, digs back into Alexander Supertramp and "Into the Wild." [New York Times]
    
     Scott's original review of the film, dated Sept. 27, 2007. [New York Times]

•  And Stephen Holden goes "Across the Universe" one more time for good measure (thinking a little more outside the Oscar box than his colleagues). [New York Times]
    
     Holden's original review, dated Sept. 14, 2007. [New York Times]

•  David Carr, meanwhile, takes a look at the WGA strike's implications on Oscar. [New York Times]

•  And finally, Caryn James digs into the career of Best Actor hopeful George Clooney. [New York Times]

•  Some photos from thee Palm Springs International Film Festival, well underway. [The Envelope]

•  First looks at Demian Bichir in next year's Oscar hopefuls "The Argentine" and "Guerilla" (both from Steven Soderbergh). [Ain't It Cool News]

This is a great feature.  As part of today's SAG Awards Preview, Variety has a long list of "Actors on Actors," with many of the hottest names in the industry speaking up on some their colleagues.

In one of my favorites, Javier Bardem on Hal Holbrook, the "No Country for Old Men" star says Holbrook's moment in the truck with Emile Hirsch's Chris McCandless character is "one of the best performances [he's] seen."

Forest Whitaker talks up his co-star from "The Last King of Scotland," James McAvoy, calling the actor's "Atonement" performance "authentic," saying that when he tries to describe the portrayal to people, it "gets [him[ in [his] throat."  Josh Brolin, meanwhile, offers a humorous anecdote about the first time he met Ben Foster, and Foster pays it forward by calling Ellen Page's "Juno" portrayal a "flagship character for our generation."

There's plenty more, of course.  You can find the whole lot at Award Central.  Give it a look.

•  "Into the Wild" wins the season's first major Best Picture prize at the Gotahm Awards. [Variety]

•  David Carr reports from the scene. [The Carpetbagger]

•  Anne Thompson racks up "No Country" talk across the web, including this and that about the film's ending. [Thompson on Hollywood]

•  Martin Grove speaks up on behalf of Christopher Plummer's performance in "Man in the Chair." [The Hollywood Reporter]

•  T.L. Stanley blogs the campaign strategy for the performance. [Gold Rush]

•  Tom O'Neil compares the Gothams and the Indie Spirits. [Gold Derby]

•  Ramin Satoodeh was no fan of "Charlie Wilson's War." [The Gold Digger]

•  Nathaniel Rogers runs down a list great performances in not-so-great films. [The Film Experience]

I swear I'll get off the original song kick at some point, but the more I listen to Eddie Vedder's soundtrack for "Into the Wild," the more I feel like "Guaranteed" might not be the flagship song for the film.  Or, at least it shouldn't be.

"Guaranteed" is the track Paramount Vantage expects to have the most potential within the music branch, and it's already front and center at the VantageGuilds.com webpage for the pic.  What is attractive about this choice is how the song is used in a variety of ways throughout the film, either in full, purely instrumental or through Vedder's vocals and/or humming.  But I think the better track is "Society," a fuller song in the verse-chorus-versus sense and obviously used in an integral way in the film -- it's the song playing when McCandless is setting up his new home in the bus upon arrival to Alaska.

"Society" is the longer song, if that happens to matter, but it also speaks directly to the themes of the narrative like no other song in the film.  Not for nothing, I think the song might be the most meaningful and organic piece of music written for a major motion picture since Aimee Mann's "Save Me" from the "Magnlia" soundtrack in 1999.

Admittedly I'm not the Academy demographic here.  After all, I thought last year's best song was probably "In the End" from "Shortbus."

Anyway, check out the lyrics to "Society" for yourself and judge:

It's a mystery to me.
We have a Greed, with which we have agreed.

And you think you have to want more than you need.
Until you have it all, you won't be Free.

Society, you're a crazy breed.
I hope you're not lonely without me.

When you want more than you have, you think you need.
And when you think more than you want your thoughts begin to bleed.

I think I need to find a bigger place.
'Cause when you have more than you think you need more space.

Society, crazy indeed.
Hope you're not lonely, without me.

There's those thinking more less, less is more.
But if less is more, how you keepin' score?

Means for every point you make your level drops.
Kinda like you're startin' from the top.
And you can't do that.

Society, you're a crazy breed
Hope you're not lonely without me.

Society, crazy indeed
Hope you're not lonely without me.

Society, have mercy on me.
Hope you're not angry if I disagree.

Society, you're a crazy breed
I hope you're not lonely without me.

So we're not into predictions here at Variety, and that's not what I'm aiming at with this post.  But I do think it might be worth mulling over the three films Paramount Vantage has primed for major Oscar attention in some sort of level-headed fashion -- because it's been eating at me.

The studio is actually pushing five films for awards this year, but I don't think it's out of the question to overlook "A Mighty Heart" and "Margot at the Wedding" when it comes to Best Picture speculation.  So I will.

As noted last week, "There Will Be Blood" screened Thursday night to a few journos in Los Angeles and we're bound by blood and honor to keep a lid on it.  Fine, fair enough...I'll just let this casual diversion of the conversation to the other two titles say what I'm thinking about the Oscar chances of Paul Thomas Anderson's film -- sans personal opinion.

So we're down to "The Kite Runner" and "Into the Wild."  Both films have their fans, both seem to be the right contenders to hit the soft-spot demographic of the Academy.  It's been a while since I saw each of them, but I have to say that I'm starting to get the feeling Vantage would be better served by shoving all of their efforts behind the latter.

To start, there's a lot of charisma to work with (duh).  Emile Hirsch is the baby face, Sean Penn is the bad-boy actor-turned-director and Eddie Vedder is the grunge frontman considering an appearance in his first music video in 15 years for one of the film's tracks.  Oh, and don't forget loveable Hal Holbrook, who is coming to town in November to spice up the awards campaign.

Vantage is rallying the troops with screenings and events and, frankly, seems to be showing its hand that THIS is their contender.  But "The Kite Runner" hit a little hiccup on the way to a November release date (since pushed to December), so it makes sense that there isn't a lot of smoke around that title just yet.

I'm not a fan of "The Kite Runner" at all, mind you.  I think it is schmaltz of the highest order -- and this comes from a guy who loved "Finding Neverland."  So I'm not a cynical curmudgeon.  It's just too clinical in its tendency to hammer those golden-hued moments and themes, and sue me if I think the Academy would rather go with something that digs a little deeper.  You won't have a hard time finding someone who's seen the film and thinks it is right up the AMPAS' alley, but I'm skeptical.

I'm also no fan of "Into the Wild," by the way.  How's that for disclosure?  I loved, loved, LOVED Jon Krakauer's book, but thought Sean Penn's passion for Chris McCandless overshadowed craft and technique in the end.  But that's what the Academy loves so much, right?  Passion?  You can't take that away from the film, and from a guy who thought it wasn't really in the race upon seeing the final product, I have to say it's looking like a top tier candidate lately.