Wading back out into the Oscar waters for post-nominations coverage is Variety's Features department, this weekend spotlighting the nominees in a few of the major races and a look at critical praise for nominated thesps.

Stu Levine has the lede on the former, running down the films in competition from the angle of wild card success.  Christine Champagne then steps in with a list of whys and why nots on the potential of the year's Best Picture contenders.

Also covered in similar fashion by various writers are the screenplay, directing, foreign language, animated feature and documentary races.  Yours truly will be on the supporting actor side of things with this next week, by the way.

Meanwhile, David Mermelstein kicks things off for the talent involved as he dives in from the perspective of foreign thesps opening U.S. doors with their Oscar bids.  I wrote a similar story last year for Variety with 2006's crop of foreign ladies in focus.  Awards success for foreign theps an interesting and ever-expanding trend.

Finally, there's all those love-fest quotes from various critics on the year's lead acting contenders.  Check it out.