BEST PICTURE
	Picture	Studio	Director	Stars	Comment
The Frontrunners (in alphabetical order)
Nov 14	Australia	Fox	Luhrmann	Kidman Jackman	Baz' shot at the "Out of Africa" thang
Oct 10	Body of Lies	WB	Scott	DiCaprio Crowe	Channeling The Departed... Monaghan script....Ridley's year?
Dec 19	The Curious Case of Benjamin Button	Par	Fincher	Pitt	Fincher with a heart... a real shot with a screnplay that eluded many before this group
Dec 12	Defiance	ParV	Zwick	Craig	Jews Fight Nazis!
Dec 12	Doubt	Mir	Shanley	Streep PS Hoffman	A mighty drama... a mighty cast
Dec 5	Frost/Nixon	U	Howard	Langella Sheen	Brilliant stage piece, will nostalgia be strong for voters? Two presidential noms year?
Dec	Gran Torino	WB	Eastwood	Eastwood	Who knows? Clint's late entry is always the one to watch.
Nov 26	Milk	Focus	Van Sant	Penn Brolin	Another great story that has taken years to happen.... a political Brokeback?
Dec 26	Revolutionary Road	ParV	Mendes	Winslet DiCaprio	Pedigree rocks.
Nov 11	The Road	TWC/ MGM	Hillcoat	Theron Mortensen	Cormac McCarthy again... from the brillaint director of The Proposition
Nov 21	The Soloist	DW	Wright	Downey, Jr Foxx	Another Skid-Row-Bum-Becomes-Concert-Soloist Flick... Can Wright lay off the schmaltz enough to make keep audiences from getting diabetes?
Oct 17	W.	LGF	Stone	Brolin Burstyn	The dark horse, thrown-together-at-the-last-minute movie that feels so much light it is Stone's water after a long trip to the desert
And The Films O' Potential
Sept 26	Blindness	Mir	Meirelles	J Moore Ruffalo	Will find some champions, but chafed audiences even at Cannes
Sept 12	Burn After Reading	Focus	Coens	Pitt McDormand	How can The Coens not get on the list for potential?
Oct 24	The Changeling	U	Eastwood	Jolie	Said to be more commercial than award-y
?	Che	?	Soderbergh	Del Toro	Heading to NYFF... but will anyone buy the thing... and will the producers lower the asking price to avoid a Goya's Ghosts?
Sept 19	The Duchess	ParVan	Dibb	Knightley	Rip That Bodice!
Oct 10	Happy Go Lucky	Mir	Leigh	Hawkins	Leigh always brings some magic and has a lot of Academy appeal
xDec?	Nothing But the Truth	Yari	Lurie	Beckinsale	A political thriller coming out after the election. Huh?
Oct 3	Rachel Getting Married	SPC	Demme	Hathaway Winger	Demme does wonderful stuff... but wonderful enough to Oscar notions?
Oct 17	The Secret Life of Bees	FoxS	Prince-Bythewood	Latifah Fanning	So... Dakota gets trained for a spelling bee by Queen Latifah?
Dec 12	Seven Pounds	Sony	Muccino	Smith	A Will Smith feel-good and warm and box office friendly.. but Oscar?

July 31 , 2008
- by David Poland