WORLD OF WORTHY FILMS

CRITICS’ reviews, box-office performance, industry screenings and early awards have helped whittle the list of Oscar best picture contenders. Though that means the top race is clearer, unpredictable turns are still ahead. The coming guild awards and Golden Globes will have a sizable effect on which five films emerge as nominees on Jan. 22.

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BEST PICTURE

FAVORITES

“American Gangster”

“Atonement”

“The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”

“Into the Wild”

“Juno”

“The Kite Runner”

“Michael Clayton”

“No Country for Old Men”

“Sweeney Todd”

“There Will Be Blood”

SPOTLIGHT: Oscar voters sometimes nominate foreign-language films such as “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” and “Il Postino” in the best picture race to prove how highbrow they can be. This year “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” is a compelling choice for two reasons. It’s a poignant, skillfully crafted tale of an almost totally paralyzed book editor that earned real-life artist Julian Schnabel the best director prize at Cannes and it has some key members of Steven Spielberg’s team behind it (producer Kathleen Kennedy and cinematographer Janusz Kaminski).

POSSIBLE

“Charlie Wilson’s War”

“The Great Debaters”

“Hairspray”

“3:10 to Yuma”

SPOTLIGHT: The last time a movie like “The Great Debaters” was nominated for best picture was 1989, with “Dead Poets Society.” Some Oscar pundits wonder if Hollywood -- and the whole world, for that matter -- hasn’t become too cynical in the 21st century to rally behind a movie with the same, gung-ho message for students: Hey, kids, learning is not only fun, it can change your life!

LONG SHOTS

“Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead”

“Enchanted”

“Gone Baby Gone”

“Once”

“The Savages”

“Zodiac”

SPOTLIGHT: Big, feel-good musicals used to be nominated often, including many from Disney, including “Mary Poppins” and “Beauty and the Beast.” “It’s obvious, but inescapable: ‘Enchanted’ is as good as its name,” cheered the Los Angeles Times review. Moviegoers and even cranky film critics have been spellbound so far. Oscar voters next?

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

FAVORITES

Austria, “The Counterfeiters”; Stefan Ruzowitzky, director

Brazil, “The Year My Parents Went on Vacation”; Cao Hamburger, director

Czech Republic, “I Served the King of England”; Jiri Menzel, director

Cuba, “The Silly Age”; Pavel Giroud, director

France, “Persepolis”; Marjane Satrapi, Vincent Paronnaud, directors

Germany, “The Edge of Heaven”; Fatih Akin, director

Italy, “The Unknown”; Giuseppe Tornatore, director

Kazakhstan, “Mongol”; Sergei Bodrov, director

Korea, “Secret Sunshine”; Chang-dong Lee, director

Lebanon, “Caramel”; Nadine Labaki, director

Romania, “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days”; Cristian Mungiu, director

Russia, “12”; Nikita Mikhalkov, director

Spain, “The Orphanage”; J.A. Bayona, director

SPOTLIGHT: “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days” seems like the front-runner since this drama about illegal abortions in Communist Romania earned the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival and the European Film Award for best picture, but is it Oscar-friendly? Academy cineastes may be turned off by its minimalist camera work and lack of a mood-guiding music score.

POSSIBLE

Australia, “The Home Song Stories”; Tony Ayres, director

Canada, “Days of Darkness”; Denys Arcand, director

Chile, “Padre Nuestro”; Rodrigo Sepulveda, director

China, “The Knot”; Yin Li, director

Denmark, “The Art of Crying”; Peter Schonau Fog, director

Finland, “A Man’s Job”; Aleksi Salmenpera, director

Hong Kong, “Exiled”; Johnnie To, director

India, “Eklavya -- The Royal Guard”; Vidhu Vinod Chopra, director

Iran, “M for Mother”; Rasoul Mollagholipour, director

Ireland, “Kings”; Tom Collins, director

Israel, “Beaufort”; Joseph Cedar, director

Japan, “I Just Didn’t Do It”; Masayuki Suo, director

Luxembourg, “Little Secrets”; Pol Cruchten, director

Mexico, “Silent Light”; Carlos Reygadas, director

The Netherlands, “Duska”; Jos Stelling, director

Norway, “Gone With the Woman”; Petter Naess, director

Poland, “Katyn”; Andrzej Wajda, director

Portugal, “Belle Toujours”; Manoel de Oliveira, director

Puerto Rico, “Love Sickness”; Carlitos Ruiz, Mariem Perez, directors

Serbia, “The Trap”; Srdan Golubovic, director

Singapore, “881”; Royston Tan, director

Sweden, “You, the Living”; Roy Andersson, director

Switzerland, “Late Bloomers”; Bettina Oberli, director

Taiwan, “Island Etude”; Chen Huai-En, director

Uruguay, “The Pope’s Toilet”; Enrique Fernandez, Cesar Charlone, directors;

Vietnam, “The White Silk Dress”; Luu Huynh, director

SPOTLIGHT: It may seem odd that a film produced in a U.S. territory competes for best foreign-language film, but “Love Sickness” features Spanish dialogue and is, technically, set outside the 50 states. A Puerto Rican film was nominated once before: “What Happened to Santiago” lost to Italy’s “Cinema Paradiso” in 1989.

LONG SHOTS

Argentina, “XXY”; Lucia Puenzo, director

Azerbaijan, “Caucasia”; Farid Gumbatov, director

Bangladesh, “On the Wings of Dreams”; Golam Rabbany Biplob, director

Belgium, “Ben X”; Nic Balthazar, director

Bulgaria, “Warden of the Dead”; Ilian Simeonov, director

Bosnia and Herzegovina, “It’s Hard to Be Nice”; Srdan Vuletic, director

Colombia, “Satanas”; Andi Baiz, director

Croatia, “Armin”; Ognjen Svilicic, director

Egypt, “In the Heliopolis Flat”; Mohamed Khan, director

Estonia, “The Class”; Ilmar Raag, director

Georgia, “The Russian Triangle”; Aleko Tsabadze, director

Greece, “Eduart”; Angeliki Antoniou, director

Hungary, “Taxidermia”; Gyorgy Palfi, director

Iceland, “Jar City”; Baltasar Kormakur, director

Iraq, “Jani Gal”; Jamil Rostami, director

Macedonia, “Shadows”; Milcho Manchevski, director

Peru, “Crossing a Shadow”; Augusto Tamayo, director

Philippines, “Donsol”; Adolfo Alix Jr., director

Slovakia, “Return of the Storks”; Martin Repka, director

Slovenia, “Short Circuits”; Janez Lapajne, director

Thailand, “King of Fire”; Chatrichalerm Yukol, director

Turkey, “A Man’s Fear of God”; Ozer Kiziltan, director

Venezuela, “Postcards From Leningrad”; Mariana Rondon, director

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SPOTLIGHT: If an Oscar were bestowed for grossest picture, Hungary’s “Taxidermia” would win by a landslide . . . of vomit and other bodily fluids. The movie features a burning penis, sex with a gutted pig’s carcass and grotesque gluttony (why bother to remove candy wrappers when you can eat 170 more chocolate bars per hour?). It’s a cult hit among gritty film freaks, but academy members -- who love sugary movies of another sort -- are fleeing screenings.

DOCUMENTARY (FEATURE)

FAVORITES

“Body of War”

“For the Bible Tells Me So”

“Lake of Fire”

“No End in Sight”

“Sicko”

“Taxi to the Dark Side”

“War/Dance”

SPOTLIGHT: Voters love documentaries by such firebrand liberals as Michael Moore, who won for “Bowling for Columbine” in 2002 and now competes with “Sicko.” But he could be upstaged by Phil Donahue, co-producer and co-director of “Body of War,” the story of a soldier paralyzed in Iraq. He’s promoting it aggressively around Hollywood, fuming, “This has been an unaffordable, unconstitutional, unwinnable, immoral war!”

POSSIBLE

“A Promise to the Dead: The Exile Journey of Ariel Dorfman”

“Nanking”

“Please Vote for Me”

“The Price of Sugar”

SPOTLIGHT: Narrated by Paul Newman, “The Price of Sugar” is an unflinching look at the human cost of harvesting sugar cane using displaced Haitians in the Dominican Republic. Past winners examined other social-conscious issues such as global warming (“An Inconvenient Truth”) and impoverished children of prostitutes (“Born Into Brothels”).

LONG SHOTS

“Autism: The Musical”

“Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience”

“The Rape of Europa”

“White Light/Black Rain”

SPOTLIGHT: With several other films in this category addressing the war in Iraq, “Operation Homecoming” may be too low-impact since it utilizes the intimate writings of soldiers to tell their stories. This straightforward documentary, helmed by longtime ABC News producer Richard Robbins, has already been shown on PBS, so it could be dismissed as TV fare.

DOCUMENTARY (SHORT SUBJECT)

FAVORITES

“Body & Soul: Diana & Kathy”

“Freeheld”

“Ochberg’s Orphans”

“Sari’s Mother”

SPOTLIGHT: “Freeheld” has been winning awards since it debuted at Sundance. Cinematographer-turned-director Cynthia Wade profiles a lesbian police detective who fights two desperate battles -- one against a fatal cancer, the other to transfer her pension to her partner.

POSSIBLE

“If It Happens”

“La Corona” (“The Crown”)

“Portraits of a Lady”

“Salim Baba”

SPOTLIGHT: In “If It Happens,” veteran Polish filmmaker and past Oscar nominee Marcel Lozinski chronicles his son’s return to a Warsaw park where he once questioned elderly people for the 1995 film “Anything Can Happen.” Now age 18, the son applies the lessons learned then to his life today in this loving portrait by his father, which could appeal to Oscar’s notoriously sentimental voters.

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THE STUDIO

report

A guide to distributors vying for awards gold in this issue’s categories.

City Lights

“The Year My Parents Went on Vacation”

DreamWorks

“Sweeney Todd”

Focus Features

“Atonement”

Fox Searchlight

“Juno”

“Once”

“The Savages”

IFC

“4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days”

“Jar City”

Kino International

“Beaufort”

Lionsgate

“Sicko” (with Weinstein Co.)

“3:10 to Yuma”

Magnolia Pictures

“No End in Sight”

Menemsha Films

“The Rape of Europa”

MGM

“The Great Debaters” (with Weinstein Co.)

Mitropoulos Films

“The Price of Sugar”

Miramax

“The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”

“Gone Baby Gone”

“No Country for Old Men”

New Line

“Hairspray”

Outsider Pictures

“The Unknown”

Paramount

“Zodiac”

Paramount Vantage

“Into the Wild”

“The Kite Runner”

“There Will Be Blood”

Picturehouse

“Mongol”

“The Orphanage”

Roadside Attractions

“Caramel”

Sony Pictures Classics

“The Counterfeiters”

“I Served the King of England”

“Persepolis”

Strand Releasing

“The Edge of Heaven”

Tartan Films

“Duska”

“Taxidermia”

ThinkFilm

“Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead”

“Lake of Fire

“Nanking”

“Taxi to the Dark Side”

“War/Dance”

Universal

“American Gangster”

“Charlie Wilson’s War”

Walt Disney Studios

“Enchanted”

Warner Bros.

“Michael Clayton”