If you think it's too early to start sizing up the 2008 Oscar season, consider that it already began in the fall -- at the Telluride and Toronto international film festivals. That's where small specialty films like Sony Pictures Classics' "The Counterfeiters" and Larry Charles and Bill Maher's documentary "Religulous" made their North American debuts.
Granted, many of the 2008 contenders have yet to be released, much less promoted by Oscar campaigners. But with award season pundits already declaring the 2007 race a bust (blame those Iraq war films, a lack of big hits like "Titanic" and the ongoing writers strike), maybe it's time to consider who might be on stage in 2009 at Hollywood's Kodak Theatre.
Here's a look ahead at Oscar bait 2008:
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"Revolutionary Road"
Imagine "Titanic's" Jack and Rose all "growed up," married and living in the American burbs in the 1950s. The winking parallels are unavoidable in Sam Mendes' film based on Richard Yates' 1961 novel and starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet as Frank and April Wheeler. But rather than two teenage star-crossed lovers, the Wheelers are bored Connecticut parents eager to flee their lives and pursue their artistic ambitions abroad.
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"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
Brad Pitt's recent spate of Oscar-bait roles -- 2006's "Babel," 2007's "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" and the upcoming Coen brothers comedy "Burn After Reading" -- could continue with this film, a David Fincher passion project based on a relatively obscure F. Scott Fitzgerald short story. The technically complex fantasy-drama centers on Button (Pitt) as a man who begins aging backward with odd consequences. Costars include this year's Oscar front-runners Cate Blanchett and Tilda Swinton and the woefully overlooked Taraji P. Henson ("Talk to Me").
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"Changeling"
Clint Eastwood has become something of a de facto prestige-picture poster boy, er, elder statesman. With his latest effort, "Changeling," Eastwood again tackles a story that requires much more than big craft service and visual-effects budgets. The period mystery stars Angelina Jolie as the grieving mother of a kidnapped son who seems a little off when he is returned home. This year's best supporting actress contender and critics' darling Amy Ryan ("Gone Baby Gone") also stars.
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"The Duchess"
