Some likely Oscar also-rans

In other words, come Jan. 22, there will be five winners and lots of losers -- admirable, well-made movies that will quickly drop off the media radar screen, with the five best picture finalists sucking up all the air in the room. So, with a consensus forming around five films that could nail down the best picture slots ("Slumdog Millionaire," "Milk," "Frost/Nixon," "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" and "The Dark Knight"), it seemed like a good time to take a look at which movies will go home empty-handed -- and why they didn't make it to the finish line.

Feel free to fire away if you think I've slighted any of your favorites, but here are my thoughts on the most obvious also-rans:

"Wall-E": A wonderful, critically beloved movie, "Wall-E" in any normal world would be a shoo-in nominee for best picture. Its problem? It's an animated film, the one genre (along with comedy) that gets no respect from the academy -- no animated film has won an Oscar for best picture, even though many classics, notably "The Lion King," "Toy Story 2," "Spirited Away" and "Ratatouille," were just as good as the live-action winners in their year of eligibility. Actors, who make up the biggest branch of the academy, almost never vote for animated films, so it's virtually impossible to put together enough support from other branches of the academy to register a win.

Hence, the best animated film ghetto, which, just like at Sunday's Golden Globe Awards, allows an animated delight like "Wall-E" to get some recognition without having a legitimate shot at best picture stardom. Some commentators have suggested that if Disney had spent just another $20 million to push "Wall-E," it could've gotten over the top, but Disney is probably right not to throw good money after bad -- too many academy members have a built-in bias against animated films, viewing them as just not "important" enough to vote for.