Gloom dominates tight Oscar documentary race
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Viewers may think some of the nominees for best picture at next week's Academy Awards are dark, but they pale in comparison with the movies competing for the coveted Oscar for best documentary.
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This year Oscar was deluged with so many good foreign films, they didn't have room to nominate all the good ones.
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The struggles of past nominees demonstrate the elusive nature of motion picture's most prestigious prize.
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LOS ANGELES  - Michael Moore's  "Fahrenheit 9/11," the No. 1 regular-format documentary of all  time, will not compete in this year's race for the best  documentary Academy Award, though it does plan to throw its hat  into the ring as a best picture contender, a feat never  achieved by a nonfiction film.
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Hollywood's Oscar race for best film appears to be wide open heading into its final month with several award watchers on Tuesday giving comedy "Little Miss Sunshine" a slight edge over "The Departed" and "Babel."
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The Academy Awards typically are a gloomy Sunday, ending with a heavy drama crowned as best picture.
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Looking back at 2004, it wasn't a particularly great year for movies. In fact, coming up with a Top 10 List, especially for anyone who doesn't share the Academy's passion for dark depressing films, wasn't easy.
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With the passing of Labor Day weekend, the really big movies -- featuring household names, gigantic budgets and baring the burden of Oscar hopes and pretensions -- are just around the corner.
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It's damned tough for  even big-name filmmakers to get a movie made these days.
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LOS ANGELES  - With the economy sinking into recession, the war in Iraq about to enter its sixth year, and lingering uncertainty in Hollywood following the writers strike, it's perhaps fitting that the films competing for the best documentary Oscar mirror the gloom.
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It was a memorable but not completely triumphant Oscar night for black actors as Forrest Whitaker and Jennifer Hudson won trophies but Eddie Murphy lost in an upset.
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Quite a few categories in this yearâs Oscar race bring all of the challenge of the wading pool. While some head out to the deep end.
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Film fans finally will soon learn who's competing for this season's Academy Awards. Now all we need to know is whether any nominees will turn up for the big show amid a writers strike that has thrown the awards season into turmoil.
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BEVERLY HILLS, California  - The gritty dramas "No Country For Old Men" and "There Will Be Blood" scored eight Academy Award nominations each on Tuesday, leading a somber field in an Oscar season overshadowed by the Hollywood writers' strike.
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Maybe it was the crippling writers' strike or the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Or was it something in the expensive bottled water in Beverly Hills where Oscar organizers are based.
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Optimism was in the air Monday among Academy Awards nominees Â both on their films' prospects and the chances that Hollywood's crippling writers strike will end in time for the Oscars show to go on as planned.
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Alexander Payne's heart-piercing new film about a writer on the verge of disappointment is a reason to maintain hope in the film industry.