Christmas clues for Oscars

Tom Hanks is Cast Away this Christmas

By BBC News Online Entertainment correspondent Tom Brook

An avalanche of movies arrived at the US box office for Christmas, many of them end of the year releases vying for Oscar consideration.

Among more than 20 films opening in the last week of 2000 is the eagerly-awaited survival drama Cast Away starring Tom Hanks.

The film re-teams Hanks with director Robert Zemeckis, the creative duo behind that 1994 blockbuster movie phenomenon Forrest Gump.

Steven Soderbergh and Michael Douglas on the set of Traffic

In Cast Away Tom Hanks plays a Federal Express systems engineer who is the sole survivor of a plane crash over the Pacific Ocean.

He has to fend for himself on a deserted island over a period of years during which we witness Hanks undergoing a dramatic physical transformation involving substantial weight loss.

For a long section of the film there is no dialogue, just the sounds of nature and the charismatic presence of Tom Hanks to hold audience attention.

As a film Cast Away is a thin, melancholic story.

But Hanks gives a very strong performance, many say the best of his career, and it's expected the role will bring him yet one more Oscar nomination.

Another film with powerful performances is Traffic, director Steven Soderbergh's panoramic look at America's war on drugs.

The picture, which has its origins in a 1989 Channel 4 TV series called Traffik, boasts a strong ensemble cast that includes Michael Douglas and his new wife Catherine Zeta Jones.

Catherine Zeta Jones received a Golden Globes nomination for Christmas

Soderbergh, who also did the camerawork, has woven together several interconnected stories to create a visually impressive picture that serves as a stinging critique of current US government drug policy.

Traffic is edgy filmmaking. It has earned a lot of praise, winning the New York Critics Circle award for best film of 2000, and has just picked up five Golden Globe nominations.

Big name stars will be lighting up cinema screens in the next few days in a range of roles.

Sean Connery can be seen in Finding Forrester, playing a reclusive writer who becomes a mentor to a young African-American boy, while Sandra Bullock stars in the comedy Miss Congeniality as a tough FBI agent who has to pose as a beauty contestant to foil a bombing.

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Kevin Costner can also be seen over the holidays appearing as an aide to President Kennedy in the 1962 Cuban Missile crisis drama Thirteen Days.

With Mel Gibson continuing to impress moviegoers with his first foray into romantic comedy in What Women Want, and a new animation from Disney, The Emperor's New Groove, the Hollywood box office is expected to remain buoyant over the Christmas holidays.

The US film industry is hoping to break records by exceeding the $7.5bn in revenues which were amassed last year.

If records are broken, it will come about largely as a result of inflated ticket prices, because admissions are down, which remains a source of concern among many studio executives.

Normally, by this time of the year a clear Oscar frontrunner has emerged, but this year the race still remains uncertain.

The Golden Globe nominations and the various US critics' awards have showered recognition on a wide range of films.

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But the faint contours of the Oscars race are beginning to emerge.

It is expected that Gladiator and Erin Brockovich will secure best picture nominations.

Other contenders in the category could include Cast Away, Billy Elliot, Traffic and the Ang Lee martial arts fantasy Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

For Steven Soderbergh 2000 is a triumphant year because he has directed two possible Oscar contenders, Erin Brockovich and Traffic, and he stands a very good chance of getting two Academy Award best director nominations.

Although there are some solid end-of-the-year releases, the fact remains that 2000 has been rather disappointing in terms of Hollywood movies.

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1999 saw some very strong studio releases that included commercial successes like The Matrix, The Sixth Sense and American Beauty.

Of the studio releases this year only Gladiator stands out as a picture that has both artistic merit and mass appeal.

Even though the films were not as good in 2000, the forthcoming Oscars race could be much more interesting.

With no clear front runner anything is possible, so in terms of excitement the forthcoming Oscars contest promises to bring movie fans some of the drama that was perhaps lacking this year on the big screen.