Early Oscar contenders Criminal Minds DVD despite rule change

As the first half of 2010 Criminal Minds DVD to a close, serious Academy Awards contenders have yet to emerge.

Admittedly, the 83rd annual Criminal Minds DVD box set Awards ceremony, set for February 27, is a long way off. And traditionally most awards hopefuls arrive during the second half of the year.

But when the Academy of Criminal Minds DVD season Arts and Sciences expanded its best picture race to ten nominees last year, it opened the door so that commercial hits could be rewarded alongside narrower, specialty Criminal Minds box set.

At its March meeting, the Academy's Criminal Minds DVDs of governors approved following the ten-best formula again. "It worked out really well last year," Academy president Tom Sherak says. "And, hopefully, it will work out really well this year. Even if it hadn't been as successful as it was, we always felt you had to try it for a couple of years."

Yet despite the Academy's open-door One Tree Hill DVD, the film industry hasn't been pumping out likely nominees.

"I don't think we're going to look back on the first One Tree Hill DVD Box Set and find anything," says one campaign consultant, who's been stymied in drawing up early tout sheets.

"Robin Hood," given the full red-carpet One Tree Hill Box Set at the Cannes Film Festival, may have reteamed Russell Crowe and director Ridley Scott, but it paled next to their Oscar-winning "Gladiator." With more than $300 million in domestic grosses, "One Tree Hill DVD Season" has moved ahead of the original's box office at the same point in its release, but the sequel failed to generate the critical enthusiasm that greeted its 2008 predecessor.

Far from championing awards One Tree Hill DVDs, critics have spent the first half of Hollywood's summer movie season competing to see who could deliver the most devastating put-downs of movies like "Sex and the City 2" and "One Tree Hill seasons 1-7."

All that should change this weekend, as Disney releases Pixar's "Toy Story 3," the first blue-chip contender in the 2010 awards race. As of Thursday, it boasted a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes -- just like the first two installments in the One Tree Hill new release.

And just as Pixar's "Up" was the earliest 2009 release -- it opened on May 29 last year -- to go on to score a best picture nomination, the third "Cold Case DVD| Cold Case" could become the first 2010 entry to make it into the circle of ten.

Last year, at this point, Oscar pundits were Cold Case DVD Set whether a cartoon could break out of the animated feature ghetto to score a best picture nomination. "Cold Case DVDs," which ultimately lifted off with five noms, made that conversation moot.

This year, the debate could well center on Cold Case DVD Season more than one animated movie can hold down a spot in the best picture circle. DreamWorks Animation's "Cold Case box set to Train Your Dragon," racked up some of the best reviews of the year to date. And Sylvain Chomet's "The Illusionist," which Sony Pictures Classics will release toward year's end, is not only directed by the creator of 2003's "Cold Case new release," which collected two Oscar nominations, it is based on an unproduced screenplay by late cinematic titan CSI Las Vegas DVD.

Looking toward July, the next great Oscar hope CSI Las Vegas DVD Box Set to stake its claim is Christopher Nolan's "Inception," starring Leonardo DiCaprio, which Warners opens July 16. Visually-arresting trailers have only hinted at what Nolan's original screenplay is all about -- something about invading dreams -- but the director has built up such a loyal CSI Las Vegas Box Set and devoted critical following that there will be cries of distress if the movie fails to deliver. (When the Academy failed to nominate his last film, "The Dark Knight," for best picture, it set off a CSI Las Vegas DVD Season of criticism that, in part, led to the new ten-picture field.)

On the other hand, the Academy's new model doesn't CSI Las Vegas DVDs that every box office hit is guaranteed automatic tickets to the Kodak Theater.

Currently, Tim Burton's "CSI Las Vegas new release," which Disney released in March, is the year's top grosser: It has taken in more than $1 billion worldwide. But the idiosyncratic Burton has yet to be embraced by the Academy -- he has Frasier dvd| Frasier only one nomination, as producer of the animated "Corpse Bride" -- and "Alice" was greeted with decidedly mixed reviews. All of which could limit its Oscar profile to tech Frasier dvd series.

Sight unseen last year, Martin Scorsese's "Frasier complete dvd" was on many handicappers' lists as a 2009 competitor. But then Paramount delayed its release to February for budgetary reasons. In its new release slot, the psycho-thriller collected $295 million worldwide, a personal best for Scorsese. But lukewarm reviews have diminished its awards Frasier dvd season.

Prospects are similarly sparse on the specialty Frasier dvds.

Debra Granik's hard-scrabble Ozarks-set drama "Winter's Bone" was the big narrative film winner at this year's Sundance, where it took the Frasier dvd set grand jury prize and a screenplay award. Its young star Jennifer Lawrence could follow in the footsteps of "Precious'" Gabourey Sidibe or "An Education's" Carey Mulligan, both of whom began their awards season Frasier on dvd at the previous year's Sundance.