DEAR ACADEMY VOTERS:.

Byline: Bob Strauss Daily News Film Critic

As the Oscar nomination season begins in earnest with Sunday's Golden Globe Awards ceremony, I just wanted all of you to know that I have every confidence you'll make the right, honorable choices.

While 1998 may not have been an all-time great movie year, it certainly produced a larger-than-usual number of very good films. And if the 3,871 prediction stories I've seen since Christmas are correct in their consensus, such worthy efforts as ``Saving Private Ryan,'' ``The Truman Show,'' ``Shakespeare in Love,'' ``Life Is Beautiful,'' ``Elizabeth,'' ``Pleasantville,'' ``Affliction'' and ``Rushmore'' are high on all your lists.

Regardless of how the Globes pan out on Sunday, I'm sure independent thinkers such as yourselves won't let them unduly influence your high personal standards. And any of you considering making the Hollywood Foreign Press Association your Oscar guides, remember: They nominated an unmistakable action movie, ``Mask of Zorro,'' in their musical/comedy category.

The academy, of course, would never make such embarrassing gaffes. Which speaks to the wisdom of not even having a musical/comedy category that, let's face it, could confuse people who possess even the best of taste.

But I digress. I know I can count on you guys to see through ``The Thin Red Line's'' artsy hooey, despite all of the reviews you've dutifully read that excuse its indulgent incoherence as ``poetic.'' (Side note to fellow critics: There is such a thing as bad poetry. Jewel's book is deeper than Terrence Malick's disembodied monologues.)

I'm also satisfied that, despite your organization's traditional appreciation of cancer, you'll recognize that the caricatured roles Meryl Streep played in ``One True Thing'' and Susan Sarandon essayed in ``Stepmom'' were among the least distinguished of their usually admirable careers, terminal or not.

Obviously, I trust your judgment. One teensy, tiny little concern, though. With all the slam dunks and designated dark horses that are now all but locked into nominations, some equally fine work is bound to be overlooked.

So please consider this humble list of suggestions for one - just one, nothing too daunting - entry in each of the major categories that you might not yet have seen or read the Variety ad for.

Naturally, I don't expect all of them to be announced in the wee hours of Feb. 9. I just want you to think about them before you nominate.

Or, by God, just think.

Best picture

There are good reasons why ``Bulworth'' isn't as thorough an artistic success as ``Private Ryan,'' ``Truman'' or even ``Shakespeare.'' Warren Beatty's political satire is messy and narcissistically imbalanced (though purposely so); it managed to both advocate worn-out liberal bromides and offend large portions of the African-American community at the same time.

But ``Bulworth'' did something no American movie has managed in years: It captured the absurd essence of the political year in which it appeared. While ``Wag the Dog'' and ``Primary Colors'' were remarkably prescient in their specifics, ``Bulworth'' reflected the much larger, system-wide meltdown of sense in government. Sure, it's partially an accident of timing, but even that makes Beatty the most socially attuned director since Robert Altman released his masterpiece ``Nashville'' in 1975. ``Bulworth'' is 1998 in celluloid form.

Best actress

The good but overused arguments for Cameron Diaz are: A) comedy is in many ways harder than drama, and it's about time the academy got over its corset-queen and cancer-mom fetishes; B) the New York Film Critics Circle gave her their best actress award, and, despite the fact that they live in New York, they're not completely nuts; and C) boy, was she a good sport.

Perhaps the most persuasive reason for a ``There's Something About Mary'' nomination, though, is that there's something about Cameron. As the film's universal object of affection, she displayed a rare combination of acting chops and movie star charisma. And that, not its state-of-the-art grossout comedy, was the secret of ``Mary's'' unexpected mega-success. Look again and you'll marvel at how very little sex has to do with Diaz's irresistible appeal.

Best actor

Billy Bob Thornton has the showier role in ``A Simple Plan,'' and he plays it with heart-ripping, award-worthy poignance. But Bill Paxton has a bigger load to haul in this snowy slice of country noir. In doing so, he not only provides crucial support for Thornton's supporting actor turn; he registers one of the smartest, subtlest portrayals of moral collapse ever filmed.

Watch closely as the actor registers his character's appalled self-realization of his own craven selfishness - and how he's too ``well-adjusted'' to lose his cool over it. As the smarter, supposedly saner half of the film's doomed brother act, Paxton creates, piece by judicious piece, the personal hell of a good guy discovering that he doesn't want to finish last, and is capable of anything to ensure that.

Supporting actress

Catherine Keener has long been the thinking person's Parker Posey, an actress whose fierce, honest intelligence has redeemed many a cutsie-poo indie. There is nothing cute about ``Your Friends & Neighbors,'' and it clearly could not have pleased Keener more. The gusto with which she plays the film's nastiest female - a woman who unapologetically has time for only her own gratification, and a tongue that lacerates anyone who impedes that goal - is strangely exhilarating. The example she sets in a film universe still dominated by bad boys and romantic fallacies is as admirable as it is alarming.

Supporting actor

There was no fuller, funnier, freakier characterization last year than John Goodman's in ``The Big Lebowski.'' He played a philosophical, ridiculously well-groomed, religiously observant Vietnam vet whose overrational approach to everything barely disguised near-psychotic impatience. A one-of-a-kind role, for sure (the Coen Brothers actually wrote the film for the actor), but Goodman enhanced it with every little choice of timing, emphasis and beard-trimming he made.

Director

Even the trade paper ads for ``Gods and Monsters'' employ a train motif, emphasizing how the Little Indie That Could has hauled Ian McKellen to the front of the best actor race and given Lynn Redgrave a good shot at a supporting actress nod. But director Bill Condon is being criminally overlooked by most prognosticators, when he should at the very least be celebrated for guiding some of the year's greatest performances.

More than that, Condon compellingly matched a variety of film styles with the movie's diverse themes, then deftly wove the complex elements together at the film's resonant climax. And, oh yeah, he found the most unique of tones for the piece, and sustained it. If that's not directing at its best, you may as well just give the award to Jim Cameron again.

Adapted screenplay

The story wasn't so hot, but the storytelling in ``Smoke Signals'' was absolutely marvelous. Adapted by Sherman Alexie from a collection of his short fiction, the script employed the traditional American Indian art of talk story to create tales and dialogue like we've never heard before in the movies. Words rarely have counted for so much in what is increasingly becoming a post-verbal medium.

Original screenplay

As visually pleasing as 1998's strong suite of animated features was, it was the thoroughly grown-up wit of ``Antz'' that arguably advanced the form more than anything else. Sticking slippery Freudianisms, Marxist mutterings and a mountain of sharp social satire into the CGI anthill, the DreamWorks wags reassured us that, no matter how technologically unreal filmmaking gets, the human element can always endure by way of clever writing.

CAPTION(S):

8 Photos

Photo: (1--Cover--Color) Warren Beatty in ``Bulworth''

(2--Cover--Color) no caption (Academy Awards statuette)

AMPAS 

(3) There's something about Cameron Diaz - a combination of acting chops and movie-star charisma - that makes her the best actress choice for her role in ``There's Something About Mary.''

(4) Director Bill Condon, left, with Brendan Fraser on the set of ``Gods and Monsters,'' deserves recognition for guiding some of the year's greatest performances.

(5) The art of storytelling makes ``Smoke Signals,'' with Irene Bedard and Adam Beach, deserving of an adapted screenplay award.

(6) Bill Paxton

Best actor, ``A Simple Plan''

(7) Catherine Keener

Supporting actress, ``Your Friends & Neighbors''

(8) John Goodman

Supporting actor, ``The Big Lebowski.''