ESSENCE OF A NOMINATION-WORTHY FILM.

Byline: - Glenn Whipp

This year's Oscar nominees for best picture include a feel-good movie about losers, an electrifying crime story, an understanding look at misunderstandings and a couple of beautifully told history lessons. A look at the nominees, their commercial reception and their magic movie moments.

LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE

Release date: July 26

Current U.S. box-office: $59.5 million

Movie magic moment: Husband-and-wife directing team Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris set the comically dysfunctional dynamic from the get-go during a dinner scene that introduces us to the hapless Hoover family.

There we learn why Uncle Frank (Steve Carell) tried to commit suicide (it's not easy being the nation's No. 2 Proust scholar), how mom (Toni Collette) tries to keep the family together by making sure everyone has a little salad with their bucket of chicken, why Nietzsche-loving teen Dwayne has taken a vow of silence, why foul-mouthed granddad (Alan Arkin) got kicked out of his retirement home (``Chicken? Holy God almighty!''), why the motivational speaker dad (Greg Kinnear) is such a jerk and just how sweet a 7-year-old, soon-to-be beauty pageant star (Abigail Breslin) can be.

THE DEPARTED

Release date: Oct. 6

Current U.S. box-office: $121.7 million

Movie magic moment: Undercover officer Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) trails dirty cop Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) to a porn theater. Sullivan meets with mob boss Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson), telling Costello ``I gotta find myself'' 7/8 meaning the rat has been assigned to find the rat. Sullivan tells Costello to lay low. ``Laying low is not what I do,'' Costello replies.

When Sullivan leaves the Chinatown theater, director Martin Scorsese and his expert editor Thelma Schoonmaker cut back and forth between Sullivan and the pursuing Costigan, dopplegangers on a collision course. Their chase is a master class in making tension dance.

BABEL

Release date: Oct. 27

Current U.S. box-office: $23.6 million

Movie magic moment: Given that Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu cannot imagine calamity without four or five others immediately springing to mind, picking one grim moment from ``Babel'' would take away from the dreary air of fatalism that pervades the movie.

But if we had to choose? How about that bullet from out of nowhere that blindsides Cate Blanchett and gets the ball rolling? Without that shot, there would be no blond moppets stumbling through the Mexican desert, no deaf-mute Japanese teen girl flashing her schoolmates, no Brad Pitt furrowing his brow into never-before-imagined crevasses. To borrow from Oliver Stone's ``JFK'': That's one magic bullet.

LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA 

Release date: Dec. 20

Current U.S. box office: $2.4 million

Movie magic moment: Japanese officer Baron Nishi (Tsuyoshi Ihara) finds a letter among the effects of a Marine prisoner who has died in their cave. Like the letters we hear the Japanese soldiers writing throughout the film, the note from the young man's mother is newsy, ordinary, nothing special. Come home safely, she tells her son.

Then the capper: ``Remember what I said to you. Always do what is right because it is right.''

A Japanese soldier ponders those words. ``I was taught that they were savages,'' he says, ``but his mother's words were the same as my mother.''

THE QUEEN

Release date: Sept. 30

Current U.S. box-office: $35.5 million

Movie magic moment: In the wake of Diana's death, Queen Elizabeth II (Helen Mirren) turns on the television in her bedroom and comes across an old TV interview in which the Princess of Wales tearfully complains about life with the royals. Mirren never lifts the queen's regal veil, but watch the parade of conflicting emotions on her face -- regret, loathing, betrayal, bewilderment and jealousy all come through loud and clear.

QUOTES from the nominees

``If you fail the first time, try, try try, try, try, try, try again. Yoicks!''

-- Peter O'Toole

on his nomination for ``Venus,'' his eighth Oscar nod for best actor

``I'm very pleased. I'm in frighteningly good company. It is very nice of the queen to allow me in for a minute. It was one of the harder parts I have played. At the end of the day, I was quite glad to get back to the person I am. I had the power to do it because of (director) Richard Eyre. He steered me through the rougher waters of it.''

-- Dame Judi Dench

on her best actress nomination in ``Notes on a Scandal''

``The main impression were the calls from old friends who were genuinely excited for my good fortune and it touches me deeply.''

-- Alan Arkin,

best supporting actor nominee for ``Little Miss Sunshine''

``I jumped! I cried! I screamed like crazy! I kissed my husband many times. My husband cried. We were a mess.''

-- Adriana Barraza, nominated for best supporting actress for her role in ``Babel''

TOM PERROTA: Nominee for best adapted screenplay for ``Little Children,'' Tom Perrota got the news at his home in Boston. He said he wasn't watching television because the tension of the Golden Globes got the best of him: ``There's an aspect of a bad dream, waiting for someone to say your name on television. I told my agent to call me if the news was good.''

He got a call.

``It's more the feeling of relief and then real pleasure. I expect the worst. Now I can continue my Zelig-like appearances at places I don't belong.''

RICK HEINRICHS: If the look of any film this year is clearly the product of many individuals, it is ``Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.'' Art director Rick Heinrichs already is thinking about how to recognize everyone who had a hand in creating everything from the ships and the menacing sea serpent to the cages of human bones -- without whipping out a list a mile long -- should he win the Oscar. ``They tell you not to go up there with a laundry list, which I did the first time (for `Sleepy Hollow'). And I learned a year later that they used my acceptance speech (at the Oscar nominees' luncheon) as an example of what not to do,'' he said.

``And I was nominated again for `Lemony Snicket.' That was the year they were playing around with it and they had all five nominees up there on the stage at the same time. That was not good because you're standing there and you're the loser.''

DAVIS GUGGENHEIM: The documentary ``An Inconvenient Truth'' was pretty much a shoo-in for an Oscar nomination, except in the eyes of director Davis Guggenheim. ``I was 100 percent certain we would not get nominated,'' he says. ``I had the whole argument down pat: We're a slide show, the academy really takes very seriously what it takes to be a documentary, we didn't get a DGA nomination. It had all that against it.''

What's in its favor, and definitely distinguishes it from its four rivals for the award, is the -- dare we say it? -- star power of former Vice President Al Gore.

``The thought of Al Gore on the red carpet at the Academy Awards -- that's a real victory march for him,'' Guggenheim said. ``For ages, he has been trying to get his message across about global warming, and people are really hearing it.''

OK, so the ex-veep and wife Tipper will be mingling with the stars on Feb 25. What's the most relevant way to make an entrance at an event for which celebs pull up in hybrid cars even when their films have nothing to do with environmental issues?

``At Cannes, we walked to the premiere,'' Guggenheim said.

VALERIE FARIS, JONATHAN DAYTON: The best sports Oscar morning had gotto be ``Little Miss Sunshine'' directors Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton who were surprisinglynot nominated even though their film got a best picture nod. But the pair still did interviews and were in surprisingly good humor.

``We're in good company,'' Dayton said, referring to the omission of ``Dreamgirls'' director Bill Condon from the category. ``Of course we're disappointed, but to be disappointed after all that has happened to this film would be ridiculous. We've been directing together for 20 years but this is our first feature, and we have to say it's been fantastic.''

Joked Faris: ``Our film is a little bit about losers, so we're comfortable in the loser spot. ... It's hard when you only have five spots. We're just so happy the film has done so well.One major consolation prize: The pair have been nominated for the prestigious Directors Guild of America award.

``I am thrilled in a way that no one can possibly imagine. It's extraordinary that anyone in the actor's branch is even speaking to me, never mind nominating me yet again. I'm very, very grateful.''

- Meryl Streep,

who gained her 14th nomination with the best actress nod for ``The Devil Wears Prada''

``I have tremendous respect for all the actors in this category, and it's a great honor to be in their company. It's extremely encouraging to see a small film be recognized at this level. By recognizing me, I feel that it honors everyone I love, and for that I am truly grateful.''

- Ryan Gosling, best actor nominee for ``Half Nelson''

CAPTION(S):

11 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE

(2 -- color) THE DEPARTED

(3 -- color) BABEL

(4 -- color) LETTES FROM IWO JIMA

(5 -- color) THE QUEEN

(6 -- color) Peter O'Toole

(7 -- color) Ryan Gosling

(8 -- color) Adriana Barraza

(9 -- color) Al Gore

(10 -- color) ``Little Children''

(11 -- color) Meryl Streep

Box:

QUOTES from the nominees (see text)