Cruising on the Road to the Oscars. Or Missing the Exit.. Some movies come out and steer right onto the fast track to the Academy Awards. Others take a wrong turn. By MARK OLSEN.

For Those Who've Tired of Glory and Riches. It was a surprisingly busy year for actors-turned-screenwriters. By ROSS JOHNSON.

Stranger Than Fiction; No Stranger to Awards. Eighteeen movies inspired by true stories may vie this year for Oscar nominations — 19, if you're a Red Sox fan and want to count "Fever Pitch." By STUART KLAWANS.

When the Smartest in the Class Isn't Most Likely to Succeed. It has been a cerebral season at the movies, but when it comes to Oscars, hearts almost always trump minds. By CARYN JAMES.

Cartoons Have Their John Henry Moment. Hollywood executives keep insisting that Americans want to watch only computer animation. But the likely candidates for the Oscar for best animated feature defy this assumption. By CHARLES SOLOMON.

Why Stop at 43 Nominations?. John Williams is already the most widely admired musician in Hollywood. He may soon be the most celebrated. By JON BURLINGAME.

Claire Danes Gets Her So-Called Shot. "Shopgirl" may put Claire Danes's intriguing face front and center at the Oscars. It's a role she was raised to play. By DANA STEVENS.

Pervert, Vampire, Lout. Perfectly Nice Guy, Though.. Watching Philip Seymour Hoffman embody Truman Capote in "Capote," you want to throw every acting award there is at him and maybe a couple of Olympic medals, too. By DAVID EDELSTEIN.

The Unforgettable Moment: Nine Short Scenes of Women in Crisis. One brief scene in "Nine Lives" conveys more about its characters' inner lives than is revealed in most feature-length movies. By STEPHEN HOLDEN.

The Unforgettable Moment: How to Succeed in Business. Stephen Gaghan's "Syriana" is a movie full of quiet, enigmatic performances, but none is more intriguingly underplayed than Jeffrey Wright's. By A. O. SCOTT.

The Unforgettable Moment: Dark Truths of a Killing Love. In "A History of Violence" David Cronenberg has brilliantly complicated the divide between sex and violence, presenting these two seemingly separate realms as locked in hungry embrace. By MANOHLA DARGIS.

Fashion: The Temperature, Wind and Red Carpet Vagaries. There were probably some last-minute agonies as actresses got ready for the red-carpet gauntlet at the Golden Globes. But for the most part, the women looked elegant. By CATHY HORYN.

The TV Watch: Where the Mood Is Spontaneous, and a Little Serious. The Golden Globes are a pass-fail version of the Oscars — a Hollywood awards ceremony that vaguely indicates merit, without any real risk of humiliation. By ALESSANDRA STANLEY.

At the Globes, 'Brokeback Mountain' Takes Top Awards. "Brokeback Mountain," a groundbreaking film about a love affair between two cowboys, took top awards at the 63rd Golden Globes. By SHARON WAXMAN.

News Analysis: In Movies, Big Issues, for Now. With the year's string of weighty contenders at the Golden Globes, the industry seems to be suffering from a persistent bout of heavy thought. By DAVID CARR.

The Underfinanced Production Company: TransSylvania. So definitively is this the year of gender malcontent in the cinema that one of its biggest stars has decided to come out of the coffin. By Produced, Written and Transfused by JOYCE WADLER.

Directions: Diplomacy on The Globes' Stage. In a surprise move, the Golden Globes credited the best foreign language film to Palestine. A representative explains the decision to an editor. By STEPHANIE GOODMAN.

The Underfinanced Production Company: Cliché (Guilty White Bourgeoisie in Denial). The Underfinanced Production Company's first foreign film has audiences all over downtown scratching their heads in puzzlement. By Un Film de JOYCE WADLER.

The Tease: It's Déjà Vu All Over Again. All you can think watching the trailer for "Firewall" is that Harrison Ford should probably give up the ghost of his Tom Clancy roles. By CARYN JAMES.

And the Documentary Nominees Aren't . . .. Some great documentaries are ineligible for Oscars. Why? It's all in the fine print. By JOHN ANDERSON.

News Analysis: Nominations Highlight the Sticky Issue of Credit. The ad-hoc nature of moviemaking on the margins can lead to some hurt feelings when Oscar nominations are announced. By DAVID CARR.

Small Films With Potent Themes Lead Oscar Nominations. With size counting less than serious intent, Oscar nominations went to small films with deep political and social themes. By SHARON WAXMAN.

The Underfinanced Production Company: Looking for Comedy in the New World. King James I has sent Albert Brooks-Whining to the New World to find out what makes the Indians laugh, but mostly to get him out of England. By Written and Directed by JOYCE WADLER.

The Tease: Films From All Over. Based on their trailers, the nominees for Best Foreign Film seem to share the political awareness that also characterizes the major Oscar films this awards season. By CARYN JAMES.

Questions for . . . : Manohla Dargis. Manohla Dargis, a chief film critic for The Times, answered readers' questions about the Academy Awards.

The Underfinanced Production Company: 'Tis Pity He's a Pimp. For those who disdain hip-hop, here's a tale of pimps and ho's dating back to the time of Shakespeare and suitable for the most discerning viewer. By Produced, Written and Affected by JOYCE WADLER.

The Tease: The Tin Men of Hollywood. "Freedomland" spots are all over television now, and they're far more effective than the two-and-a-half-minute trailer that is online and in theaters. By CARYN JAMES.

I'd Really Like to Thank My Pal at the Auction House. The trade in vintage Oscars through publicized auctions and an underground market has become a parallel universe as competitive and bitter as the annual acting derby itself. By HEATHCLIFF ROTHMAN.

The Tease: From Russia, With All Kinds of Weird Stuff. There are two visually striking, complementary ways of previewing the Russian-language vampire-and-apocalypse movie "Night Watch." By CARYN JAMES.

Celebrity Freebies: A Force Irresistible?. In this Hollywood awards season, the piles of free stuff being handed to celebrities — nominees, award presenters, performers and members of their entourages — is escalating. By SHARON WAXMAN.

Critic's Notebook: Five Oscar Nominees: Foreign, Not Alien. In this year of politically themed best-picture contenders like "Munich" and "Good Night, and Good Luck," the foreign films have a similar urgency. By CARYN JAMES.

Robert Altman's Long Goodbye. Hollywood has never known quite what to make of Robert Altman, but he's finally getting an Oscar anyway. By TERRENCE RAFFERTY.

A First-Time Oscar Host in Search of That Fine Line. Jon Stewart has, at least for one night, signed on to transform himself from Hollywood outsider to A-list insider. By JACQUES STEINBERG.

The Underfinanced Production Company: Penguins Gone Wild. What happens when Inspector Jacques Clouseau travels to the frozen Antarctic to observe the long, noble march of the Penguins? By Produced, Directed and Thawed by Joyce Wadler.

The Tease: The Murderous Seductress Is Back. Maybe the "Basic Instinct 2" trailer is trying to be serious and campy at once, but it only succeeds in being frustrating. By CARYN JAMES.

Movie Review | 'The 2005 Academy Award-Nominated Short Films': Good Things in Small Packages. Oscar hoopla focuses on feature-length films, but some excellent, largely unseen work is also in competition in the short form. By NEIL GENZLINGER.

Directions: What She'd Really Like to Do Is Sing. Kathleen York, an actor-singer-songwriter, gets her close-up at the Academy Awards, where she will perform a song from "Crash." By DAVID HANDELMAN.

Careful, These Cartoons Pack a Punch. In what some animators have complained is less than a vintage year for the Oscars animated short films category, John Canemaker's "Moon and the Son" stands out for its ambition. By CHARLES SOLOMON.

Tribal Customs of Oscar. Unlike typical cocktail soirees, Oscar weekend parties have rules of behavior that fly in the face of conventional manners. By ALLISON HOPE WEINER.

Advertising: Huge Audience or Not, Oscars Stand Apart. This year's crop of nominations has some advertisers worried about the Oscar-night audience. By STUART ELLIOTT.

David Carr: The Big Man Still Reigns in Hollywood. If you drill down into this year's best picture nominees, you will find that they are guerrilla insurgencies backed by superpowers.

The Underfinanced Production Company: Jon Stewart and the Night Visitor. It is 3 a.m. and Jon Stewart is anxious. He mutters somthing that sounds like "Stupid, Stupid, Stupid." Than he takes a long swig from a bottle of Stoli. By JOYCE WADLER, Executive Producer.

On Education: School Drama Coach Owns a Little Bit of Oscar Night. John Fredricksen taught the director of "Capote," Bennett Miller, and the film's screenwriter, Dan Futterman, in Mamaroneck, N.Y., in 1984. By SAMUEL G. FREEDMAN.

The Tease: For Your Consideration: Sappy Hallmark Moments. The annual Oscar trailer is completely at odds with the idea that Jon Stewart and a crop of untraditional movies might lead to a newer, fresher Oscar show. By CARYN JAMES.

If You've Got It, Do You Flaunt It?. What you do with your Oscar, and where it goes in your house, seems to depend largely on where you are in your life. By CARRIE FISHER.

Critic's Notebook: Brokeback Spoofs: Tough Guys Unmasked. Online parodies of "Brokeback Mountain" are proliferating faster than curatorial Web sites can keep up with them. By VIRGINIA HEFFERNAN.

'Crash' Producers Clash Loudly Over Credit and Payment. A bare-knuckled fight has broken out among the producers of one of the leading Oscar-nominated movies, "Crash," over two of the things Hollywood cares about most: money and credit. By SHARON WAXMAN.

Critic's Notebook: Hype-Week Patter as the Oscars Near. Hollywood's magical ball is Sunday night, and all week television personalities have been fretting and squealing about it, expecting us to watch in supportive awe, like Cinderella. By VIRGINIA HEFFERNAN.

After an Oscar Nomination, Everybody Loves You (at Least for a While). Whether an Oscar nominee's newfound recognition in Hollywood will pay off in future, lasting and top-billed work is a crapshoot. By LORNE MANLY.

One Last Best Shot at Calling the Oscars. The problem with choosing this year's Oscar winners is that the possibilities seem as endless and impenetrable as the 64-team grid that ends in the N.C.A.A. championship. By DAVID CARR.

Hollywood's Crowd Control Problem. An expected 41 million Americans will tune into the 78th annual Academy Awards to watch a spectacle largely honoring films they have not seen and may never get around to watching. By MANOHLA DARGIS.

The Long March to the Red Carpet, Slow and Painful. An Oscar nominee, Bobby Moresco, co-screenwriter of "Crash," prepares himself in the days leading up to the awards. By SHARON WAXMAN.

The TV Watch: The Dresses, Low Cut, but the Tones Were Lofty. The message of the Academy Awards show was a self-congratulatory one from Hollywood to itself: we care, we dare. By ALESSANDRA STANLEY.

Fashion Diary: For Designers, an Image-Making Bonanza That Is Priceless. That everything is borrowed and everyone is shilling may be the most charming characteristic of the Academy Awards show. By GUY TREBAY.

'Crash' Walks Away With the Top Prize at the Oscars. In a stunning twist, the motion picture academy turned its back on "Brokeback Mountain," awarding the Oscar for best picture to "Crash." By DAVID M. HALBFINGER and DAVID CARR.

News Analysis: Los Angeles Retains Custody of Oscar. Los Angeles, a place where race is discussed rarely, saw itself in "Crash," a film where encounter and understanding are just a random fender-bender away. By DAVID CARR.

The Lawsuit Over Producer Credit for 'Crash' Gets Personal. A top executive of the movie academy described one of the producing team behind the best-picture winner, "Crash," as throwing a tantrum in suing over credit for the film. By SHARON WAXMAN.