Time for longshots to bloom in Oscars race

LOS ANGELES? - As far as plots go, the film "Half Nelson" is more depressing than most: its idealistic teacher hero descends into crack addiction and his world breaks into a thousand pieces.

The bleak film, starring rising young Canadian actor Ryan Gosling and ultra-talented amateur Shareeka Epps, cost about $1 million to make and grossed a paltry $3 million.

But right now it is on an exclusive Hollywood list -- long shots in the race for Oscars and other prizes.

Call them what you like, but the film industry's long shots, dark horses and underdogs are as much of a part of the annual awards season leading up to the Academy Awards as a happy ending in a Hollywood movie.

Last year was a banner year for dark horses. "Crash," a movie that came and went during the summer of 2005, seemed to pounce from nowhere to beat heavily hyped "Brokeback Mountain" for the best picture Oscar.

It showed once again that Oscar history is replete with surprise victories and defeats -- that it is not truly over until the night's final 30-second commercial has been aired.

Just ask past Oscar winner Rocky Balboa, another underdog who over achieved, or the cast of "Shakespeare in Love," who in 1998 beat odds-on favorite "Saving Private Ryan," leading to a close-up of a stunned expression on Ryan director Steven Spielberg's face.

"Half Nelson" is one of this year's long shots. Many Oscar experts expect Gosling to be nominated along with favorites Peter O'Toole and Forest Whitaker, any maybe Leonardo DiCaprio, for a best actor award when nominations are announced Tuesday.

Some experts also wonder if Epps might get a best supporting actress nod for her performance as the student who befriends Gosling when others turn their back on him. Some Hollywood heavyweights have weighed in saying her performance as a 13-year-old watching adults misbehave is nothing short of amazing.

"Half Nelson" co-director Ryan Fleck says all the buzz about the film, "is exciting but we didn't make the movie with event stuff in mind."

The movie has finished being shown in theaters and now is coming out on DVD. It was released with little print or advertising and Fleck says it was unnerving to have people say they have never heard of it or wonder when it is coming out.

Jean Picker Firstenberg, president and chief executive of the American Film Institute, sees several dark horses in the race for best picture.

Included are Todd Field's adultery drama "Little Children" and Paul Greengrass' "United 93," which tells how passengers aboard one of the hijacked Sept. 11 jets tried to regain control of their plane.

The New York film critics called "United 93" the best picture of the year but the Golden Globes did not give it a nomination, just as the Globes failed to notice "Crash" last year.

The Oscars voters also have a Clint Eastwood problem. Normally one of the most popular members on Hollywood's A-list, no one is quite sure what to do with a little masterpiece he directed: "Letters from Iwo Jima."

The film is in Japanese, stars Japanese actors and tells the Japanese side of one of the most brutal battles of World War Two - the fight for Iwo Jima.

Few people have seen it but it has wound up on many critics lists and even won a Golden Globe on Monday for best film in a foreign language, leading Eastwood to quip that as a foreign director he better learn a foreign language quick.