Maintained by RopeofSilicon.com Editor Brad Brevet — If you would like to send screeners, links or information regarding Oscar Contenders please email me at contenders@ropeofsilicon.com.

Individual movie pages last updated on Tuesday, January 13, 2009, latest news updates listed below.

"The Contenders" is RopeofSilicon's yearly look at the films with the best chance for Oscar glory. Any time there are updates that information will be listed below, right here on the main page and you need only click the titles to the left to stay up-to-date with each film including images, trailers and much more. The list of films may grow and shrink at any moment depending on release dates and Award Season Buzz.

Feb. 23: I dare consider Oscar candidates for 2010? Click here to check it out. On top of that my live blog from the Oscars last night is now updated with a few of the acceptance speeches, click here to watch.

Feb. 22: The Oscars are over and Slumdog Millionaire was the big winner taking home 8 Oscars. You can read my commentary right here, get the complete list of winners here and step into our Oscar gallery here. We have it all for you!

Feb. 21: Tomorrow are the Oscars, but today was the 2009 Independent Spirit Awards and The Wrestler was the big winner. Click here for the results.

Feb. 19: Now it's your chance as I have just offered up my final predictions in all 21 categories and have included polls for you to offer up your predictions. CLICK HERE to get started and see you on Sunday for the show!

Feb. 18: Predictions for Best Animated Film, Foreign Language Film and Documentary categories are now live as well as additional news on the big show. On top of that Slumdog Millioniare, The Duchess and The Dark Knight were just awarded by the Costume Designers Guild, get the story here.

Feb. 17: Catch up on my latest Oscar predictions by clicking on any of the following links: Cinematography and Art Direction, Adapted and Original Screenplay, Original Score and Original Song, Sound Editing and Sound Mixing, Visual Effects and Film Editing and, of course, Picture, Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor and Actress and Director. Polls for you to vote on winners will be live February 19 so stay tuned.

Feb. 9: Slumdog Millionaire won seven awards at the 2009 BAFTAs, get the list of winners here. I have also posted a new Oscar prediction piece looking at the Original and Adapted Screenplay categories as I will begin to take a look at all the below-the-line categories leading up to February 22, get that article here. You may also enjoy listening to Mickey Rourke's speech from the BAFTAs --it's quality -- get it here.

Feb. 7: Fox Searchlight is pushing "Jai Ho" over "O Saya" at the Oscars for Original Song. Details here.

Feb. 5: Just updated the predictions once again and have a good feeling they won't be changing before the big show on the 22nd. You can browse the predictions using THE CHARTS to the left or click here for the full story. I also recently posted an editorial related to Penelope Cruz's appearance on the "Tonight Show" that is related to the Oscar race and you may find interesting right here.

Jan. 31: Forgot to mention I added new Oscar predictions on Thursday, January 29, you can get those by reading THE CHARTS on the left or clicking here. Also, I just listed the Annie Award winners, of which Kung Fu Panda dominated with WALL-E getting zero wins, get those results here.

Jan. 25: The Screen Actors Guild Awards were announced on Saturday and it looks like Slumdog is indeed the movie of 2008. You can get the winners here and my live blog of the show here.

Jan. 24: I have updated THE CHARTS with the nominees and early rankings. Click the links to the left to browse.

Jan. 23: Predict the 2009 Screen Actors Guild Award winners right here.

Jan. 22: The Oscar nominees have been announced. CLICK HERE for the list.

Jan. 21: I have posted my final Oscar predictions before Thursday morning's nomination announcement. You can check out the picks using THE CHARTS to the left or click here for my complete explanation as well as all the picks. Remember the nominations are announced at 5:30 AM PST on Thursday, January 22 and I will have them all online for you as soon as they are available.

Jan. 20: Think you know who is going to be nominated for an Oscar on Thursday morning? Take part in our Oscar Prediction Polls right here and help predict the nominees!

Jan. 14: I decided to do a little housekeeping before the final installment of my Oscar predictions and posted another round. Once again you can look at THE CHARTS to the left or click here for the article with additional commentary.

Jan. 13: The final nine films up for contention in the Foreign Film category have been announced. Click here to see the finalists as well as a complete list of the 65 submitted for consideration.

Jan. 12: The Oscar Predictions have all been updated, you can click on THE CHARTS to the left or right here for a complete explained recap. Also, the Golden Globe winners have been announced and you can get those right here. On top of that I have published a Golden Globes vs. Oscars feature taking a look at the past 24 years of Globe winners and comparing them to the Oscar winners... How much did last night's wins make a difference? Find out right here.

Jan. 9: Take your stab at predicting the Golden Globe winners before Sunday! Click here!

Jan. 8: The Broadcast Film Critics Association (BFCA) announced their winners tonight. You can get the list here and my article on it here.

Jan. 8: The Director's Guild has nominated the same five contenders we have been talking about for a long time and the Cinema Audio Society weighs in with their noms for the best Sound Mixing of 2008. Get the Director's results here and the Cinema Audio Society nominees here.

Jan. 7: New Nominations! The American Society of Cinematographers have named their five finalists and the Writers Guild has announced their nominees as well. Click here for the Cinematographers and here for the Writers.

Dec. 28: Updated Oscar Predictions have been added. You can check out the predictions using THE CHARTS links to the left or by reading the article here.

Dec. 18: The Screen Actors Guild Award nomineess have been announced, get the full list here. Also, I updated my Oscar predictions beforehand so take a peek at this week's changes here and be prepared for even more next week.

Dec. 16: The Dark Knight takes top honors from the Austin Film Critics. Get the full results here.

Dec. 16: Just added the year-end awards from the St. Louis, San Diego, San Francisco and Southeastern Critics. Click here to check them all out, or just browse all the lists using the Critic Top Ten List and Awards link.

Dec. 15: Sony Pictures Classics has updated their 2008 For Your Consideration website and it includes scripts and information for Rachel Getting Married, I've Loved You So Long, Synecdoche, New York, The Class, Waltz with Bashir, Frozen River and O'Horten. Check it out here.

Dec. 14: The Boston Society of Film Critics announced their winners today and you can read all about it right here and the American Film Institute (AFI) has released their top ten, get that right here. Obviously, you could also get both lists in or Top Ten Tracker right here.

Dec. 12: The Academy has released the 15 films competing for Visual Effects. [read about it here]

Dec. 12: Hugh Jackman is set to host the 2009 Oscars. [read about it here]

Dec. 11: The Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced the 2009 Golden Globe nominees this morning. You can get the complete list of nominees right here.

Dec. 10: The New York Film Critics have weighed in awarding Milk and Happy-Go-Lucky top honors. You can check out the complete list here and the article here.

Dec. 10: Brand new Oscar Predictions have been added. You can take a look at the top six categories by clicking on THE CHARTS links to the right or click here for the article with a bit more coverage as well as screenplay categories.

Dec. 9: The Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA) has announced their winners and runners-up. You can click here for the winners and here for the article.

Dec. 9: The Broadcast Film Critics have announced their nominees for the 14th Critics Choice Awards. Get the complete list here as Revolutionary Road gets the snub.

Dec. 7: Added the Washington D.C. Area Film Critics awards, click here to check those out.

Dec. 7: Gomorrah wins big at the European Film Awards with five awards as well as another acting award for Kristin Scott Thomas in I've Loved You So Long. Get the full results here.

Dec. 4: Brand new Oscar Predictions have been added. You can take a look at the top six categories by clicking on THE CHARTS links to the right or click here for the article with a bit more coverage as well as screenplay categories.

Dec. 4: I have added the awards handed out by the National Board of Review, get the list here.

Dec. 1: The Annie Award nominees have been announced and Kung Fu Panda led the way with 17 nominations followed by Disney's Bolt with 9 and the Disney/Pixar feature WALL•E earning 8. Get the full list here.

Nov. 30: Added a brand new section called "CRITIC TOP TEN LISTS" which will be covering as many of the critical year-end lists as I can possibly manage. You can preview the section now, and the first entries into it will arrive on Wednesday, December 3 with the picks from the National Board of Review.

Nov. 27: All of the Prediction Charts have been updated with the graphical and 1-10 ranking interface I began using in my Oscar Prediction article on November 27. Click on any of the categories listed in "THE CHARTS" section to the left to keep track on a weekly basis.

Nov. 20: I have officially started making predictions in the top eight categories: Picture, Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, Director, Adapted Screenplay and Original Screenplay. My first list can be found right here. I will be updating the individual pages labeled THE CHARTS very soon with longer lists for each category including contenders I see as sitting on the bubble. Remember though, it's still early and these lists will change weekly.

Nov. 19: I saw The Wrestler yesterday and it is a great film with only one minor story flaw that I can see keeping it from being a Best Picture contender. However, as I said in my latest Oscar Brief, Mickey Rourke has got to be the Best Actor front-runner, his performance outweighs the film. I will be seeing Frost/Nixon and Australia today and hope to bring word soon on those two. I have also noticed Paramount has updated their "For Your Consideration" website (click here) and you can download the WALL•E script by clicking here (.PDF).

Nov. 17: The Academy just announced the 15 documentaries that will be competing for nominations. You can get the full list here.

Nov. 11: Just updated THE CHARTS by adding a few new names to Best Actor, Best Picture, Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor. I also updated the Animated Oscar list as we now have the list of the 14 films that are up for the 3 nominations in the category.

Nov. 10: The list of the 14 films in contention for an animated Oscar have been announced. I haven't updated the Animated page on the site yet, but the list can be found in my article right here.

Oct. 29: It's all about Milk at the moment as several folks are weighing in on a couple of aspects of the film ranging from an alleged "marketing conundrum", which illicited an angry response from Focus Features honcho James Schamus and then this article from Devin Faraci at CHUD. I already wrote this reponse based on the blogger response to the film and just added some pics and red carpet interviews from the Oct 28 premiere right here. As of right now, Sean Penn still seems a lock for Best Actor and the film still looks good for a Best Picture nom, but the people that saw it seem to be arguing so much the film is getting lost in the chatter. I see it on Nov. 11 and can hopefully give you a reasonable response if someone doesn't do it sooner.

Oct. 17: Well, it appears The Soloist is no longer in the running as it has been bumped to March 2009. Word is The Road may be making a similar move as well and Defiance will now be released on December 31. I added Frank Langella to the likely list of names to be nominated for Best Actor and also added the 100% complete list of films competing for Foreign Language nominations. Finally, I just did a new Oscar update listing the early reviews for Frost/Nixon (not good) as well as yet another early prediction piece on Best Picture. You can get the full update here.

Oct. 13: I updated the Best Actress race replacing Melissa Leo (Frozen River) with Angelina Jolie (Changeling). We have recently learned of more trouble for The Reader as producer Scott Rudin has removed his name from the film (details here) and speculation as to whether Kate Winslet will be pushed for supporting or lead in that film has already started. I did a complete Oscar round-up today talking more about the battle for Best Actress, a kudos for the sound in The Dark Knight, some specs on the commercials for the Oscars and some early details on Clint Eastwood's Gran Torino. Get the full update here.

Oct. 4: Universal Pictures and Paramount Vantage have opened their 2008 For Your Consideration sites where you can listen to the scores from films such as Changeling (Clint Eastwood), The Duchess (Rachel Portman), Frost/Nixon (Hans Zimmer) and Defiance (James Newton Howard) as well as read the scripts for Defiance and The Duchess with more on the way. Click the corresponding links to the right to check 'em out or click here for more info on the Vantage site and here for info on the Universal site.

Oct. 3: There has been little in the way of any real award chatter as of late, at least in terms of anything that has me swayed one way or another on any specific films. However, some reviews of Clint Eastwood's Changeling out of the NYFF have gone a bit negative (article here and here) leading me to believe Gran Torino is more likely to be his Oscar bait. I also did a rather large Oscar Update right here that leads to all the mini stories that have been buzzing around for the last week. Finally, the complete list of Foreign Films is now available.

Sept. 29: The Reader has officially been set for a December 12 release date and Last Chance Harvey has moved into December '08 as well giving both Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson a chance for award chatter. Meanwhile, the New York Times is running a piece on David Fincher's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Quite frankly it is rather boring, but the bit on saying how it actually goes as far forward as Hurrican Katrina was interesting.

Sept. 24: Ricky Gervais is rumored to host the 2009 Oscar presentation and I have added Gomorra, Three Monkeys, The Mermaid, Painted Skin (Wa pei) and Tingya to the Foreign Language Oscar contenders list. And Jeff Wells has posted a small bit of early buzz on Frost/Nixon and Milk from an anonymous source. Sounds good for Milk and not-so-good for Frost.

Sept. 23 (c): I recently saw Mike Leigh's Happy-Go-Lucky and wrote an editorial headlined "'Happy-Go-Lucky' Should be Nominated for at Least Five Oscars". Suffice to say, I liked it. The noms I can see it getting include Best Actress (Sally Hawkins), Director (Mike Leigh), Supporting Actor (Eddie Marsan), Original Screenplay (Mike Leigh) and Picture (Miramax). The Hawkins nom is a lock and the Academy likes Leigh so I also expect Original Screenplay to be a high possibility.

Sept. 23 (b): Nikki Finke is reporting (Variety is reporting the same)that the potential Animated contender Waltz with Bashir will be Israel's Foreign Language Oscar submission.

Sept. 23 (a): It looks like The Reader may not hit theaters until 2009 and I added two new films to the Foreign Language Contenders list. Read the complete update right here.

Sept. 21: A new update has been published in an article headlined "France's Foreign Pick, 'Revolutionary Road' Poster and AFI's 'Defiance'" as several new titles (21 total) have been added to the Foreign Film Contenders list including three front runners, a new poster for Revolutionary Road has been added as we wait for a trailer and Defiance will close the 2008 AFI Festival. Read the complete article here.

Sept. 15: I added My Magic, The Rest Is Silence, Iska's Journey and Okuribito (Departures) to the Foreign Language Film page and you should also be aware that Slumdog Millionaire took home the People's Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival, an award that has gone to past Best Picture winners Chariots of Fire and American Beauty.

Sept. 13: I added a new featurette from The Soloist which you can watch here and also updated the Contenders page for the film right here. Also, Fox Searchlight has announced The Wrestler will be released on December 19th.

Sept. 12: The trailer for Doubt is now online (click here).

Sept. 11: The trailer for Changeling is now online (click here).

Sept. 11: Added The Dark Knight as a Best Picture contender and updated its page. I also update the pages for The Duchess, The Brothers Bloom, Che and The Secret Life of Bees. Finally, the trailer for The Soloist is available right here.

Sept. 8: Peter O'Toole's name is back in the Oscar talk once again, this time for Dean Spanley as a potential Supporting Actor nominee. If it gets picked up I may have to add it to the list.

Sept. 7: Added category pages to track Best Picture, Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress and Director which will be updated with leading contenders only for films that have been seen by critics. I also added The Reader, which was accidentally overlooked.

Sept. 6: Updated Australia, Appaloosa, The Burning Plain, The Wrestler (won Venice Golden Lion) and Slumdog Millionaire (Best Picture candidate?).

Sept. 5: Added Foreign Language category and initial list of potential nominees.

Sept. 4: I have updated the Documentary Page with a link to my Man on Wire review as well as updated the pages for Frost/Nixon, WALL•E and Australia.

A new review of Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker gives me an idea it may need to be added to the list soon. And, if you haven't done so yet, check out the trailer for Milk.

Sept. 2: Jeff Wells heard Jeff Goldlum's performance in Adam Resurrected is "an Oscar-level achievement." I will have to wait on more information before adding it to the list. (Hollywood-Elsewhere)

Sept. 2: Updated The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Dark Knight and The Duchess.

Sept. 2: Updated Animated Films and Documentaries.

Sept. 1: Updated Good, Happy-Go-Lucky, I've Loved You So Long, Slumdog Millionaire, Che and The Wrestler. Choose from the links to the left.