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An Oscar for Heath Ledger in 'The Dark Knight'?

Thanks to The Dark Knight, you might actually care about the Oscars next year. Though summer blockbusters don't usually show up in the big races at the Academy Awards, the film's glowing reviews make it a possible contender in the Best Picture, Director, and Screenplay categories, and it will surely be considered a front-runner for technical prizes. But its greatest Oscar hope has to be Heath Ledger, who'll likely become the seventh-ever posthumous acting nominee for his mesmerizing performance as the Joker. And it's safe to say that several million Dark Knight fans would tune in to the telecast to see if he can become the second such winner (after Network's Peter Finch in 1977).

The Academy Awards could use the boost. For the last several years, the gala has been filled with lesser-known nominees and seen its ratings plummet. This past ceremony, all four acting winners were foreigners, only one major-category victor (Juno) grossed more than $75 million—and the show attracted an all-time-low audience of 32 million.

Next year's telecast could end up being quite the A-list affair. Possible contenders include Brad Pitt, who ages in reverse for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; Angelina Jolie, playing the mother of a missing child in Clint Eastwood's Changeling; Will Smith, reteaming with Pursuit of Happyness director Gabriele Muccino, in the character study Seven Pounds; Nicole Kidman, once more under the tutelage of Moulin Rouge maestro Baz Luhrmann in the epic Australia; and the Titanic duo of Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, who'll reunite for the first time in the suburban drama Revolutionary Road.

Of course, not all of next year's nomination slots will be filled by blockbusters. But the presence of hits like The Dark Knight could go a long way toward keeping Oscar viewers from changing the Bat-channel. What say you, PopWatchers? Does Ledger deserve to be in the running for an Oscar nod? If the Academy starts paying more attention to well-crafted popcorn flicks, would it raise your overall interest in the Oscar telecast? (And if you can't wait for this week's EW cover story on The Dark Knight, by all means click here and read it online!)

It's already July, so where are the Oscar contenders?

We're barely halfway through 2008, and already, Variety is complaining that we've hardly seen any Oscar contenders. Sure, there are likely animated feature nominees in WALL-E, Kung Fu Panda, and Horton Hears a Who, and EW's Ken Tucker (among others) thinks Iron Man merits a golden man or two. Still, aside from Richard Jenkins' (pictured) lead performance in the modest indie hit The Visitor, no acting turns have emerged as consensus potential nominees.

Of course, distributors tend to assume Oscar voters have short memories and save their likeliest contenders for the latter half of the year, as everyone knows (including Variety, whose article contains a helpful schedule of the Oscar-baiting movies due out over the next six months). Still, let's play along and ask: which movies and performances have you seen so far in 2008 that you think might be up for Oscars at the end of the year?

Who's excited to see 'Australia'?

As a guy with a Moulin Rouge poster on his office wall, it goes without saying that I plan on seeing Baz Luhrmann's directorial followup, Australia, when it hits theaters in November. And based on the new teaser trailer that just went up at Apple.com (click here to see it, or catch the embedded YouTube clip after the jump), I'm hopeful that the Nicole Kidman-Hugh Jackman vehicle will be worth the seven-year wait. It certainly has the kind of epic sweep (candy-colored skylines! gorgeous costumes! thundering hooves!) that Oscar voters love, and I'm digging all the details, right down to the art-deco-y font used on its stars' names. You in or out, or reserving judgment till you see more footage/read the reviews? (PopWatch photo editor Connie Yu informs me she is not on board. "It looks just like Far and Away," she says, "and Nicole Kidman's character can't even spit out the narrative. This is what we've been waiting for?") What say you, PopWatchers?

Does 'Iron Man' deserve an Oscar?

I went to see Iron Man this weekend, and liked it a lot more than I expected. One big reason? It didn't have just laughs and comic-geek thrills, but real, first-rate, non-F/X... acting! When Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark, pulls Gwyneth Paltrow's Pepper Potts out onto the dancefloor for a little dipping and cooing, the rom-com byplay is superb.

Which made me connect a few movie-industry dots. Hey, remember the whining about the last Oscar telecast, with its low-wattage star vehicles and lower ratings, and all the hand-wringing the media, including EW, did over how to improve the Oscars? Here's a thought. Hey, Hollywood and the Motion Picture Academy: Take a closer squint at the big summer movies. Take them, ahem, seriously. As far as I'm concerned, Downey's performance should go on any short list that anyone draws up of potential Oscar nominees.

Oh, and another thought. Iron Man at my multiplex was preceded by a trailer for The Dark Knight. And if Heath Ledger's performance as the Joker is as good as these clips suggest — and my brain starts popping every time I see his deliriously committed, smeared-makeup personification of pure, nut-job Evilness — then we've got a potential Best Supporting Actor nominee that will be much more than just a sentimental gesture to a cherished, departed actor.          

Iron Man and The Dark Knight as Oscar-worthy — think about it... seriously.