Oscar may scratch his head over best picture

Despite crafting such modern classics as "Taxi Driver," "Raging Bull" and "Goodfellas," "The Departed" director Martin Scorsese never has delivered a best-picture winner — or won the directing Oscar.

Sentiment could be on his side this time with the cops-and-crooks tale of moles in the Boston mob and police force. Like audiences who flocked to "The Departed" and made it Scorsese's biggest hit ever, Oscar voters undoubtedly appreciate the filmmaker's return to raw, roiling crime cinema, a genre whose conventions he has helped define for more than three decades.

But the musical — long moribund until 2001's "Moulin Rouge" scored a best-picture nomination and 2002's "Chicago" won the best-picture Oscar — continues its resurgence with "Dreamgirls."

Adapted from the stage sensation, the film traces the rise of a Supremes-like singing trio from Detroit's 1960s music scene. On course to follow "Chicago" as a $100 million box-office hit, "Dreamgirls" is a crowd-pleaser anchored by invigorating musical performances and classy production values that will have across-the-board appeal for academy voters.

The deserving veteran
Since his early 20s, Eddie Murphy has weathered broad career swings.

His infectious grin and manic temperament have won over audiences in "Beverly Hills Cop," "48 Hrs." and the "Doctor Dolittle" and "Nutty Professor" flicks, but he's tanked when straying too far from his likable, tried-and-true persona with such duds as "Holy Man," "Vampire in Brooklyn" and "The Adventures of Pluto Nash."

As a James Brown-like soul wailer in "Dreamgirls," Murphy finally has found an ideal fit for his in-your-face attitude, his edgier side and his innate talent to take the stage and blow the roof off the joint.

With a Golden Globe now on his shelf, Murphy heads toward the Oscars looking like a solid supporting-actor front-runner.

The deserving directors
Like O'Toole, Scorsese could go down in the books as one of the all-time biggest failures at the Oscars. With five nominations and no wins, Scorsese is tied with four other directors for losingest filmmaker.

A sixth loss would make Scorsese the record-holder.

His prospects look good this time, though the same was true two years ago, when he lost to Clint Eastwood. The latter's "Million Dollar Baby" beat Scorsese's "The Aviator" for best picture.

Eastwood scored two directing nominations for the Golden Globes with "Flags of Our Fathers" and "Letters From Iwo Jima," though his Oscar star faded after he was shut out for a Directors Guild nomination.

The winner at the Golden Globes, Scorsese was among the guild nominees, along with Stephen Frears for "The Queen," Bill Condon for "Dreamgirls," Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu for "Babel" and the husband-and-wife team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris for "Little Miss Sunshine."

Oscar nominees generally line up close to the guild picks, though Eastwood could slip in to displace someone.

As for a winner, Scorsese certainly has sentiment on his side. No matter how "The Departed" fares in other Oscar categories, the directing prize finally seems within his grasp.

The deserving newcomers
In barely two years, Jennifer Hudson has gone from talent-show hopeful as a finalist on "American Idol" to Golden Globe winner and likely Oscar front-runner as supporting actress for her show-stopping role in "Dreamgirls."

With her first acting role as a saucy vocal powerhouse forced to take a back seat to her more mainstream and photogenic bandmate, Hudson steals scene after scene opposite Oscar winner Jamie Foxx and pop superstar Beyonce Knowles.

While Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett were the marquee names in "Babel," the most memorable performances came from two faces relatively new to the Hollywood crowd.

Mexican actress Adriana Barraza is heartbreaking as nanny to two American children whose life takes a terrible turn because of tragic events half a world away. Japanese newcomer Rinko Kikuchi proves mesmerizing with a silent, wrenching, introspective performance as a teen whose family is struck by the same events overseas.

The deserving long shots
On rare occasions when academy voters go for comic roles, it's usually with a respected dramatic actor who's gone slumming in a comedy, such as Kevin Kline, a supporting-actor winner for "A Fish Called Wanda."

Sacha Baron Cohen's turn as a crass and clueless observer of the United States in "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" won him the Golden Globe for best actor in a musical or comedy.

The role almost certainly is too outrageous to earn him a best-actor nomination from the staid academy, but it would be nice to seem him in the mix if only to liven up what could be an otherwise predictable lineup.

Two little-seen films about protagonists coping with drug problems brought acting nominations at earlier awards for actors every bit as good as the likely Oscar nominees, but who probably will not be among the five finalists.

Maggie Gyllenhaal earned a Golden Globe nomination as an ex-con fighting her drug addiction and trying to work her way back into her young daughter's life in "Sherrybaby."

Ryan Gosling was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award as an inspiring teacher struggling with a drug habit who becomes both mentor and reclamation project for a bright inner-city student in "Half Nelson."

But it's tough for such deserving smaller performances to break into a roster crowded with such Oscar heavyweights as Mirren, O'Toole, Leonardo DiCaprio ("The Departed," "Blood Diamond"), Judi Dench ("Notes on a Scandal"), Kate Winslet ("Little Children") and Will Smith ("The Pursuit of Happyness").

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