What a year 2005 is shaping up to be in Movieland. We’ve got
long-awaited blockbusters, hotly-anticipated sequels (including the final instalment of the most popular space saga of all time) and big screen remakes of some TV classics. So grab your popcorn as
Jo Berry guides you through some of the possible cinema highlights to come in 2005…

The 77th Academy Awards take place on February 27, with the nominees being announced at the end of January. Already, American critics have been handing out awards at various ceremonies, giving a hint of whom may be taking home a little gold statue.
One film that has had praise heaped upon it (released here on January 7, it will be reviewed on these pages next week) and could be the most likely Brit contender at the Oscars is writer/director Mike Leigh’s Vera Drake, starring Imelda Staunton (pictured) as a 1950s’ London housewife who secretly carries out abortions for women in desperate need, a service even her family is unaware she performs.
Despite mixed reviews, Martin Scorsese’s The Aviator (out now) may also get a few nominations, but a wonderful little comedy drama called Sideways, (opens January 28) co-written and directed by Alexander Payne (About Schmidt) and starring Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church as two middle-aged buddies exploring Northern California’s wine country (and a few of the women who inhabit it) could end up walking away with a prize or two.
A possible dark horse for Best Picture is Amelie director Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s luscious World War I drama A Very Long Engagement, starring Audrey Tatou.
Aside from shoo-in Imelda Staunton, it’s anybody’s guess who may get nominated as Best Actress, but in the Best Actor category, the hot contenders are Jamie Foxx, for his portrayal of singer Ray Charles in the upcoming biopic Ray (January 21), our own Liam Neeson for his performance as biologist-turned-sex-researcher Alfred Kinsey in Kinsey (opens March 4), Bill Murray (robbed last year for his turn in Lost In Translation) for a quirky turn in the odd gem from Wes ‘Royal Tenenbaums’ Anderson, The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou (February 18) and Kevin Bacon for his moving turn as a paedophile trying to make a life for himself outside prison in the controversial The Woodsman (February 25th)
Place your bets now.