Awards business never out of season

March 07, 2008 While the comedy about mistaken identity and the CIA is not perceived as a heavy awards play, the timing of the release showed the scrutiny specialty divisions are giving the fall. Awards experts often sit down after the Oscars to parse the season just ended. After all, this was the year a host of movies made almost explicitly with awards in mind -- from "Into the Wild" to "In the Valley of Elah" -- all struck out in their bid for statues, and other early favorites like "American Gangster" came away empty-handed.

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