As today marks the end of August, it’s safe to say that the summer movie season is over. Whether it was a good or bad time for movies – from either cinematic or financial points of view – is something that might be debated for quite some time.

What does not seem to be a subject of debate for many, however, is that summer movie season is not considered to be a good launching point for movies with Oscar potential. I am personally not so convinced of this. A pre-fall release is nominated for Best Picture about 90% of the time, and just last year “Crash” pulled off one of the biggest coups is Oscar history.

Personally, I always look forward to the “summer blockbuster season” at the cineplex. I still remember walking out of Sam Raimi’s “Spider-Man 2” in 2004 feeling, for want of a better word, “pumped.” The year prior, we were treated to Gore Verbinski’s “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl,” a film which was fun, hilarious, thrilling and visually superb. And last year I remember sitting in awe of the sheer quality of filmmaking present in Christopher Nolan’s “Batman Begins.” No film from this year’s roster of “event” movies left me feeling as exhilarated…but that doesn’t mean I don’t see Oscar in their future.

Summer blockbusters are seldom fodder for the major categories. “The Sixth Sense” is an extremely rare example of a film that made it all the way to Best Picture, due largely to its surprisingly mammoth box office intake in the waning summer weeks of 1999. Ridley Scott’s “Gladiator” rode the re-introduction of the sword and sandal epic (along with a $457 million world wide gross) to a Best Picture victory in 2000. And Johnny Depp’s Best Actor nomination for the original “Pirates” movie will forever remain one of the coolest Academy citations ever in the opinion of this viewer.

The technical categories, however, have always provided safe haven for the films of the industry that provide the financial basis for the smaller, riskier efforts that have fighting chances in those top eight categories. Let’s take a look at each field individually.

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

Summer event movies tend to be reliant on visual effects, something that is becoming more apparent as budgets shoot through the roof and studios try to find the bottom line. And Oscar does take note. Since 1979, every set of nominees the Academy has produced in this category has included a summer film. Though “Poseidon” tanked at the box office and “Mission: Impossible III” disappointed at least the critical consensus, this year ought to prove no exception to having a summer film among its roster.

The visual effects of “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest,” supervised by three-time nominee John Knoll, is as close to a lock as possible from this distance, especially taking into account the extraordinary creation of the Davy Jones character. The film’s record-shattering box office accrual is just gravy after that.

The sheer scope of “Superman Returns”’s visual effects, in addition to the universal acclaim the painstaking and EXPENSIVE work received, would also seemingly make it a bona fide contender. And a disappointing box office doesn’t mean a whole lot to craftsmen and women more concerned with the work than the receipts.

Finally, should the category remain a weak one, “X-Men: The Last Stand” should not be completely ruled out. It would be rather odd, however, for the third installment in a franchise – overwhelmingly acknowledged as the weakest one, cinematically – to be the only one to score Oscar love.

BEST SOUND

Another characteristic of the summer blockbuster is the tendency to be LOUD. Therefore, it’s not surprising that these films have done so well in the Best Sound category.

Last year, “War of the Worlds” scored a Best Sound nomination for perennial favorites Anna Behlmer, Andy Nelson and Ron Judkins. In fact, a film released theatrically before the fall has achieved a nomination in the category every year dating back to 1985. In all but one of those years (1992, when “Unforgiven” was the sole pre-fall representative), at least one film nominated was of the “blockbuster” variety.

With “Cars,” “Dead Man’s Chest” and “Superman Returns” all floating around, this year should not be different. I’m refraining from mentioning more sincere cinematic efforts that have already been released, such as “United 93” and “World Trade Center.” Regardless, there is a healthy crop of pre-fall sound hopefuls indeed.

BEST SOUND EDITING

Not far behind Best Sound in terms of welcoming the summer blockbusters would be the arena of Best Sound Editing. With at least one representative in the final three going back 13 years now, the “clinks,” “zaps” and other artificially created noises of summertime at the movies have been consistently rewarded here, generally in spite of artistic quality. This year, as the category expands to five nominees, it is a near-certainty that summer will find itself represented once again.

“Cars” enjoys status as a sound effects-driven Pixar film (their last three films were nominated here, with “The Incredibles” taking the win), while “Dead Man’s Chest” proves itself to be another noisy product of Jerry Bruckheimer’s arsenal (a producer whose films consistently fare well in the sound categories). Both Disney moneymakers could easily end up with nominations.

Meanwhile, “Superman Returns”’s heavy reliance on sound effects could push it into contention as well. And the artificially created aural ambiance that made the World Trade Center collapse, fit with disturbing in-the-moment perspective, ought to also help Oliver Stone’s film in the category as well.

These three categories – Visual Effects, Sound and Sound Editing – tend to form the principle home of the summer blockbuster at the Academy Awards. But we still often find the joy of popcorn entertainment turning up in various other technical departments.

BEST FILM EDITING

With action, the need for strong film editing is especially paramount. On occasion, the editors have bestowed nominations on pure genre films, such as Wolfgang Petersen’s “Air Force One” in 1997, The Wachowski brothers’ “The Matrix” in 1999 (which won the award) and Michael Mann’s “Collateral” in 2004.

While I’m skeptical that any of this year’s blockbusters will join their ranks, more serious summer excursions have been rewarded here in the past, even failing Best Picture representation. Steven Soderbergh’s “Out of Sight” in 1998 and Fernando Meirelles’s “The Constant Gardener” in 2005 are examples. As such, “World Trade Center” and especially “United 93” are likely contenders in the category.

BEST MUSIC - ORIGINAL SONG

Predicting the Best Original Song category is challenging the day before the nominations are announced, much less months in advance. Yet, with the exception of 2002, a pre-fall nominee has emerged in this category every year for over 40 years! From “Back to the Future” and “Top Gun” to “Con Air” and “Armageddon,” the summer blockbusters have proven their ability to find a home with the musicians.

This year, Randy Newman’s “Our Town” from “Cars” certainly has the makings of a contender. And while definitely not a blockbuster, Robert Altman’s June release “A Prairie Home Companion” also featured original songs that could end up being the place to honor the film. Let us also not forget Jack Johnson’s original soundtrack for “Curious George,” which, in a weak year, has as much a fighting chance as anyone.

BEST MUSIC - ORIGINAL SCORE

The original score category has been equally embracing of early releases. In fact, a film released by this point in the year has scored a nomination for Best Original Score every year for the last 14 years.

Admittedly, many of these films (such as “Road to Perdition” and “The Constant Gardener”) are the sorts that could not really be described as blockbusters. However, it’s nevertheless worth keeping one’s eye on “Cars” to see if the music branch is still as fond of nominating Randy Newman as it used to be

The two compositions capturing 9/11 – John Powell’s “United 93” and Craig Armstrong’s “World Trade Center” – also have the makings of possible contenders, depending on how the film awards season treats their films.

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Last year’s unexpected nomination for Wally Pfister and his work on “Batman Begins” was another one of the coolest nods in recent years, coming exactly ten years after a nomination from the cinematographers for Stephen Goldblatt and “Batman Forever.” “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” also managed a nomination Adam Greenberg’s photography. However, I don’t see any such film poised to take such a spot this year.

It seems that when the cinematographers go for an early release, the film tends to be of a more “serious” disposition. Sam Mendes’s “Road to Perdition” in 2002, along with Gary Ross’s “Seabiscuit” and Fernando Meirelles’s “City of God” in 2003, are examples. So if the AMPAS takes a shine to “World Trade Center,” Seamus McGarvey’s eerie work behind the camera could get pulled into contention.

BEST MAKEUP

Having nominated a pre-fall release for the past dozen years, including such titles as “Austin Powers in The Spy Who Shagged Me,” “The Nutty Professor” and “The Cell,” it’s safe to say the makeup branch is willing to recognize films that would never find a home elsewhere. This is ALWAYS an extremely difficult category to read on account of the fact that the bakeoff phase usually has shocking omissions and inclusions alike.

Unless they are overlooked for their film being excessively reliant on CGI, Ve Neill and Martin Samuel should receive another trip to the Kodak for their efforts on “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest.” The work on Stellan Skarsgård’s Bootstrap Bill could certainly go a long way in earning the film a nomination on its own; and I haven’t even gotten into all the various injuries, elaborate pirate makeup and, most notably, the work in the cannibal sequence.

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

In the past decade, Wolfgang Petersen’s “Troy” in 2004 and Tim Burton’s “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” in 2005 are the only films that could be described as “summer blockbusters” picking up mentions in the category of Best Costume Design. That’s not really good news for Penny Rose’s work on “Dead Man’s Chest,” the only real contender for such a spot this year.

However, the costumers can be an unpredictable lot. Maybe they will be uber-hip and nominate Patricia Field for “The Devil Wears Prada.” The movie is about wardrobe, come on! Alas, there hasn’t been a contemporary nominee for costume design in all my years of awards watching.

BEST ART DIRECTION

Best Art Direction is really not a category that has been terribly open to films of the summer months. In the past eight years, the only summer films nominated here have been Best Picture nominees (“Gladiator,” “Moulin Rouge!,” “Saving Private Ryan,” “Seabiscuit”) or, at the very least, Best Picture contenders (“Road to Perdition”).

That said, “Men in Black” scored a notice here in 1997. So that may be some degree of comfort for Oscar-winning production designer Rick Heinrichs and “Men in Black”’s own set decorator Cheryl Carasik (still awaiting her first win after four losses) for their grand, fantastical work on “Dead Man’s Chest.”

If the art department is in a more serious frame of mind, the work displayed by Jan Roelfs and his crew in reconstructing Ground Zero was certainly breathtaking and as accurate as one could have imagined. But the art directors are barely more open to contemporary work than the costume designers (witness the snub of Steven Spielberg’s “The Terminal” in this category two years ago – they built an entire airport!).

That’s all for this week’s “Tech Support.” Next week we’ll preview what the Toronto International Film Festival hopes to clear up in regards to the technical races.

Last week we began our dissection of potential first-time nominees here at “Tech Support.” We addressed the art direction and cinematography categories. Today we round things out with hopeful first-timers in the costume design, film editing and music branches.

In the world of Costume Design, 30 year veteran Penny Rose was responsible for two of the most memorably expansive wardrobes of the last decade: Alan Parker’s “Evita” in 1996 and Gore Verbinski’s “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl” in 2003. This year she follows up her work on the original “Pirates” flick in “Dead Man’s Chest,” the year’s biggest box office success story. It would be somewhat odd if Rose were to score a nod for the inferior sequel, having missed out for the original. But one never knows. She at least seems assured for another guild nomination.

Louise Frogley has been offering memorable work for over two decades. Last year, she crafted the contemporary wear of Stephen Gaghan’s “Syriana” as well as the highly fashionable period wardrobe of George Clooney’s Best Picture nominee “Good Night, and Good Luck.” Frogley was awarded two Costume Designers Guild nominations for her work in 2005 and…was snubbed by the Academy. This year, however, she is once again fashioning a period piece starring Clooney in black and white. Steven Soderbergh’s “The Good German” might be the chance to make it up to her.

Mark Bridges is an unsung hero of Paul Thomas Anderson’s films. Who can forget Adam Sandler’s electric blue suit in 2002’s “Punch-Drunk Love?” What about Tom Cruise’s sleek leather sleaziness in 1999’s “Magnolia?” And let us not forget the singular and outrageous wardrobe of 1997’s “Boogie Nights.” Bridges also managed a somewhat surprising guild nomination for Ted Demme’s otherwise dreadful “Blow” in 2001. Stills would suggest that his work on Steven Shainberg’s Diane Arbus biopic “Fur” is glamorous, memorable and certainly period. Could that elusive first nomination be on the way?

Next we come to Film Editing, in lieu of which – it goes without saying – your cinema experience would be an utterly incoherent one.

While the category celebrating the craft of film editing has traditionally been more welcoming of “newbies,” Christopher Rouse and Richard Pearson never really got any traction for Paul Greengrass’s “The Bourne Supremacy” in 2004, despite the film exhibiting some of the best visual juxtaposition of that year. This time around, the duo accomplished even more memorable, and certainly more detailed work on Greengrass’s “United 93”. Clare Douglas, who pieced together Greengrass’s breakthrough effort “Bloody Sunday” in 2002, joined the team on the 9/11 procedural. The work put into the recreation of that day’s dizzying and confusing effect could afford this collaborative talent the attention it deserves.

Virginia Katz managed an American Cinema Editors nomination for Bill Condon’s “Kinsey,” despite the film’s overall loss of traction in the 2004 film awards season. She also gracefully edited Condon’s Oscar-winning effort “Gods and Monsters” in 1998. This year, Katz will have her best Oscar chance to date with Condon’s Broadway musical adaptation “Dreamgirls.” When musicals are good, nominations for Film Editing follow. I expect this one to be good.

Lastly we come to the composers, the individuals awarded in the categories of Best Original Score and, sometimes, Best Original Song. This lot tends to stick to their own, only nominating two new faces among the 25 nominees from 1999 to 2003. Yet during the last two years, when veterans were less apparent than in years past, the branch welcomed five new talents into the fold.

This year, Craig Armstrong is seemingly leading the way for such a spot for his work on Oliver Stone’s “World Trade Center.” Perhaps best known for combining original score with famous songs in films like Taylor Hackford’s “Ray,” Richard Curtis’s “Love Actually” and Baz Luhrmann’s “Moulin Rouge!,” Armstrong has received awards attention in the past, but his work has always been deemed ineligible by the Academy. The original score that amplifies the spirit of “World Trade Center” has certainly received the necessary attention, so this could very well be Armstrong’s hour.

Harry Gregson-Williams and John Powell are two of the busiest musicians in Hollywood. Both have cranked out several scores per year for quite some time. Gregson-Williams is responsible for the music of such titles as Andrew Adamson’s “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” and Ridley Scott’s “Kingdom of Heaven.” Powell, meanwhile, has struck a chord in Doug Liman’s “The Bourne Identity,” Paul Greengrass’s follow-up, “The Bourne Supremacy” and Peter Lord and Nick Park’s “Chicken Run.” Both composers collaborated on the hugely successful “Shrek” franchise.

This year they each take on a high profile animated movie (“Flushed Away” for Gregson-Williams, “Happy Feet” for Powell) while also having more traditional Oscar opportunities in David Von Acken’s “Seraphim Falls” and “United 93” respectively. The score in “United 93,” however, is pretty minimalistic, while the quality of “Seraphim Falls” remains to be seen.

Carter Burwell has amassed a filmography of over 60 films in just over 20 years. Best known for being the composer of choice of the Coen brothers, he also scored “Adaptation,” “Being John Malkovich,” “Gods and Monsters” and “Kinsey.” His musical contributions tend to be sparse, and not necessarily Oscar fodder, but Steven Shainberg’s “Fur” has received positive, though touch and go press thus far. If the film turns into a surprise contender, technical citations ought not to be ruled out.

Clint Mansell is included on this list for one film and one film only – his previous collaboration with Darren Arofonsky on “Requiem for a Dream.” His work on that film was so memorable, original and haunting that it sticks with the viewer (or should I say listener) forever, regardless of one’s opinion of the film on the whole. If the quality of his work on the upcoming Arofonsky effort “The Fountain” is anywhere near as good, one can only hope Oscar notices.

Even those not overly accepting of the films of David Lynch tend to acknowledge that Angelo Badalamenti’s scores are nothing if not singular. His work on “Blue Velvet,” “Mulholland Drive” and “The Straight Story” jumps to mind. These are just three of the over 70 compositions he’s put forth in the past 20 years. It wouldn’t be unreasonable to expect his hand in Lynch’s “Inland Empire” to be equally superb. But with the film lacking a distributor as late in the year as it is, I’m not confident it will actually be the film that leads Badalamenti to that elusive first nod.

Finishing up today, we turn to possibly my favorite composer of the last few years. The musical intricacies of Alexander Desplat’s “Birth,” “Girl With a Pearl Earring” and “Syriana” scores have been at once haunting and elevating. This year, Desplat composes for director John Curran on “The Painted Veil,” which on paper looks like it could certainly be a force come awards season, but has very little buzz compared to other high profile films releasing later in the year.

To close things today, let’s take one more look at the 16 hopeful first-timers profiled in the introductory installments of “Tech Support”:

Best Art Direction
K.K. Barrett (“Marie Antoinette”)
Philip Messina (“The Good German”)
Nathan Crowely (“The Prestige”)

Best Cinematography
Lance Acord (“Marie Antoinette”)
Harris Savides (“Zodiac”)
Tom Stern (“Flags of Our Fathers”)

Best Costume Design
Mark Bridges (“Fur”)
Louise Frogley (“The Good German”)
Penny Rose (“Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest”)

Best Film Editing
Clare Douglas, Richard Pearson, Christopher Rouse (“United 93”)
Virginia Katz (“Dreamgirls”)

Best Music – Original Score
Craig Armstrong (“World Trade Center”)
Angelo Badalamenti (“Inland Empire”)
Carter Burwell (“Fur”)
Alexandre Desplat (“The Painted Veil”)
Clint Mansell (“The Fountain”)

In the words of two-time Oscar winning sound editor Randy Thom, awards such as Best Sound Editing, though often referred to as “technical” awards, “are given for artistic decisions. And sometimes we make them better than others.”

Considering the fact that most of the individuals responsible for a film’s creation are not “above the line” talent but rather technicians behind the scenes, it seems more than appropriate that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences extend nominations and Oscar awards to these unsung masses. But such individuals seem to be woefully unrepresented by the world of awards coverage, both sanctioned and unsanctioned.

Can you envision the Coen brothers’ “O Brother Where Art Thou?” without Roger Deakins’s textured cinematography? Would Quentin Tarantino’s “Kill Bill” be the same experience without the extraordinary sound work provided by perennial AMPAS favorites Michael Minkler and Wylie Stateman (as well as their respective teams)? Is Oliver Stone’s “JFK” remotely the same film without the tapestry-like film editing of Joe Hutshing and Pietro Scalia?

Furthermore, the technical branches of the Academy represent a sizeable share of Academy membership. Their opinions of films in play are bound to affect the overall flow of an Oscar race. As such, the fact that these branches are more or less ignored in the media is a startling fact indeed. “Tech Support” at In Contention hopes to shed light on these individual races, which combine to establish nearly half of the yearly Academy Awards ceremony.

Dozens of columns could be written on any specific category alone, and eventually, we’ll look more purposefully at the individual races and branches. But until the race really begins to firm up later into the fall, these preemptive columns will take a broader, hopefully more observational glance.

In many ways, the technical races are not that different from the “major” ones. Just as is the case in, say, the directors’ and actors’ categories, there are many talented craftsmen and women who have produced steady memorable and/or acclaimed work in the past, yet have gone unnoticed by the Academy at large. This year will afford the chance for many of them to get their first mention, and so I’d like to take the opportunity in these first two introductory installments of “Tech Support” to address such respective hopefuls.

A couple of people who should be considered kings of the “due for a first nomination” variety – seamless editor Dylan Tichenor (“Boogie Nights,” “Brokeback Mountain,” “The Royal Tenenbaums”), for instance, or “he of memorable themes” composer Michael Nyman (“The End of the Affair,” “Interview with the Vampire,” “The Piano”) – do not have films in release this year.

Moreover, craftsmen such as cinematographer Christopher Doyle (“2046,” “Hero,” “The Quiet American”) and production designer Alex McDowell (“Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” “Minority Report,” “The Terminal”) do not seem to be contenders either. With Doyle’s M. Night Shyamalan collaboration “Lady in the Water” stinking up the joint and McDowell’s designing Anthony Minghella’s contemporarily set “Breaking and Entering” (the art department is rarely spotlighted for contemporary design), these two individuals may have to hold out even longer for their first nominations as well.

Other contenders, however, seem to have the makings of genuine candidates – the sort who have come close before, often expected to score, yet ultimately fell short. We’ll avoid mentioning names like “Dreamgirls” cinematographer Tobias Schliessler and “The Prestige” costume designer Joan Bergin because, though they are undoubtedly talented and are shaping up as formidable contenders, they’ve not necessarily threatened a nomination in the past.

Production design, awarded alongside set decoration in the Academy’s category of Best Art Direction, is a tricky business. One has to not only appropriately create the world in which the film is set, but also tangibly design the elements so that they can endure the process of film production. With period and fantasy work usually being more difficult and, thusly, more memorable, it’s not surprising that the overwhelming majority of nominees in this category are responsible for designing such films.

K.K. Barrett (“Adaptation,” “Being John Malkovich,” “Lost in Translation”) and Philip Messina (“8 Mile,” “Erin Brockovich,” “Traffic”) are relative newcomers to the world of production design. In spite of this, they’ve both worked on high profile films that have garnered major awards attention, each of them boasting a guild nomination to show for it. Those films certainly can’t hurt their chances this year for traditional Oscar fare in “Marie Antoinette” (in the case of Barrett) and “The Good German” (in the case of Messina). Neither have exactly been major contenders to date on account of the fact that they’ve mainly worked on contemporary films.

Nathan Crowley, on the other hand, managed to score guild and British Academy of Film and Television award (BAFTA) mentions last year for his work on Christopher Nolan’s “Batman Begins,” blending the striking cityscape of downtown Chicago with painstaking set construction on London soundstages to create a memorable and innovative Gotham City. Despite being relatively new to the game, missing out with the AMPAS after garnering such precursor attention would have to be considered a slight. This year, he’ll be working again with Nolan, mixing fantasy into the period environment represented in “The Prestige.” In what looks like a relatively weak year for the art direction category, this strikes me as a perfect opportunity for the branch to make things up to Crowley.

Branching now into the category of Cinematography, it’s worth mentioning that Harris Savides has, in recent years, somewhat established himself as the king of eerily memorable photography in smaller cinematic endeavors. Take a look at Gus Van Sant’s “Elephant,” “Gerry” and “Last Days” for proof of this, or Jonathan Glazer’s “Birth.” Yet perhaps on account of his atypical choice of films, Savides has never really come close to an Oscar nod, despite amassing three Independent Spirit Award nominations and a New York Film Critics’ Circle award. His collaboration with David Fincher on “Zodiac” (which may or may not be released as a platform in December to qualify for awards consideration) should be sumptuous and potentially the film’s best shot at a notice, given how stylistic and visual Fincher is as a filmmaker. From this vantage point, I have the suspicion he could be that token guild nominee who annually comes up short at the Oscars.

Lance Acord’s dazzling creation of an overwhelming metropolis in Sofia Coppola’s “Lost in Translation” garnered him immense praise in 2003, including a BAFTA nomination. This year, even those who have not championed Coppola’s “Marie-Antoinette” on the whole have still offered considerable praise for Acord’s photography. However, I can’t help but doubt how well the film will do overall with the Academy. It does not sound “Oscarish,” necessarily, and is likely to be extremely divisive. Regardless, Acord is a talent (also with Spike Jonze’s “Adaptation” and “Being John Malkovich” in his repertoire) one would think would be recognized eventually.

In my humble opinion, the person most likely to fill the void of “due first-timer” amongst the cinematographers would have to be Tom Stern. Here is a man who worked as an assistant photographer on films for twenty-five years before Clint Eastwood adopted him as his cinematographer of choice earlier this decade. Stern lensed “Mystic River” for Eastwood in 2003, generating some minor Oscar buzz, before offering some very memorable work in “Million Dollar Baby” (a film I personally found excessively dark, but to each his own). This year, Eastwood’s double bill of Iwo Jima films, “Flags of Our Fathers” and “Letters from Iwo Jima” (which also may turn out to be a 2007 release), ought to give Stern the opportunity to capture memorable battle scenes on film, combined with eerie, potentially Pavlovian landscapes. The timing seems right for a first nomination.

Next week we’ll continue our look at prospective first-time nominees in the costume design, film editing and music branches. But I’d like to close today by mentioning the state of this column as it pertains to predictions.

Many of you may be familiar with my columns of a more predictive nature at Oscarwatch.com. I have recently finished up my stint writing for Sasha Stone’s website, and therefore it is important to clarify that any predictions represented at In Contention remain solely the opinions of the site’s editor. I am happy to talk predictions via email or in the comments section of the column, but it is my intention to represent “Tech Support” as a commentary rather than yet another set of predictions in the online world of film awards coverage. And I certainly hope you enjoy reading the column as much as I enjoy writing it.

"Tech Support" is an effort at In Contention to bring the spectrum of film awards coverage to a more complete and unique place by offering perspective and analysis of the peripheral, "technical" categories recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences each year. The fields included are art direction, cinematography, costume design, film editing, makeup, music, sound, sound editing and visual effects.

The column, written by Gerard Kennedy and published on Thursdays, will also pay close attention to the respective guilds of these various trades, following their nominations and awards processes as well. It is therefore our intention to afford the proper industry coverage to a stable of hard-working professionals who, more often than not, find themselves largely unrepresented by the general awards watching community.