Four months ago, I began this column by taking a look at those craftspeople who have not been nominated to date and were hoping for their first citations from AMPAS this year; I was speculating on how their 2006 efforts would affect this race.

Today, I want to look at the opposite end of the spectrum – the veterans. The men and women who have toiled in their movie-making professions for years (usually at least a couple of decades for most of the people I’m going to mention) and who have been rewarded for their past efforts by the Academy. Veterans bring a unique presence to the race, often representing the old guard in their fields and always representing those who have gone through this process before.

The expected presence of veterans among the nominees is something that varies by branch. The cinematographers’ branch, for instance, actually tends to spread the wealth around a great deal. At least two new nominees tend to be cited every year and, with the exception of the late Conrad L. Hall, no director of photography has passed the five-nomination mark for over two decades.

Someone who might have been expected to garner his sixth nomination this year would be Robert Richardson, who has accumulated five nominations and two wins since he made a name for himself collaborating with Oliver Stone twenty years ago on films such as “Salvador,” “Platoon” and “Born on the Fourth of July.” However, his latest film, Robert De Niro’s “The Good Shepherd,” has been getting a rather underwhelming critical response thus far. And truth be told, Richardson has been snubbed almost as often as he’s been nominated for equally effective work (“Kill Bill,” “The Horse Whisperer,” “A Few Good Men”).

Hungarian vet Vilmos Zsigmond, with 3 nominations and a win to his credit, seemed poised to return to the Oscar game after an absence of over 20 years with textured work on Brian De Palma’s “The Black Dahlia.” But the film has flopped with both critics and audiences, likely dashing his hopes.

Michael Ballhaus, on the other hand, wasn’t exactly given an Oscar-screaming opportunity in Martin Scorsese’s “The Departed.” But he made the most of it and then some. A frequent Scorsese collaborator, the 71-year old lenser could very well land his fourth nomination this year. Ballhaus has truly worked his way up the ladder, having begun his career working on German TV movies back in the early 1960s. Mr. Ballhaus is also receiving the career achievement award from the American Society of Cinematographers this year.

As far as the art directors go, there usually are no more than a couple of newbies nominated every year. But then again, with a few exceptions, rarely have career nomination tallies reached beyond the “five” mark in recent years. An exception to this would be the great Dante Ferretti, who finally won an Oscar on his eighth nomination two years ago for “The Aviator.” But like Zsigmond, mentioned above, Ferretti will potentially be done in by ill regard toward “The Black Dahlia.”

This branch does, however, have their final chance to cite a veteran in every sense of the word. I am talking about Henry Bumstead, who passed away in May at the age of 91, following a career that spanned over a hundred films and 58 years. Four nominations and two wins from the AMPAS came over this period. In recent years, he solely worked for director Clint Eastwood, and the swansong to his career comes in “Letters from Iwo Jima” and “Flags of Our Fathers.” War films are traditionally more noted for their exteriors, but this could very well be a special case to bid adieu to the man who worked on classics such as “Vertigo” and “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

With the costume designers, there is almost invariably a spot open for at least one, usually two, new nominees every year. They certainly have their favorites, though, with career tallies in the 5-10 nomination range. Undoubtedly the first person popping to mind to fill such a spot this year is the legendary Milena Canonero. Gaining fame working for Stanley Kubrick in the early 1970s, Canonero has amassed seven nominations and two wins over the past three decades, despite having less than 30 films to her credit. Given the eye-popping nature of her threads for Sofia Coppola’s “Marie Antoinette,” I have little doubt she’ll be nominated yet again come January.

Other beloved veterans may be hampered by lack of love for their films. It is not impossible a respected designer to garner a nomination for a mediocre effort (like Canonero for “The Affair of the Necklace”); but it is challenging nonetheless. Jenny Beavan has earned eight nominations over the past 22 years for period work, notably with the Merchant-Ivory films. But as mentioned, “The Black Dahlia” seems to already be a forgotten bomb.

Anthony Powell is always a threat when he works (which is not very often), and “Miss Potter” seems like a typical costume nominee from the Academy. But the buzz on the film is almost non-existent at the moment, some mentions of its mediocrity popping up here and there.

Finally we come to Ann Roth, a 43-year veteran with more than one hundred films on her resume. Ironically, the Academy doesn’t actually nominate her that often; four nominations, including a win, is not shabby by any means, but it does not indicate favoritism as far as I’m concerned. And the response to “The Good Shepherd”, her latest effort, has been decidedly underwhelming.

The film editors are actually a group that doesn’t seem to value past nominations all that highly. In the last seven years, there have been 19 first-time nominees in their category. With the exception of Michael Kahn, no editor has received a career nomination tally of higher than five for a very long time indeed (going back for the last 20 years, anyway). No editor has ever received more than eight nominations.

Nevertheless, they still have their favorites, and I expect of one them to earn her sixth nomination this year. I am talking, of course, about the great Thelma Schoonmaker, who has been working with Martin Scorsese since they were on the same editing crew on “Woodstock” (for which she received her first nomination) all the way back in 1970. Schoonmaker has since won Oscars for Scorsese’s “Raging Bull” and “The Aviator” and been nominated for “Goodfellas” and “Gangs of New York” as well. I’d be very surprised if she doesn’t get her sixth nomination this year for the very tense, very electrifying “The Departed.”

Apart from Schoonmaker, however, there does not seem to be a single person in the running with more than two career nominations to their credit. Joel Cox has admittedly been around for a long time, however, editing the films of Clint Eastwood since 1977’s “The Gauntlet.” Yet he has only been nominated for Eastwood’s two Best Picture winners – “Unforgiven” (for which he won the award) and “Million Dollar Baby.” This year, he has edited both “Flags of Our Fathers” and “Letters from Iwo Jima” for the director. War films tend to do well in this category, so I expect him to show up for at least one of these efforts, most likely “Letters” (which seems likelier to be the bigger player overall).

Standing in sharp contrast to the editors are the musicians. This is a group that is very inclusive, having often chosen to send “their own” to the Kodak in recent years over higher profile work by up-and-comers.

Ironically enough, the vets in contention this year look poised to struggle. Eight-time nominee Hans Zimmer (“The Da Vinci Code”) and six-time nominee James Newton Howard (“Blood Diamond,” “Lady in the Water”) will fight to overcome ill feelings towars their films to garner traction. (Though Howard was nominated for “The Village” of all things, so one never knows what will happen.)

Thomas Newman’s work on Steven Soderbergh’s “The Good German” is the sort of sweeping score one would think they’d nominate; it would be the eighth nomination of his career. But he too will have to face negative feelings with regards to the film. He also has more understated work in play this year in Todd Field’s “Little Children.”

Newman’s cousin, Randy Newman, earned sixteen nominations before finally winning an Oscar in 2001. He’ll try to get back in the race for “Cars” this year. It’s not his best work, but that doesn’t always matter.

Then we come to James Horner. The hopes of this nine-time nominee will be riding on Mel Gibson’s “Apocalytpo.” Precursor attention hasn’t come yet, but that doesn’t necessarily matter for this branch; I feel he remains a good bet for this epic, action score.

All things considered, the music branch might have to venture out to those with only one or two nominations to date, such as Philip Glass, Gustavo Sanataolalla and Alberto Iglesias. Then there are those awaiting their first citation, such as Alexandre Desplat, Craig Armstrong, Clint Eastwood and son Kyle Eastwood, who arranged the score for “Letters from Iwo Jima” along with “Million Dollar Baby” alum Michael Stevens.

In the world of makeup, I’ll simply mention one name – Ve Neill. The 7-time nominee and 3-time winner (“Ed Wood,” “Mrs. Doubtfire,” “Beetlejuice”) has very showy and memorable work on display this year with “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest.” Really the only person of her status in the race this year, she could very well be looking at her fourth statuette.

I’m tempted to venture into the world of visual effects artists and sound mixers, as past nominees frequent these categories all the time. Kevin O’Connell and Greg P. Russell tend to be nominated about every other year, for example. But the fact of the matter is that these efforts are largely team-based and feature multiple nominees for any nominated film. And the odds of a nominee not having at least one past nominee on its crew are slim indeed. So allow me to simply say that having a beloved vet certainly helps.

So there’s a look at the veterans who will be seeking to return once more to the Kodak this year. The Meryl Streeps and the Jack Nicholsons do have their comrades on the craft side of things.