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To many Hollywood insiders, the arrival of constant rain over California is an apt symbol for the movie industry's malaise ­ dwindling box-office receipts and the flight of film production to cheaper locations abroad. But for other film buffs, the arrival of autumn means something else entirely: the start of a holiday season in which Hollywood bombards cinemas with a torrent of spectacular blockbusters designed to bring in the crowds, and a shower of high-brow works aimed squarely at the tastes of Oscar voters.

The list of blockbusters is led by King Kong, a three-hour, US$207 million (RM776 million) epic about a giant ape's doomed love for a beautiful actress. It sounds like a stupid idea for a movie, but the 1939 version is an all-time movie classic and director Peter Jackson is a box-office and Oscar favourite. But early reports are troubling: audiences have been laughing at the trailer, which isn't meant to be funny.

One movie you can count on to be successful is Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, which features the usual cast of actors, this time directed by Mike Newell. Though each Harry Potter earns less than the previous one, they have a built-in audience of children and teenagers who have grown up with the sorcerer.

Another film aiming to repeat that franchise formula is The Narnia Chronicles: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, based on the book by C.S. Lewis (a contemporary and friend of Lord of the Rings author J.R.R. Tolkien).

The tale revolves around a group of children in World War II Britain, who step through their bedroom closet and are magically transported to another land in which a noble lion is doing battle with a witch. The buzz on this movie is that Disney has a hit on its hands.

Disney is also likely to score with the animated movie Chicken Little about the famous fowl who tries to warn everyone that the sky is falling. The movie is Disney's first solo computer-animated attempt after its break-up with Pixar, and early reviews indicate it may restore some shine to the faded icon of family entertainment.

But most of the leading contenders set for cinemas in the next two months are far more serious. Jarhead is a grunt-eye's point of view of the first Iraq War, starring Jake Gyllenhaal in a contemporary anti-war movie that will resonate with the Oscar's left-leaning voters.

Another movie in the same genre is George Clooney's Syriana which focuses on the CIA's failure to understand the imbroglio of Middle East politics.

Steven Spielberg's Munich, about the hunt for the terrorists who targeted the Israeli delegation to the Munich Olympics, is also generating Oscar buzz, as is Brokeback Mountain which smashes the myths of the American West with a tender tale of two gay cowboys. The Ang Lee film has already won prizes at the Venice and Toronto film festivals and has been hailed as a landmark movie.

Heterosexual love is getting some Oscar hype with Casanova, starring Heath Ledger as the legendary lover stymied by the rejection of a Venetian beauty (Sienna Miller).

Another sweeping drama that hopes to capture the Oscar imagination is Memoirs of a Geisha starring Ken Watanabe and Li Gong and directed by Rob Marshall (Chicago).

Two musicals, The Producers and Rent, will be hoping to repeat Marshall's Oscar success with Chicago. But the music-themed Walk the Line, with Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon playing country legends Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash, is more likely to succeed.

Another ambitious biopic is Capote, with Philip Seymour Hof fman playing the eccentric author writing his masterwork In Cold Blood.

Among the social dramas with an eye on the Oscars are North Country, where Charlize Theron fights sexual harassment at a Minnesota mining site, and The Prize Winner of Defiance Ohio, starring Julianne Moore as a 50s housewife who provides for her family by winning ad jingle competitions.

Wry comedies in contention include the critically-lauded The Squid and the Whale, about a New York family messed up by divorce, and Shopgirl, with sophisticated guy Steve Martin wooing shop girl Claire Danes Another hopeful is Rumour Has It, with Jennifer Aniston playing a woman who hears her family was the inspiration for the classic 60s film, The Graduate.

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