The red carpet at the Kodak Theatre hasn’t even been rolled up, and Tinseltown is already buzzing about next year’s Oscar race.
Will Meryl Streep, who holds the record with 16 nominations, win her first Best Actress since 1983 for playing former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the biopic “The Iron Lady”?
Is director Terrence Malick’s super-secret, decades-spanning family drama “The Tree of Life” with Brad Pitt and Sean Penn going to be the masterpiece everyone is hoping for? Or an arty dud like his last, “The New World”?
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Will George Clooney — who whiffed with “The American” last year — end up with a nomination or two for his promising-sounding new movies, one of which he directed?
Welcome to Hollywood’s version of fantasy baseball, where insiders try to dope out the Oscar prospects of films that in most cases haven’t been completed and often don’t have firm release dates.
The long-delayed “The Tree of Life,” which appeared on my morning line Oscar list for the last two years, is finally set for a Memorial Day weekend opening.
This is not a sport for the faint of heart. While my list last year included five of the 10 eventual Best Picture nominees — “The Social Network, “Black Swan,” “The Fighter,” “Toy Story 3” and “Inception” — most of the others, notably “The King’s Speech,” weren’t on anybody’s radar at this point.
Movies that sounded great on paper a year ago — based on the talent involved and/or literary pedigree — but pulled up lame in the Oscar derby included “Hereafter,” “Somewhere,” “Love and Other Drugs,” “Eat Pray Love,” “The Tempest” and “Secretariat.”
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Here’s a far from complete list of other contenders for the 2011Oscars:
“J. Edgar” — Clint Eastwood’s decades-spanning biography of founding FBI director J. Edgar Hoover (Leonardo DiCaprio), written by Oscar-winner Dustin Lance Black (“Milk”) reportedly focuses not only on Hoover’s controversial career but on his longtime, much-speculated private relationship with Clyde Tolson (Armie Hammer of “The Social Network”).
“The Ides of March” — George Clooney, who directed the Oscar-nominated “Good Night, and Good Luck,” is behind the camera again for this dramedy centering on an idealistic campaign worker (Ryan Gosling) for a presidential candidate (Clooney). With Oscar winners Marisa Tomei and Philip Seymour Hoffman
“The Descendants” — George Clooney, again, stars as a land baron trying to reconnect with his two daughters after his wife suffers from a boating accident in director Alexander Payne’s first film since “Sideways.”
“The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” — David Fincher directs an English-language remake of the Swedish sensation, the first of a prospective trilogy starring Rooney Mara, his “it girl” from “The Social Network” as a punk hacker who assists a journalist (Daniel Craig) on the trail of a long-missing woman.
“The Adventures of Tintin:Secret of the Unicorn” — Steven Spielberg’s first animated feature, employing motion capture, is going up against sequels to Pixar’s “Cars” and the film that beat it for the animation Oscar in 2007, “Happy Feet.” “The War Horse” — Spielberg’s second December release is a live-action tale of a young man who follows his beloved horse to the trenches of World War I.
“On the Road” — Jack Kerouac’s iconic book finally gets filmed by Walter Salles (“The Motorcycle Diaries”) with a cast including Kristen Stewart and Kirsten Dunst.
“Carnage” — Kate Winslet, Jodie Foster, Christoph Waltz and John C. Reilly as battling suburban couples in an adaptation of Yasmina Reza’s Broadway hit “God of Carnage” from writer-director Roman Polanski.
“Larry Crowne” — Tom Hanks directs himself in a story of an unemployed middle-aged man who returns to college. With Julia Roberts and . . . Wilmer Valderrama?
“We Bought a Zoo” — Writer-director Cameron Crowe (“Jerry Maguire”) tries for a comeback with this comedydrama about a widower (Matt Damon) with two young children who buys a dilapidated zoo.
“Young Adult” — The writer-director team behind “Juno” (Diablo Cody and Jason Reitman)re-team for a yarn starring Charlize Theron as a widower who tries to connect with a married old flame.
“The Skin That I Inhabit” — The great Pedro Almodovar directs Antonio Banderas as a plastic surgeon hunting for his daughter’s rapists.
lou.lumenick@nypost.com