Who's sitting out Oscar's party?
It's simple math: Five nominees are invited to the Oscar party in each category, which means that one or more deserving contenders will be sitting at home. Sometimes the snubs say something larger about a particular movie. ("Dreamgirls" nominated for everything except best picture? Maybe the parts are greater than the whole.) In most cases, though, it simply ain't fair, especially in the less glitzy categories where unnominated work just means unnoticed. Following are our choices for the best overlooked work of the year.
Best Supporting Actor
Anthony Mackie, "Half Nelson"
As if "Half Nelson" wasn't morally complicated enough with Ryan Gosling's crack-smoking Mr. Chips, here came Mackie as Frank, the neighborhood drug dealer you always wished you had. In the wasteland of Red Hook, Brooklyn, you take your father figures where you find them, and Frank is, perversely, one of the better ones. He comes to your basketball games, he picks you up after school, he patiently counsels your screwed-up social studies teacher, and all he wants in return is your soul. Mackie, lithe and thoughtful, makes the character the most reasonable of devils and thus the most dangerous.
TY BURR
Best Supporting Actress
Vanessa Redgrave, "Venus"
We see in the Peter O'Toole vehicle "Venus " a true pro at work. No, I'm not talking about The Great Man himself, who does fine in his own plummy way. I'm talking about Vanessa Redgrave, who is at least the equal of the overexposed Helen Mirren and Judi Dench. In a few brief scenes, she gives a master class in the power of understatement. Redgrave plays the wife O'Toole walked out on years ago, now old and sick and broke. She carries hurt and affection and resignation like three martinis on a tray and never spills a drop. In a breathtaking scene, she and O'Toole slowly reach across a table and kiss. She owns this. The woman was, is, and always will be a marvel.
SAM ALLIS
Best Cinematography
"Miami Vice"
High-definition digital video seems unlikely to receive its due from the Academy any time soon (too "new," too untraditional), which is a tragedy since Dion Beebe put it to such scintillating, often hand-held, use in Michael Mann's movie. This isn't YouTube point-and-shoot amateurism. What digital lacks in depth, Beebe makes up for with sheer dynamism and experimental acumen. Every image (seas, cars, bodies) has a dangerously urgent, sexy shimmer. Some scenes have razor-sharp, metallic crispness, some have an erotic haziness, and some just feel audaciously avant-garde. This sort of mood-based shot - making is beside the point of narrative. It's something you can hang in a museum.
WESLEY MORRIS
Best Foreign Language Film
"Volver"
Despite an unusual number of nominations for Latino filmmakers to crow about, Pedro Almodóvar's "Volver," a crowd-pleaser that even made Penelope Cruz likeable again, only managed to get a nod in Oscar's Best Actress category. It was passed up most glaringly in the foreign film competition, where conspiracy theorists could argue that the Spanish-language slot went to Mexico's "Pan's Labyrinth." Certainly no one will object if Guillermo del Toro's stunning "Labyrinth" wins. But "Volver," in which Almodóvar again does sudsy comedy uncommonly proud, at least deserved Final Five recognition. And if you've seen the Canadian nominee (Deepa Mehta's overdressed "Water"), then you know there was room at the top.
JANICE PAGE
Best Documentary
"51 Birch Street"
This year's documentary nominees all deal with Big Issues -- global warming and the war in Iraq, among them. But Doug Block's film -- part home-movie memoir and part tantalizing mystery -- is the documentary that's most intimate in feeling yet universal in its scope. In a brisk 90-minute running time, this hypnotic little gem offers a portrait of a passionate housewife, bored and restless in her marriage, and seeking something greater than what life has handed her; a story of a father and son finally connecting after years of emotional distance; and a snapshot of a man finding love and happiness in his twilight years. In the film, the suburban ideal of tree-lined streets and backyard barbecues inevitably hide s secrets and lies, the pain and regret, and the dashed hopes and unfulfilled dreams of the human experience. But as Block and his father discover, there's also joy and a bit of redemption at the end of the road.
CHRISTOPHER WALLENBERG
Best Original Song
"The Purim Song," Christopher Guest and Eugene Levy , from "For Your Consideration "
It's true that this song is your basic musical joke. Still, it has a catchy tune, the joke is extremely funny, and it's meant to be extremely funny. That's more than can be said for two of the actual nominated songs: Melissa Etheridge's "I Need to Wake Up, " from "An Inconvenient Truth, " a pairing of titles so politically parodistic, Bill O'Reilly must think it's some kind of trick, and Randy Newman's "Our Town, " from "Cars, " a work of such simpering ickiness as to call into question the authorship of his entire singer-songwriter catalog.
MARK FEENEY 
