the 77th annual academy awards are still four months away but movie studios are already placing ads positioning their films for your consideration industry code for how about an oscarthe ads are expected to herald a notably wideopen and expensive oscar campaign seasonlike last years this race will be run on a condensed schedule because the academy of motion picture arts and sciences has moved the awards ceremony to late february from the traditional late march but any concerns over the possibility that advertising budgets might be trimmed appear to have dissipatedthere is no frontrunner for the big awards emboldening studios to push harder for their movies and for more of them and with walt disneys miramax the titan of oscar campaigns past going through a wave of costcutting some competitors perceive a marketing weakness they can exploit there will be more competition there will be more spending and there will be more people who think they have a shot said dennis rice the senior vice president for publicity at buena vista pictures another unit of the walt disney companywhen you have a year like we have now where no matter who you ask cant come up with the five pictures they think are going to be a shooin for best picture it encourages people to think they have a shot rice said if you have a shot you want to give it a shotthe campaign began in earnest on october 8 when fox searchlight pictures a unit of the news corporation placed a fourpage spread in daily variety including a refrigerator magnet listing screenings for four films fox even scheduled screenings for two movies sideways and kinsey before the films open for moviegoersmiramax begins oscarrelated advertising this week in support of movies including kill bill vol 2 and finding neverland lions gate entertainment plans to begin its run at the end of the month suggesting consideration for releases including fahrenheit 911 and beyond the sea the film starring kevin spacey as bobby darin and kate bosworth as sandra dee many others will enter the race in earnest with ad spreads in varietys award season launch issue on october 27the studios as usual will be pushing their epics like alexander from warner brothers entertainment unit of time warner but this year is uncertain enough that industry executives are even suggesting that popular films like spiderman 2 released by columbia pictures and the bourne supremacy from universal pictures might compete for bestpicture nominations div