Early Oscar boosts given to Eastwood

File photo shows actor Clint Eastwood arriving on the red carpet before being inducted to the California Hall of Fame in Sacramento, California, December 6, 2006. [Reuters]

The Oscar race of 2007 has begun with a pair of grim films capturing attention over more widely-hyped movies, indicating to awards watchers that the race for Hollywood's most prestigious awards is wide open.

Top critics groups in New York and Los Angeles weighed in with their picks on Sunday and Monday, surprising many with their somber choices of movies based on real life tragedies.

The Los Angeles Film Critics Association named a movie the public has not yet seen, Clint Eastwood's "Letters from Iwo Jima," about the World War II battle from the view of doomed Japanese soldiers. The New York Film Critics Circle opted for "United 93," a documentary style movie made by Briton Paul Greengrass about the passengers' fatal efforts to stop the 9/11 hijackers aboard that flight.

Both films -- one long gone from theaters and the other set to open on December 20 -- are now talking points in Hollywood's most intense contest in years, one that will move through dozens of minor awards and millions of studio marketing dollars before reaching the big event, the Oscars on February 25.

The two movies were also among the 10 nominees for best film named on Tuesday by the Broadcast Film Critics Association along with more mainstream fare including musical "Dreamgirls" and "The Departed," made by Martin Scorsese, a giant of American filmmaking who has never won an Oscar.

These are early days in the Oscar battle which will gather steam after the first of the year when industry trade groups start giving their awards.

For now, the calendar's big event is Thursday's Golden Globe nominations, handed out by the roughly 90-member Hollywood Foreign Press Association.

The Globes, which are to be awarded on January 15, are often seen as a predictor of the Oscar race as New York and L.A. critics are seen as drawing people's attention to the more worthy efforts of the year.