The Oscar race gets under way at the Beverly Hilton this Thursday when the nominations for the foreignlanguage award are announced.

Intriguingly, two US movies are among the 56 up for consideration . . . Clint Eastwood's Letters From Iwo Jima, which was filmed in Japanese and is a companion to his Flags of Our Fathers, and Mel Gibson's epic period piece Apocalypto, filmed in Mayan.

Three favourites to make the final five are Pedro Almodovar's Volver and Germany's The Lives Of Others, which last week swept the European Film Awards in Poland . . . Volver won best director and best actress (Penelope Cruz), The Lives Of Others best European film and best actor . . . and Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth. Zhang Yimou's epic Curse Of The Golden Flower, the most expensive Chinese film ever, and Nanni Moretti's Il Caimano, satirising the Berlusconi era, could also figure.

'SLEEPING BEAUTY' NOT RESTING ON ITS LAURELS

Last time I watched Sleeping Beauty was a TV screening several Christmases ago. My three-year-old granddaughter Ana put her hand over my eyes at one point, worried I might be frightened by the wicked queen.

Last Sunday we were at the Helix for the premiere of Rufus Norris's delightfully naughty version. When Barbara Brennan's fairy Goody farted every time she tried to cast a spell, Ana . . . now nine . . . and her younger sister Emma kept looking to see if I was shocked.

It was a reminder children like to be challenged. This imaginatively staged Sleeping Beauty does just that, with an Ogre, played by Karl Shiels, and a campish Ogress (Mal Whyte) who keep trying to devour the baby twins of a rebellious Beauty (Kelly Shatter). It gives a new Ooomph.

US TOP FIVE MOVIES (weekend 1-3 December) 1 (1) Happy Feet (George Miller) $17m ($121m to date) 2 (2) Casino Royale (Martin Campbell) $15.1m ($115.9m) 3 (3) Deja vu (Tony Scott) $11m ($44.1m) 4 (-) The Nativity Story (Catherine Hardwicke) $8m 5 (4) Deck The Halls (John Whitesell) $6.7m ($24.9m)

IRELAND TOP FIVE MOVIES (weekend 1-3 December) 1 (1) Casino Royale (Martin Campbell) 479,191 ( 3,696,793) 2 (-) Flushed Away (David Bowers/Sam Fell) 449,774 (-) 3 (4) Santa Clause 3 (Michael Lembeck) 323,282 ( 876,572) 4 (-) Deck the Halls (John Whitesell) 153,072 (-) 5 (-) Happy Feet (George Miller) 152,906 Compiled from Sunday Tribune industry sources