It’s that time of year, when we begin to discuss what movies are likely to be nominated for various Academy Awards. Most of the notable releases have been seen, either in wide release or at least at the various festivals that are scattered throughout the late summer and early fall (though even that assumption has changed this year), so it’s a safe time for industry watchers to begin laying their bets as to who will be nominated for what.

At this time studios also begin to mount their “For Your Consideration” campaigns in an attempt to garner those nominations. (I’ll skip (for now) my usual rant on how studios seem to spend more trying to get some movies an award nomination than they do on that film’s theatrical marketing push and the insanity that lies behind that thinking. Not going to mention that, at least not yet.)

Unfortunately for Peter Bart, editor in chief at Variety, isn’t feeling the studio love quite yet. So he’s taken to his blog (it’s not really a blog, but that’s a conversation for another time as well) to talk about all the factors that might be behind such spending restraint. His warnings about some films being left in limbo are more than a little – ok they’re completely – self-serving in that he wants studios to start calling his ad department promising large-scale ad buys. But in-between his obvious pleadings he does point to a number of legitimate issues.

First off, the advertising marketplace is for shit right now and it’s hitting the media hard. Blog networks, magazine publishers and newspaper companies are all laying off staff left and right as just about every sector of the economy slashes their advertising budget in an effort to keep afloat. The media conglomerates that run the major studios have been hit by the recent stock market tumbles as much as anyone and that’s factoring into those studio’s decisions on what to advertise as well as where and when to do that advertising.

The entertainment industry may, as Time speculates, be somewhat immune to the economic downturn as a DVD is a cheaper Friday night entertainment choice than an amusement park for a family, but that’s only going to cushion the blow to some extent and not completely mitigate the potential impact.

Secondly, yes the studios are skipping on promoting some of their smaller, less-well known features this year because, quite frankly, what’s the point. These movies have become less and less popular at the box-office in the last year and half and most of the major studios have either completely shuttered or severely slashed their “dependent” divisions.

So they’re releasing fewer smaller films (the kind that likely made up a good amount of the ads that ran on/in pubs like Variety) to begin with.

Add to that the fact that the studios have programmed a bigger-than-usual number of wide-release pics for the Christmas period, movies that are going to need their own marketing campaigns and the spending that is therefore necessitated and you see that dollars are being relegated elsewhere.

Plus, there’s expected to be a decidedly mainstream bent to this year’s Oscar nominees. Not that there aren’t always a mix of big-grossing films in the mix, but this year is foreseen as being especially heavily loaded with titles that have been successful at the box-office but which also have succeeded on an artistic level.

There’s an argument that can be made that there are simply higher-quality mainstream movies being made. But Oscar nominations for studio movies that have been audience favorites is good for the studio. They get to point to the movie that had a $200 million budget and a $300 million gross and feel warm and fuzzy that it also wound up being an award-winner.

Already campaigns have begun for movies like WALL-E and The Dark Knight, two films that were widely seen as potential Oscar contenders from the moment they were released. And other mainstream movies like Iron Man might join them.

Let’s be honest about the conundrum that  the industry press outlets find themselves in, though. The trades have cozied up to the studios to get exclusive access and other perks and so have done their part in contributing to the cult of the blockbuster. Studios have an easier time doing promotion for and marketing around comic book movies, action films and animated family-friendly features and so, because they know they’ll be able to easily pitch stories based on those movies (like this fluff piece in the LAT with TDK director Christopher Nolan) as well as run ad campaigns for them that’s what gets made. So first the people at those pubs need to examine their own practices first and then I’ll feel bad for the fact that you’re now feeling the pinch because the big movies they’ve championed don’t really need to be advertised all that heavily.

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