There's an unwritten Hollywood rule that if you want rave reviews, or at least to be taken seriously by film critics, your film should premiere in December, and the later the better. The conventions used by the studios, screening the (not necessarily intelligent) action blockbusters in the summer and the serious Oscar-contenders in December, may to a fair degree mirror the actual quality of the films, but do the critics underline this tendency more than what is actually the case?

This year, for instance, the heavy Academy Awards contenders include wannabe controversial and overly somber Brokeback Mountain, dead serious Munich, and the fairly run-of-the-mill semi-biopic Capote. All three films have received worldwide applause from reviewers who, I argue, would not be so generous if the films had been released six months earlier. Not that any of these are bad films, but you can't help wonder if the critics are blinded by the light. The perhaps most acclaimed of them all, Roger Ebert, has awarded four stars (his maximum) to a total of 20 films premiering in 2005. Are really that many top-notch films released in such small amount of time?

If a so-called "serious" film is to get really favourable reviews during other parts of the year, they need to be either fairly cheap, independent productions or foreign (meaning non-US productions). However, the paradox is that while European films have a tendency of being extremely well received among American critics (some might say, almost too much so), they are almost guaranteed not to be nominated in the Best Film category at the Oscars. That is, unless they are British or made by American, British or - if you're lucky - Australian filmmakers.

So there we are, you can look at the year's release plan and pick your Oscar favourites without ever having seen one film. They are all released in December. They all get four stars from Roger Ebert. They are all in the English language. And they all have (usually) a minimum of two hours running time (although George Clooney cheated that rule this year). And when from time to time a magnificent summer blockbuster is released, as Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins last year, the critics and academy say "Great film, but unfortunately released at the wrong time of year". But if you release semi-mindless and over-the-top action films in December, you might still have a good chance of the Oscars. Peter Jackson knows that better than any.