Box-office gold is no good here

Oscar voters have spoken. And if you listen closely, with attention given to the films voters chose not to celebrate, you’ll notice the nominations in several categories steered clear of the year’s box-office heavyweights. In 2005, individualistic movies and performances reigned. Call it “March of the Personal Films.”

Favoring tradition

In the animated feature category, the computer-generated blockbusters “Chicken Little,” “Madagascar” and “Robots” were topped by movies employing stop-motion and cel animation: “Howl’s Moving Castle,” “Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride” and “Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.”

Included, technically

If not for single nods in technical categories, two blockbusters would have gone totally unnoticed. Last year’s biggest film, “Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith,” received one makeup nomination. And “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” was nominated only for art direction.

Travelin’ woman

Dolly Parton’s nomination for best original song (for “Transamerica’s” “Travelin’ Thru”) is notable not only as her second academy nod. Her song is the first in Oscar history to deal, even obliquely, with issues of sexual reassignment surgery. “I’m a puzzle,” she sings, “I must figure out where all my pieces fit.”

Will they match the china?

“Brokeback Mountain’s” Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams met on-set, playing a cowboy and his wife. Now engaged with a daughter, they’ve got their wedding presents picked out: matching statuettes.

-- Chris Lee