Mt. Oscar: Who’s up and who’s falling behind

Mt. Oscar: To scale the heights of the Oscars — to reach the precarious pinnacle of that golden O — wrap yourself in raves and pack lots of buzz. This week’s altitude readings are by Elena Howe, Rebecca Keegan, Susan King and Tom O’Neil.

PEAKING

‘WINTER’ WARMTH: With a Gotham Award under its belt and a Spirit nomination, “Winter’s Bone” may just find itself leaving the Ozarks and heading to Tinseltown.

CLIMBING

SPEECH! SPEECH! “The King’s Speech” got a royal welcome at arthouses, earning the highest per theater average of 2010. Add that to its critical raves and traditional Oscar-bait setting, and its participants should probably start working on speeches of a new sort.

GIVE THE KIDS A BREAK: Let’s give Anne Hathaway and James Franco a chance as Oscar hosts. They’ve proved they can sing, they can crack wise … they can act stoned. They may even prove to be nominees.

AT BASE CAMP

DON’T LOOK NOW: Everyone’s bitten their tongue, literally, at some point. But “True Grit” takes that injury to a whole new level. If you were squeamish at the arm-severing scene in “127 Hours” … well, no, on second thought, it’s not that bad.

DEW-PICKED: At 20, “Winter’s Bone” star Jennifer Lawrence has the potential to become the Oscars’ youngest lead actress winner. That record is held now by Marlee Matlin, who won for 1986’s “Children of a Lesser God,” at 21.

LOOKING FOR A SHERPA

ANOINTED: Among the first out with their top 10 film lists is author Stephen King, whose unlikely No. 1 film is the vampire remake “Let Me In.” Such a high-profile endorsement may inspire more academy voters to give this genre picture a look. But, then again, what do they expect from Stephen King?

OVERBOARD: Halle Barry’s late Oscar entry, “Frankie & Alice,” isn’t building up much steam for the Oscar winner. Perhaps the period set, interracial love story and multiple-personality tale of self-acceptance had one personality too many?

REV IT UP: The Spirit Award nominations bypassed indie favorite Ryan Gosling, whose work in “Blue Valentine” has drawn critical raves. And Julianne Moore was passed over in favor of her “Kids Are All Right” costar Annette Bening. Someone needs to put their campaigns into overdrive.