The earliest Oscars ever leave academy voters — and Hollywood at large — scrambling
LOS ANGELES - We all know the feeling of coming back from a leisurely holiday break to suddenly face a wall of deadlines. This year in Hollywood, that experience has had its own unique twist.
The voting period for this year's Academy Awards nominations closed Tuesday afternoon - a full two weeks earlier than normal - a compressed timetable that forced Oscar campaigners to push their "for your consideration" blitzes forward and left many of the motion picture academy's nearly 9,000 voting members scrambling to plow through piles of DVD screeners, make their lists and check them twice. Despite the academy's frequent reminders, some it seems may have been unaware of the earlier deadline altogether, believing they still had more time to set aside
