Fox Searchlight flexes for Oscar

For a while there, it looked like a bunch of oldsters singing the Stones were the best Oscar hope for Fox Searchlight.*

*Not meant as a slag on the delightful boxoffice dud "Young@Heart."

The boutique studio that's home to award winners and formidable contenders from the past -- "Juno," "Once," "Little Miss Sunshine," "Notes on a Scandal," "The Last King of Scotland" -- has just upped its game, with THR's Steven Zeitchik calling Fox Searchlight a real player in this year's Oscar race.

How'd they do that? By snagging "The Wrestler" this week in Toronto and recently going halves with Warner Bros. on "Slumdog Millionaire." The former just won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and both are causing a big stir on the festival circuit. There's Oscar talk for "The Wrestler's" Mickey Rourke, and a couple prominent awards bloggers came out of a "Slumdog Millionaire" screening this weekend declaring it an Oscar best picture candidate. (That's the dramedy's star, Dev Patel, pictured with director Danny Boyle).

Add to that Searchlight's planned fall release of "The Secret Life of Bees," and you have a game on par with indie competitors like Focus Features and the Weinstein Co.

Having always appreciated Searchlight's consistently good taste -- "Napoleon Dynamite," "The Namesake," "Thank You for Smoking," "Waitress," "The Savages" -- not to mention their marketing prowess, we're glad to see them with a fourth quarter slate worthy of some Oscar campaigning. Makes it much more complicated and expensive for them, but more interesting for us. It's all about priorities.