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On Tuesday afternoon, I had the opportunity to chat by phone for about 30 minutes with the veteran character actor Sam Rockwell, who has generated some of the best reviews of his career — and not inconsiderable buzz for a best supporting actor Oscar nod, which would be his first in any category — for his performance in Tony Goldwyn’s “Conviction.”

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO AUDIO OF OUR CONVERSATION!

Rockwell, 42, portrays Kenny Waters, a real person with a checkered background who was sentenced to life in prison for a murder that he — and, to an even greater degree, his sister (Hilary Swank) — insisted he did not commit. (It’s a part, he tells me, that Eric Bana, Colin Farrell, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and John C. Reilly all passed on!) Though some have argued that the film plays like a Lifetime TV movie or an extended episode of “Law & Order,” precious few have had anything but kind things to say about Rockwell, who convincingly portrays Waters as both a young and carefree rabble-rouser and 18 years later as an aged and hardened convict whose will to live is slipping away.

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• The Envelope: Reed Johnson nabs a rare interview with best actress hopeful Annette Bening, one of the two female leads in “The Kids Are All Right,” as well as Lisa Cholodenko, the film’s co-screenwriter/director. Cholodenko says that when it came to casting the part of Nic — “who in many ways is the film’s dramatic fulcrum, just as she is her family’s emotional anchor — mostly for the better, though not without the usual quotient of occasional slammed doors and raised voices” — she thought of only Bening. Fortunately, it turned out that a mutual-admiration existed between the two — Cholodenko thought of Bening because of one particularly special scene of hers from “American Beauty” (1999), and Bening always remembered enjoying Cholodenko’s earlier film “Laurel Canyon” (2002).

• 24 Frames: Steven Zeitchik scans the newly-released slate of films that will play at January’s Sundance Film Festival, and points out some potential “critical darlings” for which we should probably keep an eye out. Among them are “Higher Ground,” the Oscar nominated actress Vera Farmiga’s directorial debut, and “Pariah,” a Bronx-set film that many are likening to last year’s Sundance breakout-hit “Precious.”

• The Odds: Steve Pond noted a little less than a month ago that director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and his new film “Biutiful,” which stars Javier Bardem, has a lot of friends in high places — and the list has only grown since Pond posted his piece. Werner Herzog moderated a DGA Q&A with Inarritu in Los Angeles; Robert Benton moderated a DGA Q&A with Inarritu in New York; Sean Penn, who was overheard telling Josh Brolin that the film is a “fucking masterpiece,” will be moderating a Q&A with Inarritu and Bardem this coming Sunday in Los Angeles; Michael Mann will be hosting a private screening of the film at CAA on December 10; and Alfonso Cuaron will be hosting a csreening in London on December 13. Others who have publicly stated their support of the film include Ben Affleck, Guillermo Del Toro, and Julian Schnabel.

• The Film Stage: Jordan Raup passes along a letter from “Adaptation” (2002) director Spike Jonze to online film critic Peter Sciretta in which he emphasizes how much he loves David O. Russell’s “The Fighter.” Jonze wrote, “Hey Peter — Spike here. I’m writing on behalf of my friend David Russell, regarding his new movie The Fighter. Did you get a chance to see it yet? How insanely great is Christian Bale? Can you do me a favor and post this 2 minute trailer called ‘Pressure’ on your site? The trailer that they put out originally makes the film feel a little generic and I just want to help David get the word out. I got to see it a few weeks ago, and I loved it, and if all you saw is the trailer that’s out, you might not know that it’s as interesting and strong as it is. Thanks for your help! Spike”

• The Contenders: Brad Brevet has, through a variety of means, gathered the scripts of 23 of this year’s top awards contenders and posted them on his site for anyone who would like to read them. His most recent acquisitions? “I Love You Phillip Morris” and “Winter’s Bone.”

Photo: Mia Waskinowska, Lisa Cholodenko, and Julianne Moore on the set of “The Kids Are All Right.” Credit: Columbia University.

• Hollywood-Elsewhere and Awards Daily: Jeff Wells and Sasha Stone post the latest edition of their podcast “Oscar Poker,” and their guests this week are box office analyst Phil Contrino and our very own Scott Feinberg. The quartet discuss possibilities for the “tenth slot” in the best picture race; the tight race for best actress and the wide open race for best supporting actress; and the prospects for performances that have not been widely seen but have passionate supporters, like Tilda Swinton in “I Am Love,” who Sasha and Scott believe should be talking up her explicit sex scenes in the film in order to court attention (as has been done already by the folks behind “Blue Valentine”).
• Deadline New York: Mike Fleming confirms reports that producer Scott Rudin — whose 2010 credits includes “The Social Network,” “True Grit,” and “The Way Back” — will receive the Producers Guild of America’s 2011 David O. Selznick Achievement Award, which seeks to recognize the producer for his “outstanding body of work in motion pictures,” which includes “The Firm” (1993), “Nobody’s Fool” (1994), “The Truman Show” (1998), “Wonder Boys” (2000), “The Royal Tenenbaums” (2001), “The Hours” (2002), “Closer” (2004), “Notes on a Scandal” (2006), “The Queen” (2006), “No Country for Old Men” (2007), “There Will Be Blood” (2007), “Doubt” (2008), and “Julie & Julia” (2009), among many others. The 22nd annual Producers Guild of America Awards will take place on January 22nd.
• indieWIRE: Peter Knegt passes along the Independent Filmmaker Project’s announcement that actor Stanley Tucci (“Easy A”) and actress Patricia Clarkson (“Cairo Time”) will host the 20th anniversary Gotham Independent Film Awards on on November 29th. The two thespians, who worked together in Tucci’s directorial debut “Blind Date” (2007), said in a joint-statement, “We took the job with the understanding that every time either of us says the word ‘independent,’ everyone at home watching or attending the awards themselves must take a shot. Here’s to a fun evening for all.”
• Awards Tracker: Nicole Sperling points out several parallels between Danny Boyle’s “127 Hours” and Julian Schnabel’s “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” (2007), most notably that both recount the true life struggles of men after sudden tragedies forever change their lives. These types of struggles, she explains, often turn off moviegoers: “It’s just fascinating to watch these two incredibly visual directors tackle subject matter that most perceive as completely lacking in both color and life.” (One noteworthy difference between the two films: “Diving Bell” earned only $6 million domestically and $20 million worldwide, whereas Fox Searchlight expects “127 Hours” to generate much bigger numbers.)
• The Guardian: Charlotte Higgins writes about Mary (best actress contender Lesley Manville), the central character in Mike Leigh’s “Another Year,” whom she describes as “a bogeywoman for middle-aged females.” She goes on to describe her as, “a spectre of wine-soaked, self-regarding, middle-aged femininity that is all the more horrendous for its recognisability,” asking, “Who among us hasn’t known a Mary weeping into the lees of her wine, bemoaning singledom/heartbreak/bad luck? Who among us hasn’t — at one point or another — been dangerously close to being Mary? My most fervent atheistic prayer on watching ‘Another Year’ was ‘Don’t let me ever, ever become like her (again).’”
• Coming Soon: Ed Douglas offers his annual comprehensive preview of the Oscar race, noting that there are three films “that are pretty much on everyone’s top 10 list already and therefore fairly guaranteed to end up in the ten nominations for best picture,” while cautioning that there is still a “small list of movies that no one has seen yet” that could make a splash, namely “True Grit” and “How Do You Know.”
• Movieline: Chris Rosen writes up another edition of Movieline’s “patented Screen Time Check,” this time tallying the screen time of the “veritable cavalcade of recognizable actresses” who can be seen opposite James Franco in “127 Hours” — if you’re careful not to blink too often. They include Kate Mara (12 minutes), Amber Tamblyn (11 minutes), Clemence Poesy (9 minutes), Kate Burton (5 minutes), Lizzy Caplan (30 seconds), and Jessica Ralston (12 seconds), the real-life wife of Aron Ralston, whose story inspired the film.
• From the Front Row: Matthew Lucas reprints the Academy’s just-released list of the 15 films that will be eligible for this year’s best animated feature Oscar. As Matthew explains, “Since there are only 15 eligible films, only 3 can be nominated, lessening the chances of a ‘Secret of Kells’ type surprise nominee.” He expects the final three to be “How to Train Your Dragon,” “The Illusionist,” and “Toy Story 3.”

Photo: Tilda Swinton in “I Am Love.” Credit: Magnolia.

• Hitfix: Greg Ellwood congratulates the Paramount publicity/awards folks (and we second that) for their masterful promotion of Davis Guggenheim’s education doc “Waiting for ‘Superman’,” which led them — or at least Guggenheim and the five young subjects of his film — all the way to an Oval Office meeting with President Barack Obama yesterday. Obama previously screened the film and described it as “heartbreaking” and “powerful.”
• The Playlist: Ed Davis recounts the saga of Julian Schnabel’s “Miral,” which entered the awards season with a great deal of hype, then flopped at Venice, and has now had its release date pushed into 2011 by The Weinstein Company. Davis speculates that the poor response to the film was only one of two reasons for the announcement, the other being the financially-struggling studio’s limited budget for a campaign.
• Salon: Salon.com film critic Andrew O’Hehir’s review of Disney’s “Secretariat,” in which he essentially calls the film a Tea Party fantasy, provoked a harsh rebuke from Roger Ebert last week. Yesterday, it found an even bigger-name critic when conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh spent 10 minutes of his program tearing into it and using it to illustrate the media’s alleged bias towards conservatives. Salon.com provides a link to the audio.
• Fishbowl LA: Rick Horgan reports that Aaron Sorkin, the screenwriter of “The Social Network,” posted a comment on the blog of veteran writer-director-producer Ken Levine on Saturday night in response to another reader’s allegation that the film presents a misogynistic view of women. Horgan concludes that his “willingness to share himself so candidly and interactively is just the latest example of the way blogging, tweeting and status updating is changing the rules of the Hollywood PR game.
• Deadline Hollywood: Mike Speier reports that “True Grit” lenser Roger Deakins will receive the 2011 American Society of Cinematographers Lifetime Achievement Award on February 13. Over the course of his illustrious career, Deakins has received eight Oscar nominations, spanning “The Shawshank Redemption” (1994) through “The Reader” (2008), but has yet to win.
• New York Times: Op-ed columnist Maureen Dowd believes that “The Social Network” illustrates just “how little human drama changes through the ages,” since its premise, she argues and illustrates, is essentially the same as Richard Wagner’s “Das Rheingold” (1869) and J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings” (1954-1955). (I’ll note one thing that the piece does not: Dowd used to date Aaron Sorkin, who wrote “The Social Network.”)
• Oscar Watch: Dave Karger shares a list of the 10 films that he believes will be nominated for best picture. He has “The King’s Speech” in the top spot, and then “True Grit” (even though nobody has seen it yet) ahead of “The Social Network” (even though virtually everyone has seen it and loved it). Other interesting choices: the rom-com “How Do You Know” (another that nobody has seen yet) and Clint Eastwood‘s “Hereafter” (which generated very mixed responses at the Venice Film Festival).
• Just Jared: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the enigmatic subject of “The Social Network,” is now being followed by some new “friends” that he might like to untag: the paparazzi. “Zuck” and his girlfriend Priscilla Chan were photographed on Sunday afternoon as they visited a local farmers market, attended a Jewish festival, and stopped at a gas station. (Ah, the exciting life of the world’s youngest billionaire!)
• Deadline Hollywood: Mike Speier passes along the first details about a 2013 sequel to the 2010 best animated feature contender “How to Train Your Dragon.” Voice actors Jay Baruchel, Craig Ferguson, America Ferrera, Jonah Hill, and Kristen Wiig will all be back; there’s no word on yet on whether or not Gerard Butler will be returning; and Dean Deblois will be the lone writer and director, while Chris Sanders, who shared those duties with him on the first film, will serve as executive producer.
• Hollywood-Elsewhere: Jeff Wells is quite a character, and you never know what you’re going to find when you visit his “stream-of-consciousness” blog, so perhaps we shouldn’t have been as surprised as we were to visit on Monday morning and read a detailed account of his run-in with the law on Sunday evening — handcuffs, bail, and all — following a party at the Hamptons International Film Festival. He writes that because of the episode his “spirit slowly withered and died.”

Photo: President Obama and the young subjects of “Waiting for ‘Superman’” visit in the Oval Office yesterday. Credit: The White House.