That whooshing sound you hear is the rush of a whole bunch of Oscar hopefuls, all of them being released in the last two months of the year in hopes of being best remembered by Academy voters. The most frantic of all of these is The Reader, the movie with a director who begged to have it pushed back until 2009 so he would have time to finish it, but was forced into a December release date regardless. At least there's enough footage finished to cut together a trailer, which has debuted at Apple.com and we've got below.

A movie with Kate Winslet and Ralph Fiennes in it really can't be bad, but this one looks great even by their high standards. Winslet plays a German S..S. officer who embarks on an affair with a much, much younger man-- that is, until she gets put on trial for war crimes, being that she's a Nazi and all. Fiennes plays the man in older age, coming to terms with the effect the affair had on him.

The cinematography is gorgeous, the plot looks gripping, the acting fantastic-- this is moving way up on my "must-see" list for the next few months. That is, if the director ever manages to finish it. The Reader, God willing, comes out Dec. 10.