LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The limousines have been rented, the champagne put on ice and the couture dresses begged, borrowed or bought. Hollywood was all made up and ready on Sunday for its big night -- the Oscars.

And if the experts are right the movers, shakers, worker bees and beautiful people that make up the film capital of the world may never have seen an Oscar night like this one.

Instead of a foot-tapping "An American in Paris" or a chariot-racing "Ben Hur," the five movies that make up the contenders for best picture are a super serious lot -- one critic calls them films exclusively devoted to liberal dreams and liberal nightmares.

They cover topics like the loneliness of homosexuals in a hostile world, race hatred, terrorism and state suppression of civil liberties. Not exactly themes you can sing a happy tune to.

And with one exception, "Brokeback Mountain," "Munich," "Capote,' "Crash" and "Good night, and Good Luck," are low budget movies that most Americans have not seen -- something that can't be too popular in an industry that lives and dies by a little thing called box office.

The favourite is "Brokeback" and it has inspired signs like "Honk If You Love Cowboys" on some shop windows to celebrate its tale of forbidden love between two ranch hands in Wyoming in the 1960s and the price they paid for coming out of the closet.

Directed by Taiwan-born Ang Lee, "Brokeback" is a first for Hollywood -- never before has an overtly gay love story competed for best picture, although Gore Vidal boasts of having as a screenwriter put a secret gay theme into "Ben Hur," something that went unnoticed for decades.

Phillip Seymour Hoffman is a favourite for best actor for his portrayal up of Truman Capote in "Capote." The burly Hoffman lost a ton of weight to transform himself into the fey, lisping Capote in a story that accuses the gay writer of doing a deal with the devil to get his masterpiece "In Cold Blood" completed.

"Brokeback Mountain" lassoed the best feature prize at the Independent Spirit Awards, the art-house world's equivalent of the Oscars, on Saturday, a day before the picture competes for a leading eight honors at the Academy Awards.

Huffman and Reese Witherspoon, who plays June Carter in "Walk the Line," about her romance with country music icon Johnny Cash, are considered the favorites in the Oscar best actress category.

In the best actor category, Hoffman is up against Heath Ledger, one of the cowboys in "Brokeback;" Terrence Howard, who plays a pimp hoping to became a hip-hop star in "Hustle & Flow;" David Strathairn, who plays newsman Edward R. Murrow in "Good Night;" and Joaquin Phoenix, who stars as Cash in "Walk the line."

The controversial Palestinian suicide-bomber drama "Paradise Now" won the Independent Spirit award for best foreign film, and the big-business morality tale "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room" won for best documentary.

Both are competing for Oscars in their respective fields and "Paradise Now" has strong competition from South Africa's "Tsotsi" and Germany's "Sophie Scholl - The Final Days." "Enron" faces competition from popular nature film "March of the Penguins."

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