THE silly season for movies is over, and it is time to say goodbye to the likes of Iron Man, Kung Fu Panda and the treasure-hunting, fedora-wearing Indiana Jones.

Now is the time of the year when film buffs will find rich pickings in the cinemas.

Movies vying for Academy Awards tend to be packed into the period between November and February because the judges, comprising industry insiders, are deciding their votes now.

Film studios are aware that those doing the choosing tend to favour films still fresh in their memory, and time releases to take advantage of this simple psychological bias.

And so in the coming weeks, serious films with serious star power such as period drama The Duchess, starring Keira Knightley; epic Australia, starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman; Rachel Getting Married, starring Anne Hathaway as a reformed drug addict and the biopic Milk starring Sean Penn as Harvey Milk, the murdered San Francisco city official, will open in cinemas here too.

Read the full story in Wednesday's edition of The Straits Times' Life!