With movie fans in critical high gear, the venerable Zagat Survey has decided the time is ripe to jump into the silver screen fray.

        After more than two decades as a popular source of customer-driven restaurant and travel reviews, Zagat has launched its first survey of movie opinions, conducted entirely online.

        At www.zagat.com, anyone with legitimate e-mail and mailing addresses can register to cast ballots on any or all of 1,800 films in the initial database.

        They include the top award contenders among the 35 titles listed for 2001, should Oscar fans care to lobby for their favorites.

        History is served as well; you can go back and take a slap at, say, Waterworld (1995), weigh in on the never-ending controversy over The Birth of A Nation (1916), or add your plaudits for current hits such as A Beautiful Mind and Lord of the Rings. Outraged that Freddy Got Fingered has been overlooked? The site accepts write-ins.

        Votes will be collected until March 15. Results will be tallied and published later this year, and volunteers who rate at least 10 films will receive a copy of the results.

        Director? What director?: The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences is not alone in serving up contradictory nominations. The Moviefone site — www.moviefone.com — is offering “The American Moviegoers Awards,” an online survey that contains its own nomination quirks.

        For example: You can vote for Michael Bay as “best director,” but you won't find his film Pearl Harbor on the ballot for “best film.”

        That slot apparently was claimed by Shrek. However, Shrek directors Andrew Adamson, Vicky Jenson and Scott Marshall (animated movies often require more than one) were not nominated.

        Short and sweet: Oscar nominees with the least public exposure are the short films, both animated and live action, even though they often showcase some of the year's most delightful entertainment and top-quality technique. Though they may end up on cable TV and DVD, shorts are rarely shown on big screens outside the film festival circuit.

        In Indianapolis, the two-screen Key Cinemas theater spotted an opportunity and has booked a program of all of this year's nominated shorts. The program is slated to run late in March.

        Information: (317) 784-7454, www.keycinemas.com.

        Look closer: Cable subscribers who receive the Sundance Channel can get detailed peeks behind the scenes of three of this year's nominated films on theAnatomy of a Scene series. Each program is about a half-hour long. Featured films and show schedules for each are:

        • Gosford Park, seven nominations including best director for Robert Altman; 5 a.m. March 10, 7:30 p.m. March 24 and 6 p.m. March 26.

        • Memento, two nominations including best original screenplay; 7:30 p.m. March 17; 11:30 a.m. and 8:30 p.m. March 21; 5 p.m. March 23, 10:35 p.m. March 25 and 2 p.m. and 1 a.m. March 27.

        • Monster's Ball, nominated for best original screenplay (and best actress for Halle Berry); 7 p.m. March 16, 5:30 p.m. March 19 and 7 p.m. March 24.

        Also in March, the channel has scheduled several showings of Mr. Altman's films The Long Goodbye, Vincent & Theo and Short Cuts. Check listings for dates and times.

       Contact Margaret A. McGurk at 768-8517; fax: 768-8330; e-mail mmcgurk@enquirer.com.
       

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