Every year Hollywood saves its best for last, and the holiday films of 2009 are a highly promising bunch. Chances are good that many of next year's Oscar winners lie within this list, including our early pick for Best Picture: Up in the Air.

Here are the movies scheduled for release between now and the end of the year:

DEC. 4

Antichrist: Just in time for the holidays comes Lars Von Trier's ruckus-causing scandal about a husband and wife (Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg) who deal with the death of their young son by holing up in a cabin in the woods and doing exceedingly bad things to each other. That little Hostel punk Eli Roth has got nothing on Von Trier. Chaos reigns, indeed.

Armored: Matt Dillon, Jean Reno, Laurence Fishburne and Fred Ward are among the employees of an armored-transport security firm who cook up the ultimate scam: Rip off the company, and no one gets hurt. But everybody knows there's no such thing as the perfect crime. Nimrod Antal (Vacancy) directs the mayhem.

Brothers: Danish director Susanne Bier's acclaimed 2004 drama gets a Hollywood remake. Jake Gyllenhaal stars as a man who comforts the wife (Natalie Portman) of his older brother (Tobey Maguire), a U.S. Marine reportedly killed in Afghanistan. But the reports turn out to be wrong, and after the missing soldier returns home, the brothers must readjust their lives. Jim Sheridan (In America, The Boxer) directs from a script by David Benioff (The 25th Hour).

Everybody's Fine: Robert DeNiro attempts a role he hasn't played in ages -- that of an ordinary man -- in this story about a widower who heads out on a road trip to reconnect with his three grown and estranged children (Sam Rockwell, Kate Beckinsale and Drew Barrymore).

Transylmania: This comedy is about a group of crazy college students who sign up for a semester abroad in Transylvania, where the kegs aren't filled with beer. Haven't these kids ever watched Dracula?

Up in the Air: Director Jason Reitman (Thank You For Smoking, Juno) cements his reputation as one of Hollywood's best young filmmakers with this superb drama about a man (George Clooney) who hopes to rack up 10 million frequent-flyer miles as he travels from city to city, helping companies downsize their staffs and telling people they are being laid off.

DEC. 11

Invictus: Clint Eastwood directs the story of how the newly elected Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman) used the 1995 Rugby World Cup as a vehicle to unite his country. Matt Damon co-stars as the captain of South Africa's rugby team. Sure, the movie sounds corny and formulaic, but the Eastwood factor cannot be discounted.

Me and Orson Welles: Richard Linklater (Slacker) directs this adaptation of Robert Kaplow's novel about the behind-the-stage shenanigans during a Mercury Theatre staging of Julius Caesar directed by a young, pre-Citizen Kane Orson Welles (Christian McKay) in 1937. Ben Chaplin, Claire Danes and Zac Efron are among the performers joining the romantic mischief offstage.

The Princess and the Frog: The Walt Disney Co. tries a radical experiment -- hey, let's make a cartoon that's not computer-animated! -- with this old-school, pen-and-ink 'toon inspired by the classic fairy tale transplanted to Jazz-Age New Orleans and boasting the first African-American heroine in Disney animation history. Directed by The Little Mermaid team of Ron Clements and John Musker.