In 2006, the film Letters From Iwo Jima increased 74% in the same time frame.

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Clint Eastwood is expected to get nominated for Letters From Iwo Jima, as is Frears for The Queen.

BBC: NEWS | Entertainment | Oscars race begins to take shape

And the production as a whole, "Flags of Our Fathers" together with "Letters From Iwo Jima, " speaks more eloquently still -- of epic folly and shared tragedy, of purblind imperatives and dire necessity.

WSJ: Film Review

I'd love to see United 93 director Paul Greengrass grab the last slot, but it will probably go to Clint Eastwood, whose impressive one-two punch of Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima will be impossible for the Clint-worshipping Academy to ignore.

BBC: NEWS | Entertainment | Oscars panel: Scott Williams