Just try spelling “Synedoche, NY” at 5 o’clock in the morning. Because of the “Che” marathon, I missed Charlie Kaufman’s dazzling directorial debut here, just as I did at Cannes. Fortunately, it was screened in New York before I left. “Synedoche” is actually produced “Schenectady” and Philip Seymour Hoffman plays a college drama teacher from there who moves to New York. After winning a MacArthur “genius” grant, he moves to New York City and spends something like 20 years writing and rehearsing a massive theater piece on a scale model of the city in a warehouse that covers several square blocks. Meanwhile, both Hoffman and the city are falling apart. It’s a dense, not easily described movie that makes the Kaufman-written “Being John Malkovich” and “Adaptation” look accessible by comparison — and what will the public make of a movie where Emily Watson’s character, Hoffman’s assistant, is played by an actor played by, in a brilliant casting stroke Samantha Morton? (I’m sure I’m not the only one who has trouble telling these two actresses apart). There’s not only an actor who plays Hoffman’s character, but even an actor playing the actor who plays Hoffman. Whew! But whatever the commercial prospects for this 2 1/2 hour brain twister, I think “Synedoche” will resonate with the academy, which has a long history of embracing movies about struggling artists. Kaufman will surely get a nod, and I wouldn’t rule out one for Hoffman, who is so beloved in the profession that his “Capote” beat Heath Ledger’s brilliant work in “Brokeback Mountain” at the Oscars. Kaufman was nominated for both “Adaptation” and “John Malkovich” and won for “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.” Try writing that title at 5:15 in the morning.