At the end of an appalling year for mainstream cinema, it’s touching that audiences still turn up to buy tickets every weekend, even though Hollywood rewards their loyalty with the equivalent of a kick in the teeth.

But it’s likely they will get something more palatable in the next two months as studios unleash what they hope will be Oscar contenders or box-office champions.

Some of the coming releases, like Cameron Crowe’s “Vanilla Sky,” starring Tom Cruise and Penelope Cruz, come glistening with buzz. Several films star Cate Blanchett (always a good thing). And we’ve got pictures directed by the award-winning likes of Steven Soderbergh, Frank Darabont, Robert Altman, Michael Mann and Ron Howard, all of whom are simply incapable of making the kind of trash we’ve seen since the spring.

And though their presence is neither a guarantee of quality nor financial success, there is hardly a major star who doesn’t have a major role this holiday season, whether it’s Brad Pitt (who’s in two pictures), Julia Roberts, George Clooney, Gwyneth Paltrow, Russell Crowe, Jim Carrey, Will Smith, Meg Ryan, Matt Damon, Robert Redford or Kevin Spacey.

In terms of genre, there are biopics (“Ali”), literary adaptations (the first “Lord of the Rings” installment), World War II dramas (“Charlotte Gray,” “Dark Blue World”), films about the mentally challenged (“I Am Sam,” “A Beautiful Mind”), time-travel pictures (“Black Knight” “Kate and Leopold”) and a Wes Anderson film, (“The Royal Tannenbaums”).

There’s an explosion-filled, mentor-saves-protégé espionage thriller (“Spy Game”), an all-star remake of a rat-pack heist flick (“Ocean’s Eleven”) that mixes Clooney, Pitt, Damon and Roberts, and a slick remake of a European art-house thriller (“Vanilla Sky”).

There’s even a Woody Allenesque comedy – written and directed by Queens’ own Ed Burns – “Sidewalks of New York,” which should boost the careers of co-stars Rosario Dawson and Dennis Farina, and a promising lowbrow spoof, “Not Another Teen Movie.”

Nor would it be the holidays without two hours of sappy Oscar bait from Miramax, adapted from a middlebrow bestseller: “The Shipping News,” this year’s “Chocolat”/”Cider House Rules,” directed by Lasse Hallstrom and starring Spacey, Blanchett, Julianne Moore and Judi Dench.

Of course, the biggest release of the holidays is also the movie event of the year, “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.” Some industry analysts are predicting “Titanic”-like numbers at the box office (see story below). The film premiered in London last week, and even Potter fanatics appeared to be satisfied with Chris Columbus’ adaptation of J.K. Rowling’s mega best-seller, which features a dream cast, including Richard Harris, John Cleese, Alan Rickman and Maggie Smith. I certainly cannot wait to see it. Almost as hungrily anticipated is the first of the J.R.R. Tolkien trilogy, “The Fellowship of the Ring,” starring Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Blanchett and Liv Tyler. Director Peter Jackson is best known for the small-scale drama “Heavenly Creatures,” and the first trailers did not suggest the kind of epic sweep that you’d hope for. However, subsequent footage looks terrific.

Another director venturing into new territory is Altman, whose latest ensemble film, “Gosford Park,” is a country-house murder mystery in prewar England. It boasts an amazing Anglo-American cast that includes Michael Gambon, Richard E. Grant, Alan Bates, Helen Mirren, Clive Owen and Kristin Scott Thomas.

It’s unfortunate that two of the season’s promising films, Martin Scorsese’s violent-looking historical epic, “Gangs of New York,” and Michael Apted’s “Enigma,” about a mathematician who breaks the key German code of World War II, have been postponed until next year, supposedly for reasons connected with the Sept. 11 horror.

But we do have another film about a mathematician/cryptographer, Ron Howard’s “A Beautiful Mind,” starring Russell Crowe as John Forbes Nash Jr., a real-life genius whose life and career were derailed by schizophrenia. Ed Harris and gorgeous Jennifer Connelly co-star in what is already being talked about as a probable Oscar contender.

And history, albeit very recent history, is served by Mann’s “Ali” and Darabont’s “The Majestic.”

“Ali” stars Smith, in his first challenging role in some time, Jamie Foxx (fresh from his triumph in “Any Given Sunday”) and Jon Voight as Howard Cosell. Director Mann, one of my favorite contemporary filmmakers (I’m a big fan of “Manhunter” and “The Insider”), has chosen a rather awkward subject. After all, in the conventional narrative of Muhammad Ali’s life, the United States is the bad guy, along with racial moderates like his arch rival, George Foreman.

“The Majestic” stars Carrey as an amnesiac writer mistaken for a war hero and is one of a small number of films that attempt to deal with the Hollywood blacklist of the late 1940s and early ’50s. It will be interesting to see if Darabont (“The Shawshank Redemption”), a tugger on heartstrings who has said that his film was inspired by Frank Capra’s “It’s a Wonderful Life,” does the subject justice.

Even more recent history is depicted in “Black Hawk Down,” directed by Ridley Scott (“Gladiator”), written by Steve Zaillian (“Schindler’s List”) and starring a cast that includes Josh Hartnett, Tom Sizemore, Ewan MacGregor and MacGregor’s “Trainspotting” co-star Ewen Bremner.

Along with “Harry Potter,” “Ocean’s Eleven” and “Gosford Park,” “Black Hawk” ranks close to the top of my personal must-see list. But this action drama – whose release has been brought forward to qualify for Oscar consideration – is either perfectly or disastrously timed.

Adapted from the book by Mark Bowden, it’s about the real-life attempt by U.S. forces to capture a warlord’s top aides in Mogadishu in 1993. The mission went horribly awry after a helicopter was shot down, and only desperate heroism by the Rangers and Delta Force troops enabled the forces to escape, albeit with the loss of 18 men. The incident prompted the U.S. withdrawal from Somalia.

There’s more to look forward to in January, including Mira Nair’s sensational “Monsoon Wedding,” the French hit “Brotherhood of the Wolf,” the Eddie Murphy sci-fi comedy “The Adventures of Pluto Nash” and the English-language debut of celebrated Chinese director Chen Kaige, whose “Killing Me Softly” stars Heather Graham.