With pre-anointed contender after contender falling by the wayside and support registering as less than firm for some of the other ostensible heavy hitters, chances are looking better and better for Little Miss Sunshine to sneak up and grab a couple of top-shelf Oscar nominations. An Academy campaign veteran tells me to expect a “late and classy” but overwhelming push on the film’s behalf from distributor Fox Searchlight.

The company previously and most famously pulled an Oscar rabbit out of its hat with The Full Monty, and they have a deft touch with putting little movies in a place to succeed, both critically and financially. They’ll be a bit busy pushing Forest Whitaker in The Last King of Scotland, but that’s a one-horse show. Little Miss Sunshine will get the nostalgic underdog selling, touting its little-indie-that-could box office ($58 million and counting) and reminding those folks in theory how much better it was than the rest of the summer’s fare.

Of course, on one level it’s hard to really classify this as a dark horse positioning when it’s been in the works for so long. But in a down year like this, there is a pre-seasonal Best Picture slot open, and Little Miss Sunshine will be gunning for it.