LOOKING AHEAD TO NEXT OSCAR:

While the Oscars are over, it's never too early to begin sizing up next year's possible crop of films. One film that begins production this week in England that certainly has trophy potential is "Iris," the Richard Eyre-directed story of novelist and philosopher Iris Murdoch's 40-year love affair with John Bayley and their struggle with Alzheimer's Disease. Judi Dench plays Murdoch, with Kate Winslet aboard to play her as a young woman, and Jim Broadbent playing Bayley. Charles Wood wrote the script with Eyre, and the pic's being produced by Scott Rudin and Robert Fox and exec produced by Anthony Minghella and Sydney Pollack. That's a lot of prestige for a film costing $5.5 million. The film's a collaboration between Miramax, BBC and Intermedia.