Schizophrenics, hobbits and can-can dancers dominated the nominations for the 74th annual Academy Awards announced in Hollywood Tuesday.
The epic fantasy The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring nabbed a near-record 13 nods, including Best Picture. Fellowship is the first film in the trilogy based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s novels. Such extensive Academy attention is good news for the two films yet to come, as is the fact that for 18 of the last 19 years, the movie with (or tied for) the most nominations went on to win the Best Picture Oscar.
That trend may not hold this year, though, as many pundits are favoring the chances of A Beautiful Mind, up for eight prizes. The true-life story of schizophrenic mathematics genius John Nash is exactly the type of pedigreed safe choice the Academy often goes for in the top category.
Tying with A Beautiful Mind’s eight nominations is the lavish Moulin Rouge, which became the first musical to make the Best Picture race since All That Jazz in 1979.
Also up for Best Picture is Robert Altman’s comic murder mystery Gosford Park, which surprised some forecasters by nabbing seven total mentions.
Rounding out the list is Todd Field’s In the Bedroom, a dark, mature drama about two grief-stricken parents. Bedroom landed five nods, all in major categories. This nomination also marks the 10th consecutive year that upstart Miramax Films has placed at least one film in the Best Picture race.
Contenders in the running, but shut out of the Best Picture race, included the war drama Black Hawk Down, the serpentine thriller Memento and the year’s biggest hit, Shrek, though it is in contention in Oscar’s new category for animation.
Three of the five Best Picture nominees also scored mentions for Best Director. A Beautiful Mind’s Ron Howard managed his first career nomination, after being snubbed in the past for Cocoon, Parenthood and Apollo 13.
Lord of the Rings’ Peter Jackson also made the cut, as did Gosford Park’s Altman, himself never an Oscar winner despite being nominated five times before.
Black Hawk Down’s Ridley Scott did grab a directing slot. He was nominated in this category last year for Gladiator, which won Best Picture.
The final directing nomination went to renegade David Lynch, whose Mulholland Dr. attracted critical raves but left many audience members scratching their heads. After receiving many critics’ awards, Mulholland ended up suffering the same fate as Lynch’s 1986 mystery Blue Velvet — a token directing nod, but nothing else.
Lynch’s nomination most likely stole Moulin Rouge director Baz Luhrmann’s spot. Luhrmann’s snub may have been the most surprising of the day. And since movies hardly ever win Best Picture without a directing nomination, Moulin’s chances are certainly crippled.
The acting races were filled with an eclectic mix of veterans and upstarts.
Last year’s winner Russell Crowe, up this year for A Beautiful Mind, became the first actor to land three consecutive Best Actor nominations since William Hurt in 1987. The Academy may be reluctant, though, to honor the same actor with a statuette two years in a row, particularly since Tom Hanks pulled off that feat so recently.
Sean Penn received his third career nomination for his role as a mentally-retarded father in I Am Sam, while Brit Tom Wilkinson managed his first nomination for his portrayal in In the Bedroom.
The real news in the Best Actor category, though, came from the nominations of Ali’;s Will Smith and Training Day’s Denzel Washington, whose mentions make this the first time in Oscar history that two African-American men have been up for Best Actor in the same year. These nominations are Smith’s first and Washington’s fifth.
Billy Bob Thornton, who many thought would land in the Best Actor category due to his work in three different 2001 releases — The Man Who Wasn’t There, Monster’s Ball and Bandits — ended up snubbed altogether, alongside The Royal Tenenbaums’; Gene Hackman and Memento’;s Guy Pearce.
Also making Oscar history Tuesday was Thornton’s Monster’s Ball co-star Halle Berry, whose Best Actress nomination makes this only the second time three African-Americans have received lead acting nominations. (Such an event first happened in 1972, with Paul Winfield, Cicely Tyson and Diana Ross.)
Berry’s strong competition comes chiefly from frontrunner Sissy Spacek, whose In the Bedroom nomination marks her sixth.
Nicole Kidman, who had a banner year in 2001, managed her first-ever nod for her musical performance in Moulin Rouge, which Academy voters apparently preferred to her equally well-received turn in the thriller The Others, which was shut out completely.
Renee Zellweger received her first nomination for the comic romp Bridget Jones’s Diary, ending her snubbing streak after missing out on nods for Jerry Maguire and Nurse Betty.
Judi Dench scored her fourth nomination in five years for her role as Alzheimer’s stricken Iris Murdoch in Iris.
This crowded category couldn’t find room for the worthy Tilda Swinton (The Deep End), Audrey Tautou (Amélie) or Naomi Watts (Mulholland Dr.).
Iris is also represented in the Best Supporting Actor race, where Golden Globe winner Jim Broadbent (also a standout in Moulin Rouge) earned his first nomination. He’ll duke it out with past winners Ben Kingsley of Sexy Beast and Jon Voight of Ali. Ian McKellen earned Lord of the Rings’ sole acting nod, and first-time nominee Ethan Hawke landed the day’s biggest surprise inclusion for Training Day.
Hawke likely nabbed the spotlight from Ghost World’s Steve Buscemi, who missed out, along with A.I. Artificial Intelligence’s Jude Law and Life as a House’s Hayden Christensen.
In an unusual twist, four of the five Best Supporting Actress contenders are from films up in the Best Picture race. The clear frontrunner is Jennifer Connelly, for her tortured wife in A Beautiful Mind. She’s up against a pair of revered British ladies from Gosford Park — past nominee Helen Mirren and two-time winner Maggie Smith.
Marisa Tomei, a much-scoffed-at winner in this category for My Cousin Vinny, proved her detractors wrong by returning to the race she won in 1992, this time for a much more serious turn in In the Bedroom.
Kate Winslet rounds out the list for playing the younger version of the title character in Iris. This nomination is Winslet’s third.
Among the snubbed supporting ladies: Vanilla Sky’s Cameron Diaz, I Am Sam’s Dakota Fanning and A.I. Artificial Intelligence’s Frances O’Connor.
The writing nominations went to more or less the expected group, with Best Original Screenplay mentions going to Amélie, Gosford Park, Memento, Monster’s Ball and The Royal Tenenbaums.
The Best Screenplay Adaptation nominations went to A Beautiful Mind, Ghost World, In the Bedroom, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and Shrek.
Other nominations of note:
Beatle Paul McCartney is up for his theme song to Vanilla Sky. He’ll probably win, though the competition from Enya, Sting and 16-nominations-without-a-win Randy Newman is stiff.
Moulin Rouge, a dark horse for Best Picture, would make history if it wins the top Oscar, as it is not nominated for writing or directing. Its nominations, like Lord of the Rings’, dominate the technical categories.
It’s going to be DreamWorks vs. Disney in the debuting Best Animated Feature category, where Shrek will take on Monsters, Inc. Paramount’s Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius grabbed the thunder from the innovative art-house hit Waking Life for the third slot, but is certainly just along for the ride.
Startling technical snub of the day: no Makeup nomination for Planet of the Apes, which had long been considered a frontrunner to win.
Composer John Williams, nominated for Best Original Score for A.I. Artificial Intelligence, widens his lead as the most-nominated living person, with his 41st mention.
Whoopi Goldberg will host the 74th Annual Academy Awards, presented live on ABC March 24.
