LOTR News 02/12

  • Full List of Oscar Nominees
  • Lord of the Rings Awards Stats
  • 'Lord of the Rings' leads nominations
  • 'Rings' leads Oscar nominations
  • Rings lead Oscars race
  • Hobbits run rings round Oscar competition
  • 'Rings' lords over Oscar with 13 nominations

    Who switched the envelopes?
    Guardian Unlimited

    The field for this year's Oscars is so welcomely unexpected it's hard to believe the faceless Academy voters could have chosen it, says Xan Brooks

    Was there a prankster loose in the Samuel Goldwyn theatre this morning? Did someone switch the envelopes? If so, it would explain a lot. At 5.38am, Pacific time, the starchy Academy president ambled on stage accompanied by last year's Best Supporting Actress winner to rubber-stamp what the world already knew would be the main contenders for this year's Oscars. Instead, they read out a list that - if not revolutionary exactly - offered a more daring and ambitious array than anyone could have anticipated.

    True, many of the names were familiar. It was the balance that was so wonderfully off-message. By the end of the announcement, industry insiders were reeling from the news that Lord of the Rings - a fantasy film that many had consigned to a genre ghetto - was leading the field with 13 nominations. Meanwhile the hotly-tipped A Beautiful Mind shared joint second place (eight nominations) with Moulin Rouge, the first musical to be nominated for Best Picture in more than 20 years. And for the first time ever, two black actors (Will Smith and Denzel Washington) are in the running for Best Actor.

    Elsewhere there were more surprises. Like the inclusion of wild-card film-maker David Lynch among the Best Director candidates (nominated, incidentally, for what is arguably his wildest movie to date). Or the appearance in the same category of Robert Altman; another notoriously maverick talent who recently managed the rare feat of enraging both middle America and the Hollywood establishment with his attacks on George Bush and American disaster movies since September 11. And is it just us, or is there a ludicrously large number of Brits among the nominations? Judi Dench, Tom Wilkinson, Kate Winslet, Ridley Scott, Ben Kingsley, Chris Nolan, Julian Fellowes, Helen Mirren, Maggie Smith, Ian McKellen: all of them will be vying for top honours on March 24.

    For the moment, then, this is a time to bask in a rare demonstration of imagination, risk and good taste from the 5,000 or so faceless voters of the Academy. Remember that these are the same idiots who handed the Best Actor award for two years running to Tom Hanks, and who gave it to Russell Crowe for Gladiator when his performance in The Insider was so clearly the better acting job. Normally I want to grab these drones by the dicky-bows and force them to sit down in front of a proper movie. On this occasion I feel like applauding them.

    It can't last, of course. Come March 24 the old order will surely be restored and the predicted winners will preeningly take to the stage to collect their statues. Or possibly not. Because this year's nominations have already raised the prospect of some surprise victors on the night (Lord of the Rings for Best Film, perhaps). That can only be good for Hollywood, good for the industry as a whole, and good for the short-changed punters who camp out in front of the telly every Oscar night hoping for something more than the usual stage-managed celebrity love-in. This year, at long last, we might have some real drama to look forward to.

    'Lord of the Rings' leads nominations
    USA Today

    BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — The fantasy epic The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring led the Oscar field Tuesday with 13 nominations, best picture, director and supporting actor among them. Other best-picture nominees were A Beautiful Mind, a dramatization of math genius John Nash's struggle with schizophrenia; the class-war satire and murder mystery Gosford Park; In the Bedroom, a low-budget tale of family tragedy and vengeance; and Moulin Rouge, a tragicomic musical set in 1899 Paris.

    A Beautiful Mind and Moulin Rouge were tied for second place with eight nominations each, including acting nominations for Moulin Rouge's Nicole Kidman and A Beautiful Mind's Russell Crowe and Jennifer Connelly.

    The film with the most nominations often wins best picture come Oscar night. But many of the nominations for Lord of the Rings were for technical achievements such as visual effects, sound, costume design and editing. A sprawling fantasy adventure has never won top Oscar honors, so Lord of the Rings could come away with the most trophies while missing out on best picture.

    Besides Crowe, who stars as Nash in A Beautiful Mind, the best actor nominees were Sean Penn as a retarded father seeking custody of his daughter in I Am Sam; Will Smith as boxer Muhammad Ali in Ali; Denzel Washington as a rakish bad cop in Training Day; and Tom Wilkinson as a vigilante father in In the Bedroom.

    It was the first time the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences nominated two blacks for best actor. Washington has received four Oscar nominations previously and won a supporting-actor Oscar for Glory.

    Along with Kidman, best-actress nominees were Halle Berry as an executed inmate's widow in Monster's Ball; Judi Dench as British writer Iris Murdoch for Iris; Sissy Spacek as a grieving mother in In the Bedroom; and Renee Zellweger as a Londoner haplessly seeking romance in Bridget Jones's Diary.

    With Zellweger it was a rare instance where the academy singled out a comic performance.

    Contenders for supporting actor are Jim Broadbent as writer Iris Murdoch's husband in Iris; Ethan Hawke as a rookie narcotics detective in Training Day; Ben Kingsley as a volatile mobster in Sexy Beast; Ian McKellen as an imposing wizard in Lord of the Rings; and Jon Voight as sportscaster Howard Cosell in Ali.

    McKellen, the only actor from Rings to be nominated, said he was proud to represent the film. "It's so massive in terms of what it looks like and the story it's telling," McKellen told E! Entertainment Television. "The academy has followed the good taste of the public and discerned that this is an important film."

    Up for supporting actress with Connelly, who plays mathematician Nash's wife in A Beautiful Mind are Helen Mirren as a coolly efficient housekeeper and Maggie Smith as a flighty, pampered relation in Gosford Park; Marisa Tomei as a single mom involved with a younger man in In the Bedroom; and Kate Winslet as writer Iris Murdoch in her younger years in Iris.

    The best director nominees: Robert Altman, Gosford Park; Ron Howard, A Beautiful Mind; Peter Jackson, Lord of the Rings; David Lynch, Mulholland Drive; and Ridley Scott, Black Hawk Down.

    The record for most nominations is held by 1950's All About Eve and 1997's Titanic, which had 14 mentions each and wins totaling six and 11, respectively. Other films with 13 nominations include Gone With the Wind (1939), Forrest Gump (1994) and Shakespeare in Love (1998).

    Moulin Rouge was the first live-action musical to land a best-picture nomination since All That Jazz in 1979. The animated musical Beauty and the Beast was nominated for best picture in 1991. The last musical to win the top Oscar was Oliver! in 1968.

    Nominated in the academy's new animated feature category were Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, Monsters, Inc. and Shrek.

    Potential front-runners to win the foreign language film Oscar are the French romance Amelie and the Bosnian war film No Man's Land. The other foreign language nominees are Elling, from Norway; Lagaan, from India; and Son of the Bride, from Argentina.

    Nominees in most categories were chosen by specific branches of the 5,700-member Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, such as actors, directors and writers.

    All academy members were allowed to vote for best-picture nominees. The full academy also is eligible to vote in all categories for the awards themselves.

    ABC will broadcast the Oscar ceremony on March 24 live from the show's new Hollywood home at the Kodak Theatre, just a block away from the Roosevelt Hotel, where the first Academy Awards were handed out in 1929. The show has not been held in Hollywood since 1960.

    Whoopi Goldberg returns as host, her first time as master of ceremonies since 1998.

    'Rings' leads Oscar nominations
    David Germain
    Associated Press

    BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - The fantasy epic "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" led the Oscar field Tuesday with 13 nominations, best picture, director and supporting actor among them.

    Other best-picture nominees were "A Beautiful Mind," a dramatization of math genius John Nash's struggle with schizophrenia; the class-war satire and murder mystery "Gosford Park"; "In the Bedroom," a low-budget tale of family tragedy and vengeance; and "Moulin Rouge," a tragicomic musical set in 1899 Paris.

    "A Beautiful Mind" and "Moulin Rouge" were tied for second place with eight nominations each, including acting nominations for "Moulin Rouge's" Nicole Kidman and "A Beautiful Mind's" Russell Crowe and Jennifer Connelly.

    The film with the most nominations often wins best picture come Oscar night. But many of the nominations for "Lord of the Rings" were for technical achievements such as visual effects, sound, costume design and editing. A sprawling fantasy adventure has never won top Oscar honors, so "Lord of the Rings" could come away with the most trophies while missing out on best picture.

    Besides Crowe, who stars as Nash in "A Beautiful Mind," the best actor nominees were Sean Penn as a retarded father seeking custody of his daughter in "I Am Sam"; Will Smith as boxer Muhammad Ali in "Ali"; Denzel Washington as a rakish bad cop in "Training Day"; and Tom Wilkinson as a vigilante father in "In the Bedroom."

    It was the first time the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences nominated two blacks for best actor. Washington has received four Oscar nominations previously and won a supporting-actor Oscar for "Glory."

    Along with Kidman, best-actress nominees were Halle Berry as an executed inmate's widow in "Monster's Ball"; Judi Dench as British writer Iris Murdoch for "Iris"; Sissy Spacek as a grieving mother in "In the Bedroom"; and Renee Zellweger as a Londoner haplessly seeking romance in "Bridget Jones's Diary." With Zellweger it was a rare instance where the academy singled out a comic performance.

    Contenders for supporting actor are Jim Broadbent as writer Iris Murdoch's husband in "Iris"; Ethan Hawke as a rookie narcotics detective in "Training Day"; Ben Kingsley as a volatile mobster in "Sexy Beast"; Ian McKellen as an imposing wizard in "Lord of the Rings"; and Jon Voight as sportscaster Howard Cosell in "Ali."

    Up for supporting actress with Connelly, who plays mathematician Nash's wife in "A Beautiful Mind" are Helen Mirren as a coolly efficient housekeeper and Maggie Smith as a flighty, pampered relation in "Gosford Park"; Marisa Tomei as a single mom involved with a younger man in "In the Bedroom"; and Kate Winslet as writer Iris Murdoch in her younger years in "Iris."

    The best director nominees: Robert Altman, "Gosford Park"; Ron Howard, "A Beautiful Mind"; Peter Jackson, "Lord of the Rings"; David Lynch, "Mulholland Drive"; and Ridley Scott, "Black Hawk Down."

    The record for most nominations is held by 1950's "All About Eve" and 1997's "Titanic," which had 14 mentions each and wins totaling six and 11, respectively. Other films with 13 nominations include "Gone With the Wind" (1939), "Forrest Gump" (1994) and "Shakespeare in Love" (1998), among others.

    "Moulin Rouge" was the first live-action musical to land a best-picture nomination since "All That Jazz" in 1979. The animated musical "Beauty and the Beast" was nominated for best picture in 1991. The last musical to win the top Oscar was "Oliver!" in 1968.

    Rings lead Oscars race
    BBC News

    The Lord of The Rings leads the race for the 74th Academy Awards, picking up 13 Oscar nominations, including best motion picture.

    Drama A Beautiful Mind has eight mentions on the shortlist for Hollywood's most prestigious film awards, while lavish musical Moulin Rouge has seven.

    All three films are nominated for best picture, together with In The Bedroom and Gosford Park.

    Eight British actors and actress are nominated for awards - including Dame Judi Dench, who is on the best leading actress shortlist for her role as novelist Iris Murdoch in Iris, and Tom Wilkinson, who has a leading actor nod for In The Bedroom.

    Also nominated for best leading actress are Halle Berry for Monster's Ball, Nicole Kidman for Moulin Rouge, Sissy Spacek for In The Bedroom and Renee Zellweger for Bridget Jones's Diary.

    Supporting actors

    Dame Judi's co-stars in Iris, Jim Broadbent and Kate Winslet, are up for supporting actor nominations.

    Two black performers are up for the best leading actor award for the first time - Will Smith for Ali, and Denzel Washington for Training Day.

    Along with Tom Wilkinson, they are joined by Russell Crowe for A Beautiful Mind and Sean Penn for I Am Sam.

    Most of The Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring's nominations credit its technical achievements, but Sir Ian McKellen is shortlisted for a supporting actor prize.

    He is up aganst fellow Britons Jim Broadbent and Sir Ben Kingsley for Sexy Beast. Training Day's Ethan Hawke and Ali's Jon Voight complete the category.

    Gosford Park's British stars Helen Mirren and Dame Maggie Smith are nominated for best supporting actress, along with Kate Winslet, Marisa Tomei for In The Bedroom and Jennifer Connelly for A Beautiful Mind.

    The nominations ceremony on Tuesday was led by Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences president Frank Pierson at the organisation's Los Angeles headquarters, the Samuel Goldwyn Theater.

    Dawn ceremony

    The academy's 5,500 voting members - described as "feature film professionals" - decide who is nominated for Oscars.

    In a dawn ceremony in front of an audience of around 400 journalists, Pierson began to read out the shortlist of nominees in 10 of the 24 awards categories.

    Pierson - who takes over from former president Robert Rehme - was helped by Marcia Gay Harden, winner of the best supporting actress Oscar for Pollock in 2000.

    The winners will be announced on Sunday 24 March in a lavish ceremony at the Oscars' new Hollywood home, the Kodak Theater.

    Actress Whoopi Goldberg will host this year's event, the fourth time she has performed the role.

    Last year saw Gladiator win five awards, with Erin Brockovich, Traffic and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon also doing well.

    Hobbits run rings round Oscar competition
    Guardian Unlimited

    The Fellowship of the Ring bucked expectations to lead the field in this year's Oscar nominations. The fantasy epic gained 13 nominations in total, followed by A Beautiful Mind and Moulin Rouge, on eight nominations apiece. It was just one of several surprises in a bracingly left-field Oscar list. Other notable success were Gosford Park, Iris and In the Bedroom.

    The nominations were announced in Los Angeles at 5.58am local time by Academy president Frank Pierson and Marcia Gay Harden, last year's Best Supporting Actress winner.

    The list was good news for Britain. Most notably, Gosford Park stars Helen Mirren and Maggie Smith were each nominated for the Best Supporting Actress award - the first time two actresses from the same film have figured in this category. Tom Wilkinson was nominated for Best Actor for his role in the American independent film In the Bedroom, while Judi Dench was nominated as Best Actress for Iris. Dench's co-stars Jim Broadbent and Kate Winslet were also nominated in their respective Supporting categories. Ian McKellen received a nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings. Lastly, British director Ridley Scott received a Best Director nomination for his work on Black Hawk Down.

    The director's list threw up a few surprises. Alongside Scott and Howard, the nominees include New Zealand's Peter Jackson (for Lord of the Rings), David Lynch (for Mulholland Drive) and Robert Altman (for Gosford Park). Until today the general consensus was that Lynch was too wild a film-maker to attract Academy support, and there were worries that Altman had bungled his chances with his outspoken attacks on Hollywood and the Bush administration since September 11.

    The Best Picture nominees are Moulin Rouge, A Beautiful Mind, In the Bedroom, Gosford Park and Lord of the Rings. The Best Actress Oscar will be fought out between Sissy Spacek (In the Bedroom), Judi Dench, Nicole Kidman (Moulin Rouge), Renee Zellweger (Bridget Jones's Diary) and Halle Berry (Monster's Ball). The Best Actor Oscar is between Russell Crowe, Tom Wilkinson, Sean Penn (for I am Sam), Denzel Washington (Training Day) and Will Smith (Ali). It is the first time that two black actors have been nominated in this category.

    The 74th Academy Awards take place on March 24 in Los Angeles.

    'Rings' lords over Oscar with 13 nominations
    CNN

    Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" led the way with 13 nominations, including best picture, as the nominations for the 74th annual Academy Awards were announced Tuesday morning.

    The other best picture nominees are "A Beautiful Mind," "In the Bedroom," "Moulin Rouge," and "Gosford Park."

    "A Beautiful Mind," a drama, tied the musical "Moulin Rouge" for the second-most nominations, with eight each. Both films earned nominations in the lead acting categories: "A Beautiful Mind" for Russell Crowe's performance as a mathematician afflicted with mental illness, and "Moulin Rouge" for Nicole Kidman's turn as a consumptive dancer.

    "The Lord of the Rings," the fantasy film based on the first volume of J.R.R. Tolkien's classic trilogy, also earned nominations for Peter Jackson for best director, Ian McKellen for best supporting actor, and best adapted screenplay.

    Other nominees for best actor include Denzel Washington for "Training Day," Will Smith for "Ali," Sean Penn for "I Am Sam," and Tom Wilkinson for "In the Bedroom."

    Besides Kidman, the best actress nominees are Sissy Spacek for "In the Bedroom," Halle Berry for "Monster's Ball," Judi Dench for "Iris," and Renee Zellweger for "Bridget Jones's Diary."

    Best supporting actor nominees are Ben Kingsley for "Sexy Beast," Jim Broadbent for "Iris," Jon Voight for "Ali," Ethan Hawke for "Training Day," and McKellen.

    Best supporting actress nominees include Jennifer Connelly for "A Beautiful Mind," Maggie Smith for "Gosford Park," Helen Mirren for "Gosford Park," Marisa Tomei for "In the Bedroom," and Kate Winslet for "Iris."

    Nominees for best director include Ron Howard for "A Beautiful Mind," Peter Jackson for "The Lord of the Rings," Ridley Scott for "Black Hawk Down," David Lynch for "Mulholland Drive," and Robert Altman for "Gosford Park."

    "Memento" picked up a nomination for best original screenplay. Also nominated in that category were the French film "Amelie" (which was also nominated for best foreign film), "Gosford Park," "Monster's Ball," and "The Royal Tenenbaums."

    Besides "Rings," best adapted screenplay nominations went to "A Beautiful Mind," "Ghost World," "In the Bedroom," and "Shrek."

    "Shrek" was one of three nominees in a new category, best animated feature film. The other nominees were "Monsters Inc." and "Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius."

    The nominees were announced by last year's Oscar winner for best supporting actress, Marcia Gay Harden, and Academy president Frank Pierson. The awards ceremony is scheduled to be broadcast March 24 from the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles, California.

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