Signalling a return to a genre that peaked in the 1960s, Gladiator, the big and bloody Hollywood movie set in ancient Rome, scored 12 Oscar nominations yesterday, including nods for Best Picture, Best Actor (Russell Crowe), Best Supporting Actor (Joaquin Phoenix) and Best Director (Ridley Scott).
Runner-up in the nominations was Crouching Tiger, Hid- den Dragon, an unlikely martial arts romance produced in Taiwan and featuring English-language subtitles. Directed by Ang Lee, best known for directing The Ice Storm, the movie garnered 10 nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director, as well as Best Foreign Language Film. It becomes the seventh foreign-language picture in Oscar history to win a nomination, following Roberto Benigni's Life is Beautiful two years ago.
In the Best Actor category, Australian Russell Crowe was joined by nominations for Tom Hanks for his role as the lone survivor in Cast Away, Geoffrey Rush for his flamboyant performance as the Marquis de Sade in Quills, and Javier Bardem for his role as a Cuban writer in Before Night Falls. A surprise nomination in this category came for Ed Harris for his portrayal of the American abstract expressionist artist Jackson Pollock in Pollock. Harris, star of such films as The Right Stuff and Apollo 10, spent 10 years working on Pollock, which he also directed.
In the Best Actress category, Hollywood favourite Julia Roberts scored for her lead role in Erin Brockovich, the true story of an environmentalist crusader. Joan Allen, known in Ireland for her portrayal last year of journalist Veronica Guerin, was nominated for The Contender, in which she plays a politician. Juliette Binoche got the nod for her role as a candy-maker in a French village in Chocolat. The movie was once considered a long shot but the studio Miramax launched an intense marketing campaign in recent weeks aimed at academy voters.
Also nominated was Ellen Burstyn as the delusional pill-popper in Requiem for a Dream and Laura Linney for her performance as a single mother contending with her homeward-bound younger brother in You Can Count on Me.
The Irish make-up artist, Michelle Burke, was nominated for the sixth time for The Cell. She already has won two Oscars.
In the supporting races there were a few surprises, especially Marcia Gay Harden for her role as artist and wife of Jackson Pollock in Pollock and Jeff Bridges instead of Gary Oldman in The Contender.
For Best Supporting Actress, Harden will face both Kate Hudson for her rock groupie role and Frances McDormand for her obsessive mother in the rock 'n' roll nostalgia movie, Almost Famous, Judi Dench as a tough grandmother in Chocolat and Julie Walters as a ballet mentor in Billy Elliot.
Bridges was nominated for Best Supporting Actor alongside Phoenix for his role as the evil son in Gladiator, Willem Dafoe as the bloodsucker-turned-thespian in Shadow of the Vampire, Benicio Del Toro for his work as a confused Mexican cop in Traffic and Albert Finney as the litigation lawyer sidekick to Roberts in Erin Brockovich.
In the Best Director category, Steven Soderbergh, a current Hollywood darling, was nominated for directing two pictures, Erin Brockovich and Traffic. He becomes the first dual nominee since 1938. Between 1950 and 1974, the academy did not allow dual nominations.
Also getting nominations alongside Lee for Crouching Tiger was Stephen Daldry for Billy Elliot and Scott for Gladiator.
Some observers believe Soderbergh is facing a challenge similar to his Golden Globe problems. In those awards, some feel he lost the Golden Globe for best director to Lee because votes were split among two nominations.
There were disappointments. Despite a last-minute Oscar campaign, the Michael Douglas-Robert Downey film Wonder Boys did not get more than three nominations - Best Adapted Screenplay, Film Editing and Best Song (Bob Dylan's Things Have Changed).
This year's awards will be presented on March 25th at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. Comedian Steve Martin will be the host.