LOS ANGELES, Feb. 13
Hopscotching continents and centuries, Oscar nominations today went to a mix of American and foreign, serious and action films, embracing Chinese martial arts, Roman-era combat and the modern-day drug wars.
"Gladiator," director Ridley Scott's stylishly bloody ode to hand-to-hand combat in ancient Rome, led the field with 12 nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actor (Russell Crowe), Best Director and Best Screenplay.
The contenders for Best Picture include "Chocolat," left, and "Gladiator," which topped the field with 12 nominations.
(File Photos)
|
|
Close behind with 10 nominations was the Chinese-language martial arts epic "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" -- already a surprise hit at the box office, where it has taken in $60 million. The film is up for both Best Picture and Best Foreign Language Picture, only the fourth time in Academy Award history that has happened.
"It's crazy. I'm jumping up and down. I'm hanging from the bamboo," said a jubilant Ang Lee, the director of "Tiger," a homage to the martial arts films he loved as a child in Taiwan. "I'm so happy to see it happen this way, to make such a connection. Even kids are going to see this movie. It's a cultural phenomenon."
Filmmakers hailed the culturally diverse nature of the nominations as a welcome change for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, whose members choose the Oscars. Among the nominees were Benicio Del Toro, whose supporting role as a Mexican cop in "Traffic" was played entirely in Spanish, and Spanish actor Javier Bardem, who played the persecuted Cuban poet Reinaldo Arenas in "Before Night Falls."
"There is some kind of coming of age of the Academy and of American movies, which is nice," observed Ed Zwick, a co-producer of "Traffic." "To acknowledge there's a world out there that we're a part of is pretty great."
Screenwriter David Franzoni, nominated for "Gladiator," said the nominations were an indication of how open Hollywood has become to untested ideas.
"Right now because of 'Crouching Tiger' and 'Gladiator,' I can pitch anything and the studios have to think about it instead of giving a knee-jerk 'No.' It's wonderful. Right now a window has opened up. Not since the '70s has there been a feeling in this town that anything goes. You're looking at the proof in the Academy nominations."
Besides Crowe and Bardem, Best Actor nominees included two-time Oscar winner Tom Hanks for "Cast Away," Ed Harris as painter Jackson Pollock in "Pollock," and Geoffrey Rush, who played the Marquis de Sade in "Quills."
The twists this year included the nominations of films by director Steven Soderbergh in two categories, Best Picture and Best Director. The nods went to "Erin Brockovich," an expensive studio film about a miniskirted legal aide who takes on a big chemical company, and "Traffic" -- whose financing was patched together from European and Hollywood backers -- a dark, complex look at America's war on drugs.
No one has won two Best Director nominations in the same year since 1938, when Michael Curtiz was tapped for "Angels With Dirty Faces" and "Four Daughters," losing out to Frank Capra for "You Can't Take It With You." (In 1974 director Francis Ford Coppola had two films in the Best Picture category, "The Conversation" and "The Godfather Part II." The latter film won.)
Soderbergh, who is on location in Atlantic City filming "Ocean's 11," issued a statement: "I can't even put into words what I'm feeling right now. I think that if I didn't have the distraction of shooting a film I would have to be sedated."
Miramax, the studio that prides itself on dominating the Oscars, managed to pull off a Best Picture nomination with "Chocolat," which it had promoted heavily as a fable about tolerance. Previous Oscar winner Juliette Binoche ("The English Patient"), who plays a wandering, magical chocolatier in the windy peaks of France, was nominated for Best Actress for the film.
