'Brokeback' Riding High In Oscar Race

"Murderball" follows a group of wheelchair athletes over two years and was shot in Texas, Virginia, Florida, Canada, Greece and Sweden. Shapiro said he supported himself during the long project with the publication of a novel, "The Every Boy," and savings from his previous job as a senior editor at Spin magazine. He also lived on the cheap.

"If you don't drink in public, you save a lot of money," Shapiro said. "And I ate a lot of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I also lived with my grandma for a little bit."

Shapiro spoke from his bed at home in New York, where he has spent the last couple of days with a sore throat. He said he watched "Good Morning America" Tuesday morning to find out who had been nominated, "and the only category they didn't announce was documentary."

"I think they have a separate red carpet for us," he said. Shapiro added that he needs a tuxedo for the awards ceremony in March. "I was told that for an Oscar, you can get a free one. Is that true?" he asked. "I don't think I'd help the brand, though. I guess I'll buy one."

Hany Abu Assad, who directed and co-wrote the nominated documentary "Paradise Now," about two Palestinian suicide bombers in Tel Aviv, said his nomination is important not only for him "but also for people on the street in Palestine."

"They are desperately seeking hope for recognition, and this gives them hope," he said. The film recently took a Golden Globe for best foreign language film, and Assad said he was surprised to find that many Palestinians took pride in the win. "The elite know who you are, the journalists write about you, but not [usually] people on the street, the people driving buses," he said. "Even people who were not happy with the film were proud."

Assad is now in Hollywood, where he moved to pursue his next project, a film about how the American Dream looks to people from Third World nations. He learned of his nomination via a wake-up call from co-writer and producer Bero Beyer in the Netherlands.

"Just to be part of this great bunch of films, and you're one of them, it's amazing," Assad said.

For Best Animated Feature, the academy nominated "Howl's Moving Castle," "Tim Burton's Corpse Bride" and "Wallace & Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit."

Individual branches of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences nominate contenders -- directors nominate directors, screenwriters for writers, costumers for costumers -- but the entire membership of 5,800 may vote in any category for the winners. The 78th Academy Awards show will air March 5 on ABC, hosted by Jon Stewart.