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by Joal Ryan Jan 25, 2005, 7:45 AM PT Howard Hughes wouldn't want to wash his hands of this affair--not with 11 Oscar nominations at stake. The Aviator, Martin Scorsese's epic biopic of the clean-freak (to put it mildly) mogul, flew high, as the field for the 77th annual Academy Awards was unveiled Tuesday morning in Beverly Hills.
Other top nominees: Clint Eastwood, a double threat as Best Actor and Best Director for Million Dollar Baby; and Jamie Foxx, likewise looking to go two-for-two as Best Actor for Ray and Best Supporting Actor for Collateral. Nobody loomed larger on Tuesday, though, than the long-dead Hughes. The Aviator scored nominations in nearly all the top categories--including Best Picture, Best Actor (Titanic snubee Leonardo DiCaprio, for getting all grubby as the reclusive Hughes), Best Supporting Actress (Cate Blanchett, for her getting all haughty as screen great Katharine Hepburn), Best Supporting Actor (Alan Alda, a surprise inclusion for his turn as a corrupt U.S. senator), Best Original Screenplay and Best Director (Scorsese). The nomination is the still winless Scorsese's seventh overall.
While the Best Director Oscar would break Scorsese's own personal Chicago Cubs-esque streak of futility, the filmmaker chose to focus Tuesday on The Aviator's shot at history. If the movie makes good on each of its 11 nominations--a long shot, to be sure--it'll tie The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Titanic and Ben-Hur for most Academy Awards in a single year. "I am thrilled that so many of the people who poured their heart into the film have been recognized by the Academy," Scorsese said in a statement. Scorsese's luck may or may not change depending on the left hook of Million Dollar Baby. Eastwood's boxing drama, a late starter in the Oscar race, bulked up with seven nominations, tied with Finding Neverland for second-most overall. Neverland's own Oscar dreams could well be hampered by the snub of Marc Forster in the Best Director category. While Forster didn't make the cut, Scorsese and Eastwood did, along with Taylor Hackford (Ray), Alexander Payne (Sideways) and Mike Leigh (Vera Drake). Leigh is the only hopeful in this category without a corresponding Directors Guild nomination, much less a corresponding film in the Best Picture race. The Best Picture field shapes up so: The Aviator, Finding Neverland, Million Dollar Baby, Ray and Sideways. For those with money to burn, Hughes-style, the offshore gaming sites BetWWTS.com and BogDog.com and British bookmakers Ladbrokes all had The Aviator as the early odds-on-favorite to claim Best Picture over Million Dollar Baby; Scorsese's down as the slight consensus favorite over Eastwood to win Best Director. Ray, the year's other acclaimed biopic--this one about music legend Ray Charles, meanwhile, scored six total nominations, third-most overall. Sideways picked up five--a somewhat underwhelming number for a film that wined and dined the critics' awards, as well as the Golden Globes. Make no mistake, the low-key comedy's nominations were all big--Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Thomas Haden Church), Best Supporting Actress (Virginia Madsen), Best Adapted Screenplay--but, owing to a lack of presence in the technical categories, they lacked the depth of The Aviator and Million Dollar Baby.
They also lacked a Best Actor nod for Paul Giamatti. The snubbed Sideways connoisseur will join Javier Bardem (The Sea Inside) and Liam Neeson (Kinsey) on the sidelines. With DiCaprio and Foxx, the prohibitive favorite among oddsmakers, taking their presumed lanes in the Best Actor race, and Eastwood taking his surprise place, that left only two spots. Those were filled by Johnny Depp, in the Oscar game for a second year in a row, this time for Finding Neverland; and Don Cheadle, booking his first career nomination for Hotel Rwanda. In the Best Actress category, Annette Bening (Being Julia) and Hilary Swank (Million Dollar Baby) will stage a rematch of their 2000 Oscar race--won by Swank, for Boys Don't Cry. (For what its worth, bookies from London to Costa Rica think Swank will edge Bening again.) Their competition: Columbia-born Catalina Sandino Moreno (Maria Full of Grace); Imelda Staunton (Vera Drake); and Kate Winslet (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind). Alda, the Emmy-winning M*A*S*H veteran enjoying his first-ever Oscar nod, will vie for Best Supporting Actor against Golden Globe champ Clive Owen (Closer), Church, Foxx and Morgan Freeman (Million Dollar Baby). Blanchett and Madsen are joined in the Best Supporting Actress category by: Laura Linney (Kinsey, the film's lone nomination); Sophie Okonedo (Hotel Rwanda); and Natalie Portman (Closer).
The nods for Cheadle and Foxx mark just the second time in Oscar history that more than one African-American star has competed for Best Actor. In 2002, Denzel Washington (Training Day) and Will Smith (Ali) were both nominated, with Washington eventually claming the prize. Overall, blacks claimed five of the 20 acting nominations--the best ever showing--with Foxx doubling up in the Supporting Actor race alongside Freeman and Okonedo in the Supporting Actress race. Okonedo, a familiar face on British TV, told E! that she learned of her inaugural Oscar nod while on a tour of a London museum with her mother. "We were screaming so loudly we actually got kicked out of Kenwood House," Okonedo said. Madsen, whose nomination seemed secure by virtue of her Globe nod and her success at the critics' awards, also got a kick out of Tuesday morning. "It's been a whirlwind, I'll tell you," Madsen told E! The nominations likewise were welcome news to Brad Bird, up for two Oscars for The Incredibles. The writer-director-animator can double his pleasure with wins for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Screenplay. Overall, The Incredibles, the Disney-Pixar-produced tale of family of superheroes, scored four nominations, the most for a 'toon, besting fellow Animated Feature nominees Shrek 2 (two overall) and Shark Tale (one). "I don't think you ever expect," Bird told E! by telephone from Park City, Utah, where he's attending the Sundance Film Festival. "I expected to watch [the Oscars] from the safety of my living room at the very least." Unless he's invited to the big show as a presenter or guest, Michael Moore likely will watch the Oscars from his living room. Having removed himself and his hit President Bush-bashing film, Fahrenheit 9/11, from the Best Documentary race, presumably in the hopes of upping the chances of a Best Picture nod, Moore was left with no nominations. The Passion of the Christ, 2004's other popular and polemic film, earned three nominations. But despite the efforts of grassroots campaigners, Mel Gibson's account of the final hours of Jesus was not a factor in any of the glamour categories and produced zero nominations for its creator--um, that would be Gibson, a previous winner for Braveheart. Others left on the outside looking in, included: Closer director Mike Nichols; Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind's Jim Carrey; Kevin Spacey and his entire Beyond the Sea production; The Manchurian Candidate's Meryl Streep; Kill Bill: Volume 2's odd couple Uma Thurman and David Carradine; and, Mick Jagger and Dave Stewart's Globe-winning Alfie contribution, "Old Habits Die Hard." Aside from Alda and, to lesser degrees, Moreno and Okonedo, out-of-left-field nominations were rare. Ethan Hawke's Adapted Screenplay nomination, shared with Julie Delpy and director Richard Linklater for Before Sunset, might have been more surprising had the script not recently netted a Writers Guild nod. The Academy Awards, though, do hold the promise of rare sights: Counting Crows frontman Adam Duritz, a Best Song nominee for Shrek 2's "Accidentally in Love," perhaps in a tux; and Super Size Me, the story of a guy who eats way too much McDonald's, perhaps in the winner's circle as Best Documentary Feature. Tuesday's nominations were announced by Oscar winners Adrien Brody and Frank Pierson. Pierson, the writer-director and Academy president, opened the press conference with a brief nod to Johnny Carson, a five-time Oscar host, who died Sunday. "Good night and sleep well," Pierson offered to the late Tonight Show icon. The 77th annual Academy Awards, with first-time host Chris Rock, are to be presented Feb. 27 in a live ABC telecast from the Kodak Theater in Hollywood. Here's a rundown of the major nominees: Best Picture:
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