There were several surprises Tuesday morning when Academy Award-winner Marisa Tomei and Academy President Frank Pierson announced the 2003 Academy Award nominees.
Leading the pack with 13 nominations, including a nod for best picture, was the flashy musical Chicago. The other best picture nominees were Martin Scorsese's epic Gangs of New York, the ultimate chick flick The Hours, the fantasy film The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, and the Holocaust drama The Pianist.
Perhaps the only notable snub this year is Richard Gere. He was being campaigned, for Chicago, as a possible Best Actor nominee and wound up getting nothing, while his co-stars, Renee Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Queen Latifah and John C. Reilly, all got nominations for their roles in the film.
One other surprise is the 10 nominations Gangs of New York got including another best director nod for Scorsese and a best actor nomination for Daniel Day-Lewis. The period piece also received nods for best song, editing, cinematography and sound, among others.
The Hours received 9 nominations, including best director, best actress (Nicole Kidman), best supporting actor (Ed Harris) and best supporting actress (Julianne Moore). Even though Meryl Streep, the third female star of the film, didn't get nominated for her role, she did get a Best Supporting Actress nomination for the inventive comedy Adaptation, thus making her the most-nominated actress in Oscar history. The closest actress to her is legendary star Katharine Hepburn.
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, unlike last year, only got six nominations, all of which, except the best picture nod, were in technical fields. The sequel's director, Peter Jackson, didn't get a nomination, proving true Billy Crystal's joke that some movies direct themselves. The Pianist, likely the dark horse of the race, also received nods for best actor, director and adapted screenplay.
Some other notable nominations include Jack Nicholson's twelfth for the character study About Schmidt, Nicolas Cage's nomination for Adaptation, and the screenplay nomination for that film, which may lead to quite an interesting acceptance speech. Why? The comedy is about the screenwriter of the film and his fictional twin trying to...write a movie.
Overall, there was nothing that elicited any response of shock in Hollywood yesterday. The films that were touted were nominated, and the films that had no chance got nothing, or very little.
The Academy Awards will be aired live on March 23rd on ABC Channel 15 at 6:30 p.m., and will be hosted by comedian Steve Martin.
Reach the reporter at joshua.spiegel@asu.edu.
