Oscar hopefuls

The 77th annual Oscar nominations announced Tuesday in Beverly Hills, Calif., by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences:

Picture: “The Aviator,” “Finding Neverland,” “Million Dollar Baby,” “Ray,” “Sideways.”

Director: Martin Scorsese, “The Aviator”; Clint Eastwood, “Million Dollar Baby”; Taylor Hackford, “Ray”; Alexander Payne, “Sideways”; Mike Leigh, “Vera Drake.”

Actor: Don Cheadle, “Hotel Rwanda”; Johnny Depp, “Finding Neverland”; Leonardo DiCaprio, “The Aviator”; Clint Eastwood, “Million Dollar Baby”; Jamie Foxx, “Ray.”

Actress: Annette Bening, “Being Julia”; Catalina Sandino Moreno, “Maria Full of Grace”; Imelda Staunton, “Vera Drake”; Hilary Swank, “Million Dollar Baby”; Kate Winslet, “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.”

Supporting actor: Alan Alda, “The Aviator”; Thomas Haden Church, “Sideways”; Jamie Foxx, “Collateral”; Morgan Freeman, “Million Dollar Baby”; Clive Owen, “Closer.”

Supporting actress: Cate Blanchett, “The Aviator”; Laura Linney, “Kinsey”; Virginia Madsen, “Sideways”; Sophie Okonedo, “Hotel Rwanda”; Natalie Portman, “Closer.”

Writing (adapted screenplay): Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke and Kim Krizan, “Before Sunset”; David Magee, “Finding Neverland”; Paul Haggis, “Million Dollar Baby”; Jose Rivera, “The Motorcycle Diaries”; Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor, “Sideways.”

Writing (original screenplay): John Logan, “The Aviator”; Charlie Kaufman, Michel Gondry and Pierre Bismuth, “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”; Brad Bird, “The Incredibles”; Mike Leigh, “Vera Drake”; Keir Pearson and Terry George, “Hotel Rwanda.”

Foreign film: “As It Is In Heaven” (Sweden), “The Chorus (Les Choristes)” (France), “Downfall” (Germany), “The Sea Inside” (Spain), “Yesterday” (South Africa).

Animated feature film: “The Incredibles,” “Shark Tale,” “Shrek 2.”

Animated short film: “Birthday Boy,” “Gopher Broke,” “Guard Dog,” “Lorenzo,” “Ryan.”

Live action short film: “Everything in This Country Must,” “Little Terrorist,” “7:35 in the Morning (7:35 de la Manana),” “Two Cars, One Night,” and “Wasp.”

Documentary: “Born Into Brothels,” “The Story of the Weeping Camel,” “Super Size Me,” “Tupac: Resurrection,” “Twist of Faith.”

Documentary short subject: “Autism Is a World,” “The Children of Leningradsky,” “Hardwood,” “Mighty Times: The Children’s March,” “Sister Rose’s Passion.”

Art direction: “The Aviator,” “Finding Neverland,” “Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events,” “The Phantom of the Opera,” “A Very Long Engagement.”

Cinematography: “The Aviator,” “House of Flying Daggers,” “The Passion of the Christ,” “The Phantom of the Opera,” “A Very Long Engagement.”

Film editing: “The Aviator,” “Collateral,” “Finding Neverland,” “Million Dollar Baby,” “Ray.”

Costume design: “The Aviator,” “Finding Neverland,” “Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events,” “Ray,” “Troy.”

Makeup: “Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events,” “The Passion of the Christ,” “The Sea Inside.”

Original score: “Finding Neverland,” “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban,” “Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events,” “The Passion of the Christ,” “The Village.”

Original song: “Accidentally In Love” from “Shrek 2,” “Al Otro Lado Del Rio” from “The Motorcycle Diaries,” “Believe” from “The Polar Express,” “Learn To Be Lonely” from “The Phantom of the Opera,” “Look To Your Path (Vois Sur Ton Chemin)” from “The Chorus (Les Choristes).”

Sound editing: “The Incredibles,” “The Polar Express,” “Spider-Man 2.”

Sound mixing: “The Aviator,” “The Incredibles,” “The Polar Express,” “Ray,” “Spider-Man 2.”

Visual effects: “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban,” “I, Robot,” “Spider-Man 2.”

Oscar winners previously announced:

Honorary Academy Award: Sidney Lumet.

The Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award: Roger Mayer.

Gordon E. Sawyer Award (technical achievement): Takuo Miyagishima.

Scientific and technical Oscars: Horst Burbulla, Jean-Marie Lavalou, Alain Masseron and David Samuelson.

Associated Press

‘The Aviator’ soars with 11 Oscar nominations

Associated Press

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. – The Howard Hughes epic “The Aviator” led Academy Awards contenders with 11 nominations Tuesday, including best picture, acting honors for Leonardo DiCaprio, Cate Blanchett and Alan Alda, and a directing slot for Martin Scorsese.

The boxing saga “Million Dollar Baby” and the J.M. Barrie tale “Finding Neverland” followed with seven nominations each, among them best picture and acting nominations for Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman, Hilary Swank and Johnny Depp. Eastwood also got a directing nomination.

The other best-picture nominees were the Ray Charles portrait “Ray” and the buddy comedy “Sideways.”

Jamie Foxx also scored two nominations – as best actor for the title role in “Ray” and supporting actor as a taxi driver whose cab is hijacked by a hit man in “Collateral.”

Foxx’s dead-on emulation of Charles has made him the front-runner in the lead-actor category.

DiCaprio, Foxx, Depp and Eastwood were joined in the best actor category by Don Cheadle for “Hotel Rwanda,” starring as hotel manager Paul Rusesabagina, who sheltered refugees from the Rwandan genocide.

Besides Swank in the best actress category are Annette Bening for “Being Julia,” in which she plays an aging 1930s stage diva exacting wickedly comic revenge on the men in her life and a young rival; Catalina Sandino Moreno as a Colombian woman imperiled when she signs on to smuggle heroin in “Maria Full of Grace”; Imelda Staunton as a saintly housekeeper in 1950s Britain who performs illegal abortions on the side in “Vera Drake”; and Kate Winslet as a woman who has had memories of her ex-boyfriend erased in “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.”

Joining Eastwood and Scorsese among directing nominees were Taylor Hackford for “Ray”; Mike Leigh for “Vera Drake”; and Alexander Payne for “Sideways.”

Along with Foxx in “Collateral,” Alda was nominated for supporting actor as a senator tussling with Hughes in “The Aviator” while Freeman was picked as a worldly-wise ex-boxer in “Million Dollar Baby.” The other nominees: Thomas Haden Church as a bridegroom out for a final fling in “Sideways” and Clive Owen as a coarse lover in the sex drama “Closer.”

For supporting actress, academy voters picked Blanchett, who plays Katharine Hepburn in “The Aviator”; Laura Linney as the title character’s sexually adventurous wife in “Kinsey”; Virginia Madsen as a deceived lover in “Sideways”; Sophie Okonedo as innkeeper Rusesabagina’s wife in “Hotel Rwanda”; and Natalie Portman as a gutsy stripper in “Closer.”

“Sideways” star Paul Giamatti was overlooked for a nomination, a surprise given he had been a contender for most previous film honors.

Mel Gibson’s religious blockbuster “The Passion of the Christ” missed out on main categories, but did pick up nominations for cinematography, makeup and original score.

Michael Moore’s gamble to hold his hit film “Fahrenheit 9/11” out of the documentary category – to boost its best-picture prospects – backfired. The movie was shut out across the board.

Morgan Spurlock’s “Super Size Me,” which hilariously chronicles his monthlong feeding frenzy on an all-McDonald’s diet, was among the documentary nominees. Also nominated: “Born Into Brothels,” “The Story of the Weeping Camel,” “Tupac: Resurrection,” and “Twist of Faith.”

The fairy-tale comedy “Shrek 2” and the superhero adventure “The Incredibles” will duke it out for the animated feature film Oscar, along with the undersea romp “Shark Tale.”

Nominated for foreign-language film were Sweden’s “As It Is in Heaven,” France’s “The Chorus,” Germany’s “Downfall,” Spain’s “The Sea Inside” and South Africa’s “Yesterday.”

Nominees in most categories are chosen by specific branches of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, such as directors, actors and writers. The full academy membership of about 5,800 is eligible to vote in all categories for the Oscars themselves.

ABC will broadcast the Oscars live Feb. 27 from Hollywood’s Kodak Theatre. Chris Rock is the show’s host.

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