Kiwi actress makes history

This year’s nominations are as noteworthy for their surprise inclusions as for their omissions.

No one was more shocked than New Zealand actress Keisha Castle-Hughes, who at 13 is the youngest person ever nominated for best actress. Castle-Hughes, nominated for her performance in “Whale Rider,” was fast asleep in her Auckland home when her mother came rushing in at 3 a.m. to tell her the news.

But Castle-Hughes refused to get out of bed.

“I thought I was just dreaming,” she said, noting that she is “not a morning person.” By quarter to six, her mother put Alan Nierob and Nicole Perez, her Hollywood publicists, on the phone.

“They were yelling on the phone for me to get out of bed, have a shower and get some breakfast because I had just gone down in history,” Castle-Hughes said. “And that is when I thought, ‘It’s really happened.’ ”

The nomination seems surreal to her, she said, considering only a year ago she was just a 12-year-old schoolgirl living with a single mom and three siblings.

“I feel so overwhelmed. It’s like I’m in a big whirlwind, and I’m going to wake up and it’s all going to be over,” she said. “It’s not everyday that someone runs into your room and tells you you are nominated for best actress.”

Castle-Hughes was plucked from her school one day for a rehearsal of the movie and to her surprise was chosen to play the determined Pai, a young girl born into tragedy who doggedly sets out to prove to her stubborn grandfather that young girls can be leaders.

She rehearsed intensely for months with the film’s director, Niki Caro, before filming. Castle-Hughes, who describes herself as a “girlie-girl,” even had to learn how to run like her character, who is a tomboy. And now that she’s been nominated, she said she is determined to become an actor.

On Tuesday she was walking on air, with the phone ringing off the hook and her relatives frantically asking what she would ever wear to the Oscars, but today she returns to reality -- school.

“I don’t know that I will be able to concentrate,” she said.

On the other side of the surprise factor, several Oscar veterans did not get nominations this year. Jack Nicholson, Russell Crowe, Tom Cruise, last year’s best supporting actor Chris Cooper and last year’s best actress winner Nicole Kidman all failed to be named, even though the films they starred in received nominations in other categories.

Scarlett Johansson, who starred in both “Lost in Translation” and “Girl With a Pearl Earring,” was also overlooked in the nomination process. Johansson was nominated for two Golden Globes this year but did not win. She may have been hurt by Focus Features’ (which made “Lost in Translation”) decision to push for a best actress nomination -- instead of supporting actress -- and ended up competing against herself.

Jennifer Connelly -- who was touted on the covers of magazines as an Oscar shoo-in for her performance as a wounded soul in DreamWorks’ “House of Sand and Fog,” did not get nominated.

Two actresses named by critics’ groups as standouts this year -- Hope Davis for “American Splendor” and Maria Bello for “The Cooler” -- were also overlooked.

Perhaps the biggest blow came for Miramax’s “Cold Mountain,” which was nominated in seven categories but failed to be nominated for best picture, adapted screenplay or director for Anthony Minghella, who won in 1997 for “The English Patient.”

“Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” received 11 nominations, the most of any film this year, but it’s the first time a film has received that many nominations without a single acting nomination.

Although many speculated that Andy Serkis, who played the computer-generated shriveled hobbit Gollum, might be the first animated character to be nominated, none of the actors from the film were recognized.