‘Rings,’ sure, but surprises galore

Sweeping epics, a gritty crime drama and an offbeat love story set in Japan grabbed Academy Award nominations for best picture Tuesday with “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” the likely favorite in this year’s Oscar race with 11 nominations.

But while bestowing multiple nominations on “Rings” was expected, there were a number of surprises as well, including nods to edgy foreign films, comedic performances and, in “Whale Rider’s” 13-year-old Keisha Castle-Hughes, the youngest nominee ever for a best actress award.

Besides best film, “The Lord of the Rings,” which has amassed more than $840 million in worldwide box office after little more than a month in release, garnered nominations for director, screenplay adaptation and score -- though none for acting. The film is the final installment in director Peter Jackson’s ambitious trilogy based on the J.R.R. Tolkien books; all three have been nominated for best picture.

Jackson, the disheveled New Zealand native who spent seven years bringing hobbits, elves and wizards to the screen, called his three nominations for film, director and screenwriter “a dream come true” for someone whose love of film began as a “Kiwi boy with a Super-8.” But Jackson conceded that he doesn’t have a lock on any of the nominations. “Frontrunners have a habit of not actually winning,” he noted.

Robert Shaye, co-chairman of New Line Cinema, which took a $300-million gamble on Jackson’s vision, struck a similar cautious note: “Being smug is the all-time world’s worst attitude in this business. We’re grateful for the reception and recognition this film has received, but ... there is no such thing as a slam dunk.”

Joining Jackson’s Middle-earth fantasy in the 2003 best picture race are “Lost in Translation” (four nominations), “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World” (10 nominations), “Mystic River” (six nominations) and “Seabiscuit” (seven nominations). Four of the five are based on adaptations of well-known books; only “Translation” is an original screenplay.

Like the legendary thoroughbred upon whom it is based, “Seabiscuit” proved to have legs. “We came out in the summertime,” said writer and director Gary Ross, who was nominated for screenplay adaptation. “It would have been really easy for people to forget about this movie.”

A striking feature of this year’s Oscar derby is how it celebrates the smaller, independent cinema while giving an international flavor to many of its categories. For example, there is only one American nominee in the best actress category; a Brazilian, a New Zealander and an Australian are up for best director; and actors from such faraway places as West Africa’s Benin and Japan are vying for best supporting actor.

Although the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences rarely honors comedic performances, two of this year’s best actor nominees are Johnny Depp, for his over-the-top performance as an eccentric brigand in “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl,” and Bill Murray in a subtly funny turn as a burned-out actor in “Lost in Translation.” They are competing against Oscar winner Ben Kingsley, who plays an ill-fated Iranian immigrant in “House of Sand and Fog,” Jude Law as a lovelorn Confederate soldier in “Cold Mountain” and Sean Penn as a grieving, revenge-filled father of a murdered daughter in “Mystic River.”

Kingsley, who won the Oscar 21 years ago for playing Gandhi, said his role as a former Iranian military officer in “House of Sand and Fog” was “the richest character” he has ever played.

“When I put the uniform on,” he recalled, “I felt I was beginning to know him quite well. He has a code of behavior and warriors stick to that code.”

In the best actress category, veteran Diane Keaton, who won the Oscar for her leading role in the 1977 comedy “Annie Hall,” was nominated this time for playing a middle-aged divorcee who finds love with her daughter’s 60ish boyfriend in “Something’s Gotta Give.” Keaton follows in the footsteps of Katharine Hepburn, having received an acting nomination in each of four successive decades.

Keaton said she was up before dawn when a friend called her with the good news. “When you’re older, these wonderful things don’t happen as often,” said the 58-year-old actress. “When I was nominated for ‘Annie Hall,’ there was this huge future in front of me. I love that I’m still around. It’s very meaningful for me that anyone who’s 50 isn’t taken out into a field and shot.”

Competing against Keaton this year are New Zealander Castle-Hughes, who in “Whale Rider” plays a young Maori girl who defies her grandfather to head her village; Britain’s Samantha Morton as a grieving Irish immigrant mother in “In America”; South Africa’s Charlize Theron as notorious Florida serial killer Aileen Wuornos in “Monster”; and Australian-raised Naomi Watts as another grieving mother in “21 Grams.”

If the 5,803 voting members of the academy were sending a statement Tuesday with their nominations, it could be that you don’t have to be a box-office superstar to gain recognition. Noticeably missing from this year’s competition were Russell Crowe, Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman and Jack Nicholson, all of whom were nominated for Golden Globes this year.

But the Globes weren’t the harbinger of the Oscar nominations that they were in prior years. That’s because the 76th annual Academy Awards ceremony will take place at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood on Feb. 29, a month earlier than normal. That meant the Globes, which were given out Sunday, came too late to affect the academy nominations.

For the first time in 11 years, Miramax Films does not have a best picture nominee, which is seen as a blow to the mini-studio and its co-chairman, Harvey Weinstein, a voracious and often criticized awards campaigner. “Cold Mountain” received seven nominations this year but none for best picture or for director Anthony Minghella, despite heavy advertising.

It was a historic morning for Sofia Coppola. Not only did her “Lost in Translation” get best picture, actor and screenplay nods, but she was nominated as best director. The 32-year-old daughter of Oscar winner Francis Ford Coppola becomes the first American woman to be nominated in this category. Previously, Italy’s Lina Wertmuller was nominated for 1976’s “Seven Beauties,” and New Zealand’s Jane Campion received a director nomination for 1993’s “The Piano.”

“It’s pretty unbelievable,” she said. “I was pretty excited when they said Bill Murray’s name [for best actor]. I called my parents. My father sounded really happy.”

Joining Coppola and Jackson in the best director category are Brazilian filmmaker Fernando Meirelles for the often-brutal urban street drama “City of God,” Australian Peter Weir for the seafaring adventure “Master and Commander” and veteran U.S. filmmaker and actor Clint Eastwood for the murder mystery “Mystic River.” Eastwood won in this category 11 years ago for his seminal western “Unforgiven.”

There was a family element as well to this year’s original screenplay category as Jim Sheridan and his daughters, Naomi and Kirsten, picked up nominations for their highly personal “In America.”

“I’m as happy as Francis Ford Coppola,” said the Irish filmmaker. “You can’t imagine what it’s like to be nominated with your kids. It takes some of the vanity out of you.”

Another big winner on Tuesday was Disney/Pixar, which garnered five nominations, four of them for its computer-animated blockbuster “Finding Nemo.” The other nominees for feature animation were Disney’s “Brother Bear” and the quirky French film “The Triplets of Belleville.”

In the always competitive races for supporting roles, the academy nominated three former winners and several newcomers. Best supporting actor nominations went to Alec Baldwin in “The Cooler,” former Oscar winner Benicio Del Toro for “21 Grams,” Djimon Hounsou for “In America,” Tim Robbins for “Mystic River” and Japan’s Ken Watanabe for “The Last Samurai.”

Hounsou, the former model from Benin by way of Paris, was the talk of his African hometown of Porto-Novo on Tuesday. “They’re all going to be around the television until the end of [February],” said Hounsou, who plays an artist dying of AIDS in the drama. Watanabe, who plays a brave samurai warrior in the film, said being nominated for an Academy Award makes him feel like “a freshman in high school.”

Del Toro said his father awakened him with a phone call from Puerto Rico. “He said, ‘Congratulations! You’ve been nominated again!’ ” said the actor, who received the Oscar three years ago for “Traffic.” He added that his father warned him: “Don’t let it go to your head.”

Baldwin, who received his first Oscar nomination for his role as the brutal operator of an old-fashioned Las Vegas casino, said he was “happy, flattered and shocked” to be nominated. “One day they are writing your death certificate in Hollywood and the next they are nominating you for an Oscar. It’s a very seesaw business.”

Vying for supporting actress were Iran’s Shohreh Aghdashloo for “House of Sand and Fog”; Patricia Clarkson for “Pieces of April”; Marcia Gay Harden, who previously won in this category, for “Mystic River”; Holly Hunter, a best actress winner a decade ago, for “Thirteen”; and Renee Zellweger in “Cold Mountain.” This is Zellweger’s third consecutive nomination and first for a supporting role.

Aghdashloo said she hoped the film would enlighten people about the Iranian immigrant experience. “I’m so glad that the whole country gets to see them and gets to know them.”

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Times staff writers Lorenza Munoz and Patrick Day contributed to this story.

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What: The 76th Academy Awards.

Where: The Kodak Theatre, Hollywood. This is the third time the Oscars will be staged there.

When: Sunday, Feb. 29. It’s the first time since the Feb. 26, 1942, ceremony that the Oscars will be handed out in February.

Network: ABC.

Telecast: 5:30 to 9 p.m. Last year’s telecast was indeed 3 hours, 30 minutes, but shows in the past have run longer. A preshow, including arrivals, airs at 5.

Host: Billy Crystal.

Producer: Joe Roth, in his first stint.

Special awards: Blake Edwards will receive an honorary award. Other honors may be announced in coming weeks.