LOS ANGELES (Oscar Awards Official Website) - The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King the final chapter in
Peter Jackson�s fantasy trilogy, led the Academy Awards race today with 11 nominations, including best picture and director.
Peter Weir�s Napoleonic era naval adventure Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World was right behind with 10 nominations, among them best picture and director.
Other best-picture nominees for the 76th annual Oscars included Lost in Translation, about two lonely Americans in Tokyo; the brooding murder thriller Mystic River; and the horse-racing drama Seabiscuit.
Along with best picture and director, the nominations for Return of the King included original score and song, visual effects, film editing and adapted screenplay for the script based on JRR Tolkien�s classic.
The directing nominees included Sofia Coppola for Lost in Translation, only the third woman ever nominated for best director, Clint Eastwood for Mystic River and a surprise choice, Fernando Meirelles for the Brazilian film City of God.
Hollywood bad boys Sean Penn (Mystic River) and Johnny Depp (Pirates of the Caribbean) have joined British stars Jude Law (Cold Mountain)and Ben Kingsley (House of Sand and Fog) as nominees for the best actor Oscar. The fifth contender was veteran US star Bill Murray (Lost in Translation).
Best actress nominees include Diane Keaton (Something's Gotta Give), Charlize Theron (Monster), Samantha Morton (In America), Naomi Watts (21 Grams) Renee Zellweger (Cold Mountain) and Keisha Castle-Hughes (Whale Rider).
Also receiving his first Oscar nomination, at long last: Errol Morris, whose Robert McNamara-probing "The Fog of War" made the documentary-feature final cut after such groundbreaking work as "The Thin Blue Line," "A Brief History of Time" and "Fast, Cheap and Out of Control" went unrecognized.
The Oscar awards will be held at Kodak Theater (Los Angeles) Feb. 29.
Best film: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, Mystic River, Seabiscuit, and Lost in Translation.
Best actor: Johnny Depp for Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Ben Kingsley for House of Sand and Fog, Jude Law for Cold Mountain, Bill Murray for Lost in Translation and Sean Penn for Mystic River.
Best actress: Charlize Theron in Monster, Naomi Watts in 21 Grams, Samantha Morton for In America, Diane Keaton in Something's Gotta Give, and Keisha Castle-Hughes for Whale Rider.
Best director: Peter Jackson for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Clint Eastwood for Mystic River, Peter Weir for Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, Sofia Coppola for Lost in Translation and Fernando Meirelles for City of God.
Best supporting actor: Alec Baldwin in The Cooler, Benicio Del Toro for 21 Grams, Djimon Hounsou for In America, Tim Robbins in Mystic River, and Ken Watanabe in The Last Samurai.
Best supporting actress: Renee Zellweger for Cold Mountain, Holly Hunter in Thirteen, Marcia Gay Harden in Mystic River, Patricia Clarkson for Pieces of April and Shohreh Aghdashloo in House of Sand and Fog.
Best foreign film: Canadia's The Barbarian Invasions, Japan's The Twilight Samurai, the Czech Republic's Zelary, the Netherlands' Twin Sisters, Sweden's Evil.
Original Score: Danny Elfman for "Big Fish," Gabriel Yared for "Cold Mountain," Thomas Newman for "Finding Nemo," James Horner for "House of Sand and Fog," and Howard Shore for "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King".
Original Song: Into the West - Fran Walsh, Howard Shore and Annie Lennox (The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King), A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow - Michael McKean and Annette O'Toole (A Mighty Wind), Scarlet Tide - T Bone Burnett and Elvis Costello (Cold Mountain), The Triplets of Belleville - Benoit Charest and Sylvain Chomet (The Triplets of Belleville), You Will Be My Ain True Love - Sting (Cold Mountain).
Honorary Academy Award: Blake Edwards
