Two films based on history led the pack Tuesday as the 68th annual Academy Award nominations were announced - Mel Gibson's Scottish epic "Braveheart," with 10 nominations, and Ron Howard's space drama "Apollo 13," with nine.
Runners-up, with seven nominations each, were the British comedy-drama "Sense and Sensibility," based on Jane Austen's novel, and "Babe," a family picture about a talking pig.In the best picture arena, "Babe" was one of the biggest surprise. But there were plenty of others - in almost every category.
As the nominations were read early Tuesday morning in Los Angeles by Academy president Arthur Hiller and the award show's producer Quincy Jones (broadcast live over the cable news channel CNN), audible gasps could be heard from the many members of the press in attendance as dark horses were named and sure things were left out.
Among the biggest surprises:
- Mel Gibson, who won a Golden Globe last month for directing "Braveheart," was nominated as best director and his film as best picture - but there were no acting nominations.
- "Apollo 13" also received a best picture nomination, but Ron Howard was not nominated in the directing category.
- In addition to "Braveheart," "Apollo 13" and "Babe," the other best picture nominations were for "Sense and Sensibility" and - another big surprise - the Italian romantic comedy-drama "The Postman," the first foreign-language film nominated for best picture since Ingmar Bergman's "Cries and Whispers" in 1973.
- Like Howard, Ang Lee, the director of "Sense and Sensibility," failed to get a nomination.
- Directing nominations went to Gibson, Chris Noonan ("Babe") and Michael Radford ("The Postman"), but two directors were nominated without best picture nods - Tim Robbins for "Dead Man Walking" and Mike Figgis for "Leaving Las Vegas."
- "Leaving Las Vegas" was the odds-on favorite for all the major categories, so being left out of the best picture slot was a bit of a shock - especially since Figgis and his two lead actors, Nicolas Cage and Elisabeth Shue, did get nominated.
- In addition to Shue, best actress nominees were Susan Sa-ran-don for "Dead Man Walking," Sharon Stone for "Casino," Meryl Streep for "The Bridges of Madison County" and Emma Thomp-son for "Sense and Sensibility." Thompson also received a nomination for her screenplay adaptation of "Sense and Sensibility" - the first actress in Academy history to be nominated in the acting and writing categories.
- Cage's fellow best actor nominees were Anthony Hopkins for "Nixon," Sean Penn for "Dead Man Walking" and two unexpected performers - Richard Dreyfuss for "Mr. Holland's Opus" and the late Massimo Troisi, nominated posthumously for "The Postman."
Tom Hanks, winner of the last two best actor Oscars for "Philadelphia" and "Forrest Gump," will not have a chance for his third straight. "Apollo 13" failed to launch a third consecutive bid for the actor.
Troisa, who died just 12 hours after finishing "The Postman," puts the late Italian actor in select Oscar company. Peter Finch in 1976 won for "Network." Other posthumous nominees include James Dean and Spencer Tracy.
- Joan Allen, who just won the Screen Actors Guild award as best actress for her role as Pat Nixon in "Nixon," leads the supporting actress nominees. Also nominated were Kathleen Quinlan for "Apollo 13," Mira Sorvino for "Mighty Aphrodite," Kate Winslet for "Sense and Sensibility," and another surprise selection, Mare Winningham for "Georgia."
- Among the supporting actors, no one predicted James Cromwell as the well-intentioned farmer in "Babe," though the others were more expected - Ed Harris for "Apollo 13," Brad Pitt for "Twelve Monkeys," Tim Roth for "Rob Roy" and Kevin Spacey" for "The Usual Suspects."
Some films once considered favorites did poorly in the voting by the 5,043 voters of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. "The American President" collected just a single nomination, as did "The Bridges of Madison County" and "Casino."
Honorary Oscars will be awarded to Kirk Douglas, Chuck Jones and "Toy Story" director John Lasseter when the Oscar show is broadcast Monday, March 25, with Whoopi Goldberg as this year's host.