LOS ANGELES (AP) -- It was the year that Jim Carrey got serious and DreamWorks became a serious studio. It was the year an Italian comic told a Holocaust story, space rocks came at us from all directions and size didn't matter so much after all.

And it was the year that a movie about a sinking ship sank old box-office records.But mostly, 1998 at the movies -- the year that provided the nominees for Sunday's Academy Awards ceremony -- was the year of the unexpected in Hollywood.

The leading Oscar contender was released during the summer popcorn season. A veteran leading man from big studio movies garnered his first Oscar nod for a supporting role in a small film. That Italian comic, little-known in America, pulled off a historic Oscar feat.

On the economic side, an expensive movie scored at the box office, but everyone was talking about cost controls. Theater business boomed, but studios worried about profits, and the entertainment industry showed signs of a slowdown after years of growth.

In the end, though, 1998 may be remembered as a charming interlude between what could go down as two of the biggest years in Hollywood history: 1997 with "Titanic" and 1999 with "Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace."

So before the Force is with us, here is a recap of the year that led to the Oscars:

Faces

Carrey suffered perhaps the biggest snub of the Oscars; his work in "The Truman Show" was overlooked while director Peter Weir, co-star Ed Harris and screenwriter Andrew Niccol were nominated. Still, his restrained performance established him as much more than a clown who talks with his buttocks.

Another comic actor, Adam Sandler, never stood a chance at an Oscar for the surprise hit "The Waterboy." No matter. With the low-budget movie rocketing past $100 million, Sandler was propelled to A-list status -- and the $20 million-a-picture paychecks that go with it.

The actor having the toughest time in 1998 had to be George Clooney, whose "Out of Sight" won critical raves -- and a nomination for the screenwriter -- but tanked at the box office. Oprah Winfrey also struggled. Her much anticipated "Beloved" couldn't find a big audience.

The studios

Five years after it was formed amid much hype, DreamWorks finally got a film to match the reputations of the studio's partners, Steven Spielberg, David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg.

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"Saving Private Ryan," directed by Spielberg and released in the summer escapist period, became the studio's biggest financial and critical hit. It's up for 11 Oscars.

But the clear winner of 1998 was Miramax Films, which cemented its already firm reputation as the studio of quality by releasing two of the five best-picture nominees, "Shakespeare in Love" and "Life Is Beautiful."

At Seagram-owned Universal Studios, an 18-month stretch of box-office duds, capped by "Babe: Pig in the City" and "Meet Joe Black," led to a management shakeup, though the studio showed signs of recovery at year's end with the success of "Patch Adams."

Warner Bros. also limped along until a late boost from "You've Got Mail," while MGM couldn't score outside its James Bond franchise.

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