The musical Dreamgirls led the list of Academy Award
nominations announced in Los Angeles Tuesday in the musical
Dreamgirls. It was nominated in eight categories
but was shut out of the most important Best Picture category in
favor of Babel, The Departed, Letters from
Iwo Jima, Little Miss Sunshine and The
Queen.
Chinese director Zhang Yimou's Curse of the Golden
Flower received a nomination for Costume Design but the movie
is out of race for Best Foreign Language Film which After the
Wedding (Denmark), Days of Glory (Algeria), The
Lives Of Others (Germany), Pan's Labyrinth (Mexico)
and Water (Canada) will compete for. Another Sino-American
film The Painted Veil got no nominations though it won an
award for its music at the Golden Globes last week.
Nominated for best actor are Leonardo DiCaprio for Blood
Diamond, Ryan Gosling for Half Nelson, Peter O'Toole
for Venus, Will Smith for The Pursuit of
Happiness and Forest Whitaker for The Last King of
Scotland.
Whitaker, who won the Golden Globe last week for his portrayal
of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, is considered the front runner in the
race for best actor but O'Toole, who portrays an aging actor who
becomes infatuated with a young girl, could be a sentimental
favorite. He's been nominated seven times but never won an
Oscar.?
Vying for best actress is Penelope Cruz for Volver,
Judi Dench for Notes on a Scandal, Helen Mirren for
The Queen, Meryl Streep for The Devil Wears Prada
and Kate Winslet for Little Children.
Mirren, who collected a Golden Globe for her portrayal of Queen
Elizabeth II in the days following the death of Princess Diana, is
an early favorite.
The failure of Dreamgirls to make the list of best
picture nominees was a surprise for the much-hyped film which won
the Golden Globe last week for best film in the musical/comedy
category.
Eddie Murphy and Jennifer Hudson each earned supporting acting
nominations for Dreamgirls which was also nominated for
costume design, art direction, sound mixing and has three
nominations for best original song.
Babel, the Golden Globe-winning drama following the
global repercussions of a single rifle shot, earned seven
nominations. In addition to best picture the film is up for best
director for Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, best supporting actress
for both Adriana Barraza and Rinko Kikuchi, film editing, original
score and original screenplay.
Little Miss Sunshine - a comedy about a family's trip
from Albuquerque, New Mexico to California so their daughter can
compete in a beauty pageant - was a surprise winner at the
Producers Guild Awards on Saturday.
The low-budget, sweet-and-sour comedy made a splash at last
year's Sundance Film Festival earning four nominations including
best picture, best supporting actress, best supporting actor and
best original screenplay.
Martin Scorsese earned his sixth Oscar nomination as best
director for The Departed and he's never won the prize.
Also up for best director are Clint Eastwood for Letters from
Iwo Jima, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu for Babel,
Stephen Frears for The Queen and Paul Greengrass for
United 93.
Oscar nominations were announced in Beverly Hills by Sid Ganis,
president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and
former Oscar nominee Salma Hayek. The 79th annual Oscar ceremony is
to be held February 25 at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood.
(Xinhua News Agency January 24, 2007)
