And in another campaign news, the Oscar contenders have been announced, with RotK leading the pack:
Best Picture: Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. After three years of waiting, after A Beautiful Mind and Chicago, it’s payback time. Check out the spiffy New Line awards site, featuring some choice RotK clips.
Best Actor: What on earth is Johnny Depp doing in here? I’m a Depp fan too, but c’mon now. At any rate, I’m definitely rooting for Bill Murray for Lost in Translation, but could see Mystic River‘s Sean Penn picking it up too.
Best Actress: Haven’t seen it yet, but Charlize Theron in Monster has all the buzz, and it would take a better man than I to challenge the formidable power of best-actress-oscar-buzz.
Best Supporting Actor: Tim Robbins, Mystic River. I would’ve liked to see Sean “Samwise” Astin get a nod, but am glad that Ken Watanabe of The Last Samurai made it in.
Best Supporting Actress: Renee Zellweger, Cold Mountain, ho-hum. I’m surprised Mystic River‘s Marcia Gay Harden got a nod here after winning just a few years ago. Spread the love, people.
Best Director: PJ for RotK. The only real challenge is Sofia Coppola, and she’ll get hers in the Screenplay category.
Screenplay (Original): A la Quentin Tarantino, Sofia Coppola will win for Lost in Translation.
Screenplay (Adapted): This will probably be one of the few categories where RotK loses out (The best adaptation of the three was Fellowship, and that really should’ve won two years ago.) American Splendor, perhaps? They’re going to want to give something to City of God.
MONSTER’s worth seeing, btw — Charlize Theron really is as good as they say. I normally couldn’t give two shits about her, but she really was a completely different human being in this movie. Leagues beyond the “transformation” (bullshit) of Nicole Kidman for THE HOURS.
I’d like to see Johnny Depp win an Academy Award, but not for freakin’ Captain Jack Sparrow. I’m a little shocked at how many nominations Pirates received. Why it got nominated for best makeup and Monster didn’t is beyond me.
… that little tiger Keisha Castle-Hughes up for Best Actress, and costume designer Ngila Dickson up for both Last Samurai, and ROTK… could be a few Oscars finding a home in New Zealand.
Why spread the love? If the actor/actress gives the best performance every year, they should win the Oscar multiple times.