In what had been widely regarded as an unusually competitive year for Oscar nominations, the dark, serious comedy American Beauty led the field with eight nominations when the shortlists for the 72nd Academy Awards were announced in Los Angeles yesterday.
The Irish artist Michelle Burke received her fifth Oscar nomination in the make-up category for the comedy Austin Powers 2: The Spy Who Shagged Me.
A native of Kildare town, she already possesses two Oscars, for her work on Quest For Fire and Bram Stoker's Dracula.
There was a relatively disappointing outcome for the two key films of Irish interest - Neil Jordan's The End of the Affair was nominated for best actress (Julianne Moore) and best cinematography (Roger Pratt), and Alan Parker's Angela's Ashes was short-listed for best original score (John Williams).
Meryl Streep made Oscars history when she received her 12th nomination, for Music of the Heart, which equals Katharine Hepburn's total as the actor most nominated for Oscars. After American Beauty, the most nominated films this year are Lasse Hallstrom's film of John Irving's The Cider House Rules, in which an orphan is taken under the wing of an unorthodox doctor who carries out abortions in 1940s America, and Michael Mann's The Insider, a factually based drama dealing with a tobacco industry whistleblower played by Russell Crowe.
The surprise box-office hit, The Sixth Sense, directed by M. Night Shyamalan, received six nominations, followed by The Talented Mr Ripley with five, and The Green Mile and The Matrix with four each.
The heavily-hyped Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace received three nominations, all in technical categories.
American Beauty, The Cider House Rules, The Insider and The Sixth Sense were all nominated for best picture and best director. The Green Mile took the fifth nomination for best picture, while Spike Jonze was the fifth nominee for best director with Being John Malkovich.
The strongly fancied miscarriage-of-justice drama The Hurricane received just one nomination, which went to hot favourite Denzel Washington as best actor for his portrayal of boxer Rubin "Hurricane" Carter.
The 79-year-old former stunt rider, Richard Farnsworth, was nominated in the same category for The Straight Story, and the other three nominees for best actor are Sean Penn (Sweet and Lowdown), Russell Crowe (The Insider) and Kevin Spacey (American Beauty).
Meryl Streep is joined on the best actress shortlist by Hilary Swank (Boys Don't Cry), Janet McTeer (Tumbleweeds), Annette Bening (American Beauty) and Julianne Moore (The End of the Affair).
The list for best supporting actress is made up entirely of firsttime nominees: Samantha Morton (Sweet and Lowdown), Catherine Keener (Being John Malkovich), Toni Collette (The Sixth Sense), Angelina Jolie (Girl, Interrupted) and Chloe Sevigny (Boys Don't Cry).
Playing a guru teaching angry, frustrated men how to get their way with women, Tom Cruise was nominated as best supporting actor for Magnolia, and his fellow nominees are Jude Law (The Talented Mr Ripley), Michael Clarke Duncan (The Green Mile), Michael Caine (The Cider House Rules) and child actor Haley Joel Osment (The Sixth Sense).
As expected, Pedro Almo dovar's All About My Mother from Spain and the French entry, Regis Wargnier's East-West, were nominated for best foreign-language film, along with Solomon and Gaenor (Wales), Under the Sun (Sweden) and Caravan (Nepal).
Joining Angela's Ashes on the shortlist for best original music are The Cider House Rules, The Talented Mr Ripley, American Beauty and The Red Violin. The five nominees for best original screenplay are Magnolia, Being John Malkovich, The Sixth Sense, Topsy-Turvy and American Beauty.
The films nominated for best adapted screenplay are Election, The Insider, The Talented Mr Ripley, The Green Mile and The Cider House Rules.
The nominees for best cinematography are Sleepy Hollow, Snow Falling On Cedars, The Insider, American Beauty and The End of the Affair.
Regular nominee and two-time Oscar winner Tom Hanks did not make the shortlist this year for The Green Mile, nor did Jim Carrey who, for the second consecutive year, had been hotly tipped.
Carrey's new film, Man On the Moon, was one of a number of films conspicuously absent from this year's nominations, as were Three Kings, Notting Hill, Holy Smoke!, Felicia's Journey, Liberty Heights and the late Stanley Kubrick's final film, Eyes Wide Shut.
The Oscars will be presented at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on March 26th.