THE OSCARS: The musical Chicago led the Oscar nominations yesterday, with record nominations also for actors Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep. Michael Dwyer reports on a list that includes U2
The conservatism of the Oscars electorate was demonstrated again yesterday in the announcement of the nominations for the 75th Academy Awards.
The voters' penchant for epics, spectacle and period pictures was particularly evident, with the very great majority of nominations going to films set in the past. Of the nine receiving the most nominations, only one, Adaptation, is set entirely in the present, while about a third of another nominee, The Hours, takes place in the 21st century.
The sole bearers of the Irish flag at this year's Oscars ceremony will be U2 - Bono, Adam Clayton, The Edge and Larry Mullen are nominated in the best original film song category for The Hands That Built America, their rousing anthem which plays over the closing credits of Gangs of New York.
Nominated as best actor for the same film is Irish resident Daniel Day-Lewis, an Oscar-winner in 1989 for My Left Foot.
Leading the field this year with 13 nominations is Chicago, a stagebound treatment of an invigorating Broadway musical, suggesting that the predominantly US-based Academy members favour lightweight song-and-dance escapism in these uncertain times.
In cinematic terms, Chicago is much less inventive than last year's musical nominee, Moulin Rouge. However, given that the film with the most nominations has gone on to win the best picture Oscar in 18 of the past 20 years, Chicago has to be the front-runner to win on awards night, March 23rd.
While Chicago looks assured of taking the best picture Oscar, it is unlikely to win the award for best director, which seems earmarked for Martin Scorsese, who, although one of the most respected film-makers in US cinema history, has not won an Oscar for his work.
His new film, Gangs of New York, received 10 nominations yesterday, despite mixed reviews from critics in the US and around the world.
Once again, the Oscar nominations proved a triumph for the canny New York-based company, Miramax Films, which produced both Chicago and Gangs of New York, and co-produced the literary adaptation, The Hours, which took nine nominations.
Seven nominations went to Roman Polanski's Holocaust drama, The Pianist, including best film, best actor (Adrien Brody) and best director.
However, Polanski will be unable to attend the ceremony, given that he is regarded as a fugitive from justice in the US, having been charged with sex with a minor in 1977 and fled the country while on bail.
The biggest surprise in yesterday's announcement was the omission of Meryl Streep on the best actress shortlist for her superb portrayal of a lesbian New Yorker caring for a friend dying of AIDS in The Hours.
Streep's recent criticisms of the awards system may well have lost her vital votes, but did not prevent her securing a nomination as best supporting actress for Adaptation.
This brings Streep's Oscar nominations tally to 13, higher than any other actor or actress in the 75-year history of the awards.
Of the five principal actors in Chicago, four received nominations, including Catherine Zeta-Jones, who is embroiled in a London court case at present. The only exception from the Chicago cast was Richard Gere, who lost out in the highly competitive best actor category.
That award seems due to be down to a tight race between Daniel Day-Lewis for Gangs of New York and Jack Nicholson for About Schmidt.
After some vigorous campaigning, Michael Caine secured a nomination in the same category for his fine performance in the new film version of Graham Greene's The Quiet American, which has had a very limited US release due to the critical sentiments it expresses regarding American involvement in Vietnam in the early 1960s.
In another flash of liberalism, the Academy bestowed a best documentary nomination on Bowling For Columbine, Michael Moore's angry attack on the liberal gun laws in the US, which humiliates one of the Academy's conservative icons, Charlton Heston, a key figure in the pro-guns lobby and a former Oscar winner for Ben-Hur.
Another controversial film on the shortlists is the Mexican The Crime of Father Amaro, which has been nominated for best foreign-language film. It deals with a young priest whose sexual affair with his housekeeper's teenage daughter results in her becoming pregnant. It has been vehemently condemned by the Catholic Church in Mexico - where it has broken box-office records.
There was considerable surprise when Spain failed to enter Pedro Almodovar's Talk to Her in the same category. While the official Spanish entry, Mondays in the Sun, failed to receive a nomination yesterday, the Almodovar film was shortlisted in two key categories, best director and best original screenplay.
Unusually, only three of the five nominees for original screenplay are in English, with Talk to Her and the Mexican film, Y Yu Mama Tambien, joining Gangs of New York, Far From Heaven and My Big Fat Greek Wedding on the shortlist.
The 75th Academy Awards will be presented in Hollywood on March 23rd.