"Chicago's" supporting actor nominee, John C. Reilly, has the distinction of appearing in three best-picture nominees -- "Gangs" and "The Hours" are the other two -- a feat accomplished by only one other great character actor, Thomas Mitchell, in 1939 (and back then there were 10 best-picture nominees). Paul Newman's ninth nomination is his first in the supporting category. Christopher Walken had to wait 24 years for a second nomination, for "Catch Me if You Can," after having won in 1978 for "The Deer Hunter." Jeff Daniels' subtle, and rather sweet, befuddlement in "The Hours" was much more convincing than Ed Harris' anger, but Harris was acting, so hence the nomination. Right now, though, the safe bet for supporting actor would be for Chris Cooper's toothless orchid thief in "Adaptation."

Of the five best-director nominees, two and a half are openly gay, the two being Rob Marshall and Pedro Almodóvar (for "Talk to Her"); the half, Stephen Daldry, was gay when he was nominated for "Billy Elliot" two years ago, but has since been married. In each of the major categories, there had been six or seven likely nominees, and so there were some unavoidable slights. Dennis Quaid, who played the emotionally tortured gay husband in "Far From Heaven," is perhaps the most surprising also-ran. "About Schmidt" was supposed to do better, but given the smug, condescending view of its characters, its poor showing, especially for adapted screenplay, is particularly pleasing.

Even though "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" received a best-picture nomination, the fact that neither its screenplay nor director Peter Jackson was nominated takes it out of the running. Excluding the animated "Beauty and the Beast," "The Two Towers" is the first best-picture nominee since "Jaws" not to receive a directing, writing or acting nomination. "The Two Towers" received a total of six nominations, down from the 13 for last year's "The Fellowship of the Ring." The indication is that Academy voters felt this second part of the trilogy was, to some degree, treading water, and it will be up to the upcoming "The Return of the King" to take a best-picture Oscar for the ambitious series.

This year there were five nominees for best animated feature, a category that shouldn't even exist. (In its debut last year, the category featured only three contenders, and managed to overlook Richard Linklater's "Waking Life.") Very few cartoons are good enough to merit Academy recognition; if something truly remarkable does come along, a special Oscar can take care of it. To have a bomb like "Treasure Planet" an Oscar nominee frankly diminishes the stature of the Awards. There were 17 films eligible in the animated feature category, which means that 29.4 percent of them were nominated. To put things in perspective, this is the equivalent of the 278 eligible feature films in 2002 yielding 82 best-picture nominees. (With odds like that, "Swimfan" and "Sorority Boys" would have had a good shot.)

At the 50th Academy Awards ceremony, Charlton Heston received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. Twenty-five years later he's a teetering gun nut in best documentary nominee "Bowling for Columbine." Of course, one can be very liberal and find director Michael Moore as obnoxious as Heston, and even though Columbine is by far the best-known of the documentary features nominees, Moore's egomania -- on-screen and off- -- might drive voters to honor another film in this category, such as "Winged Migration," which tracks migrating birds across continents with breathtaking camerawork.

In the past, the music nominees have been widely criticized for being way behind the curve. (Among the non-nominees in previous years: any song from an Elvis Presley picture, "The Girl Can't Help It," "Let's Twist Again," any of the Beatles tunes in "A Hard Day's Night," "Help!" or "Let It Be," Curtis Mayfield's "Superfly," "Brown Sugar" and Wild Horses" by the Rolling Stones, and the songs from "Saturday Night Fever.") This year, however, there was recognition for Eminem's "Lose Yourself" in the best-song category. He probably shouldn't be planning an acceptance speech, as the majority of Academy members probably still consider rap music an oxymoron. That leaves a three-way race among baby boomer favorite Paul Simon, the still-cool-after-all-these-years U2 and, in what would be the equivalent of a lifetime achievement award, "Chicago's" John Kander and Fred Ebb, who, crazily enough, weren't even nominated for "New York, New York" back in 1977. And best song generally turns up one song from left field; this year that distinction goes to "Burn It Blue" from "Frida."

The bitter Miramax-DreamWorks Oscar rivalry will get a respite this year, mostly because Miramax trounced the competition. DreamWorks' trade paper ad campaign for "Road to Perdition" was the season's most elaborate, and it did help garner six nominations for the film, but other than Paul Newman's nod for best supporting actor, they were in the technical categories. DreamWorks' two Spielberg films received a mere three nominations, with "Minority Report" showing up only in the sound editing category, and "Catch Me if You Can" garnering Walken's supporting actor nomination and a predictable bid for John Williams' score. Miramax, on the other hand, scored 38 nominations, although the nine for "The Hours" have to be shared with Paramount.

A few submitted movies that had name recognition because they'd been released in the States didn't make the cut in the foreign film category: Francois Ozon's "8 Women," from France; Belgium's "The Son," directed by the Dardenne brothers; and Brazil's "City of God," despite having Miramax's backing. Roberto Benigni's fiasco, "Pinocchio," was also snubbed, which seems like divine retribution for the awfulness of his having won two Oscars for "Life Is Beautiful."

Other filmmakers with a reputation in this country who were left out in foreign film were Russia's Andrei Konchalovsky, who spent time in Hollywood in the 1980s, and Sweden's Lukas Moodysson. Curiously, the two films already released in America that are nominees in this category -- Mexico's "The Crime Of Father Amaro" and "Zus & Zo" -- received less-than-sterling reviews here. Spain stunned the film world when, instead of Pedro Almodóvar's "Talk to Her," it submitted "Mondays in the Sun" as its official entry. There was no nomination for that film, but Almodóvar himself was anointed in the director and original screenplay categories.

There's a month and a half of Oscar campaigning ahead of us now. That means plenty of back-stabbing, bullying tactics and shady dealings. It also means there's time for everything in the Oscar races to change.

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