I’m up early and watching E!:Wow! No Cold Mountain for Best Picture! No Nicole Kidman as Best Actress. Some heavy-weight competition in the Best Actor category. A big ten nominations for Master & Commander (but not for Russell Crowe). And no acting awards for Lord of the Rings. More disappointingly, The Return of the King did not get all the nominations it deserved. Yes, the music group wisely nominated it for Best Score, and costume designer Nglia Dickson is poised to finally get the award the Academy has owed her for three years; but no cinematography nomination for Andrew Lesnie? And a Best Sound nomination but no Best Sound Editing? Add those two to its 11 nominations and it would’ve tied the number for Fellowship of the Ring; and add a couple more and it would’ve (and should’ve) beat Titanic‘s record. (Sean Astin should have been nominated, but then again I thought the Academy were generous in giving ROTK an adapted screenplay nod.)
Since this undoubtedly has to be Lord of the Rings‘ year: Billy Crystal, come 2/29, please go easy on the short jokes.
