2002 OSCAR NOMINATIONS

ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC WRITTEN FOR MOTION PICTURES (ORIGINAL SCORE)

CATCH ME IF YOU CAN - John Williams
FAR FROM HEAVEN - Elmer Bernstein
FRIDA - Elliot Goldenthal
THE HOURS - Philip Glass
ROAD TO PERDITION - Thomas Newman

ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC WRITTEN FOR MOTION PICTURES (ORIGINAL SONG)

"BURN IT BLUE" - Frida - Music by Elliot Goldenthal, Lyrics by Julie Taymor
"FATHER AND DAUGHTER" - The Wild Thornberrys Movie - Music and Lyrics by Paul Simon
"THE HANDS THAT BUILT AMERICA" - Gangs of New York - Music and Lyrics by Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton, Larry Mullen
"I MOVE ON" - Chicago - Music by John Kander, Lyrics by Fred Ebb
"LOSE YOURSELF" - 8 Mile - Music by Eminem, Jeff Bass, Luis Resto, Lyrics by Eminem

This year's Original Score nominations are an unusually impressive group, one of the most worthy sets I've ever seen. The only one I take issue with is Philip Glass's The Hours, which unlike many people I neither love nor hate, but which is still at the very least an honorable effort by a highly respected composer.

This year sees Glass's second nomination, Goldenthal's third and fourth, Newman's fifth, Bernstein's fourteenth, and Williams' forty-second.

I'm still a little surprised that Two Towers didn't make the cut, but there may have been some confusion over its eligibility, and the Music Branch members may not have been sure how much of the score was even new material, since Shore's carefully interwoven approach to the scores doesn't introduce new themes as dramatically as Williams does in his own series scores. Mostly, I'm disappointed that Towers didn't make it because overall Shore had such a strong year, including Spider, Panic Room and Esther Kahn (though Kahn was released in Europe too long ago to be eligible here).

Thinking about which scores didn't make it just reminds me what a terrific year it was for film music. Among the first-rate, non-nominated scores: Signs, Minority Report, The Sum of All Fears, About Schmidt, Ice Age, Spider-Man, Enigma, The Emperor's New Clothes, Goldmember, The Country Bears, The Ring, and of course the new Star Wars, Star Trek and Harry Potter.

I have to eat a little humble pie and admit that letter writer Michael Suls was right about Eminem's song nomination and I was wrong (are Eminem and Queen Latifah the first rappers to be nominated for Oscars?). I'm pleased that the Frida song was nominated, though as a respected director of stage and screen, Julie Taymor may find it odd that her first Oscar nomination comes as a lyricist. I'm sorry that "Gollum's Song" didn't make the cut, and relieved that "Die Another Day" was omitted. It's bad enough that none of John Barry's Bond songs were ever nominated; it would be worse if Madonna's song, regarded by many (including, of all people, Elton John) as the worst theme song in the series, was.

If nothing else, Frida's music nominations should mean that more copies will circulate of the film's Oscar promo CD, which omits the traditional songs and includes a few extra Goldenthal cues like "Rockefeller Center Meltdown." Trust me, you don't want to know how much I paid for my copy.

CHICAGO - Produced by Martin Richards
GANGS OF NEW YORK - Produced by Alberto Grimaldi, Harvey Weinstein
THE HOURS - Produced by Scott Rudin, Robert Fox
THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS - Produced by Barrie M. Osborne, Fran Walsh, Peter Jackson
THE PIANIST - Produced by Roman Polanski, Robert Benmussa, Alain Sarde

Nothing immensely surprising in this category, though it is odd that Two Towers was nominated for Picture but not for Screenplay or Director. A few decades ago, this was fairly common, as films like Cleopatra, Doctor Dolittle and the Mutiny on the Bounty remake received Picture nominations seemingly more on the basis of their scale and budget than due to any agreement over their merits. Some recent examples of Picture-But-Not-Screenplay-or-Director include A Few Good Men, The Fugitive and Moulin Rouge.

People in the industry seem to love Chicago, and it will probably win. For anyone who doubts the importance of Miramax in the Oscar race, the company produced two of the Picture nominees, Chicago and Gangs, and co-produced The Hours with Paramount.

Pianist producer Alain Sarde is the brother of composer Philippe Sarde, and they've done thirty films together including Polanski's The Tenant.

ADRIEN BRODY - The Pianist
NICOLAS CAGE - Adaptation
MICHAEL CAINE - The Quiet American
DANIEL DAY-LEWIS - Gangs of New York
JACK NICHOLSON - About Schmidt

The biggest surprise is Adrien Brody, who was outstanding but seems unlikely to win. Nicholson would have a good chance except he already has three Oscars -- four might seem a bit much. All the nominees except Brody have already won; Day-Lewis's win was the most years ago which gives him an edge, especially since the Academy might like to encourage him to stay with acting and leave shoe-making behind.

SALMA HAYEK - Frida
NICOLE KIDMAN - The Hours
DIANE LANE - Unfaithful
JULIANNE MOORE - Far From Heaven
RENEE ZELLWEGER - Chicago

Hayek and Lane's inclusions are pleasant surprises. Kidman has the best chance of winning, especially since she didn't win last year, though Moore might win because she's superb and is nominated in both categories.

CHRIS COOPER - Adaptation
ED HARRIS - The Hours
PAUL NEWMAN - Road to Perdition
JOHN C. REILLY - Chicago
CHRISTOPHER WALKEN - Catch Me If You Can

I think Cooper has the best chance in his breakthrough role, though Harris might win because he's never won before (even though it's far from his best performance), and it's such an obvious tour-de-force role.

KATHY BATES - About Schmidt
JULIANNE MOORE - The Hours
QUEEN LATIFAH - Chicago
MERYL STREEP - Adaptation
CATHERINE ZETA-JONES - Chicago

Zeta-Jones may win just for being so gorgeous and charismatic, though they might give it to Moore because it would seem churlish to nominate her twice in one year and send her home with nothing (though that thinking didn't help Sigourney Weaver in 1989)

CHICAGO - Rob Marshall
GANGS OF NEW YORK - Martin Scorsese
THE HOURS - Stephen Daldry
THE PIANIST - Roman Polanski
TALK TO HER - Pedro Almodovar

Marshall has a good chance since the film will win Picture, though it could go to Scorsese because he's way overdue. Just as there is a long list of Picture nominees who were ignored in the Screenplay and Director categories, there have also been many films nominated for writing and directing but ignored for Picture -- I tend to think of them as the "Sixth Nominees," like the mythical Fifth Beatle. This year the honor goes to Talk to Her, while other recent entries include The Sweet Hereafter, The Truman Show, Being John Malkovich and Billy Elliot.

FAR FROM HEAVEN - Todd Haynes
GANGS OF NEW YORK - Jay Cocks, Steve Zaillian, Kenneth Lonergan
MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING - Nia Vardalos
TALK TO HER - Pedro Almodovar
Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN - Carlos Cuaron, Alfonso Cuaron

This group of nominees is certainly preferable to the Writers Guild's picks in the category, which included the phony, self-serving Antwone Fisher and the documentary Bowling For Columbine (how is a documentary considered an original screenplay?). I had predicted Greek Wedding for an Adaptation nod, since I hadn't known the screenplay was written before Vardalos turned it into a one-woman show. I also still don't quite know how Gangs of New York qualifies as an Original, since it was inspired by a credited piece of source material by the same title. Also, despite the top writers credited with the script (between them, they wrote Age of Innocence, Schindler's List and You Can Count On Me), the script isn't that great -- Day-Lewis's dialogue is pretty much the only memorable thing in the writing.

Y Tu Mama Tambien deserves the award, but it will probably go to either Far From Heaven or to Greek Wedding (because of its insane popularity). I find Wedding richly undeserving of such accolades, but then I still can't believe the Academy nominated Beverly Hills Cop and Crocodile Dundee for their screenplays either.

ABOUT A BOY - Peter Hedges, Chris Weitz, Paul Weitz
ADAPTATION - Charlie Kaufman, "Donald Kaufman"
CHICAGO - Bill Condon
THE HOURS - David Hare
THE PIANIST - Ronald Harwood

It should either go to Adaptation or The Hours. I'm still surprised that About Schmidt didn't make the cut. Maybe some voters were confused and checked About a Boy by mistake.

CHICAGO - Dion Beebe
FAR FROM HEAVEN - Ed Lachman
GANGS OF NEW YORK - Michael Ballhaus
THE PIANIST - Pawel Edelman
ROAD TO PERDITION - Conrad L. Hall

Perdition will probably win, both because it deserves to and because of Hall's recent passing, though Far From Heaven also looked spectacular and Gangs' Ballhaus is long overdue.

CHICAGO - John Myhre, Gord Sim
FRIDA - Felipe Fernandez del Paso, Hannia Robledo
GANGS OF NEW YORK - Dante Ferretti, Francesca Lo Schiavo
THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS - Grant Major, Dan Hennah, Alan Lee
ROAD TO PERDITION - Dennis Gassner, Nancy Haigh

This is virtually guaranteed to go to Ferretti for Gangs -- his work dominates the movie, and he's never even won before. I'm sorry that Alex MacDowell's stunning work on Minority Report didn't make the cut, and surprised that Chicago did, since that film's design was modest at best and clearly budget impaired.

CHICAGO - Michael Minkler, Dominick Tavella, David Lee
GANGS OF NEW YORK - Tom Fleischman, Eugene Gearty, Ivan Sharrock
THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS - Christopher Boyes, Michael Semanick, Michael Hedges, Hammond Peek
ROAD TO PERDITION - Scott Millan, Bob Beemer, John Patrick Pritchett
SPIDER-MAN - Kevin O'Connell, Greg P. Russell, Ed Novick

I don't have a sufficiently well tuned ear to discern which of these deserves the award. Two Towers could easily win for having the most sound, though I was particularly impressed with the recording of the song vocals for Chicago -- they actually sounded like they were recorded on the set, and not in a studio six months before shooting like most movie musicals are (Evita especially suffered from this -- the whole movie felt like Madonna lip-synching to a studio album.)

CHICAGO - Martin Walsh
GANGS OF NEW YORK - Thelma Schoonmaker
THE HOURS - Peter Boyle
THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS - Michael Horton
THE PIANIST - Herve de Luze

Chicago may easily win this one; though it was over-edited (possibly to help hide the dancing deficiencies of its leads) it was at least skillfully over-edited, as opposed to Moulin Rouge which was badly and distractingly over-cut. Two Towers also has a good chance, especially considering the immense scope of the production.

CHICAGO - Colleen Atwood
FRIDA - Julie Weiss
GANGS OF NEW YORK - Sandy Powell
THE HOURS - Ann Roth
THE PIANIST - Anna Sheppard

Gangs of New York had the most unusual costumes, while The Hours covered three time periods which allowed the designer to show a lot of range.

FRIDA - John Jackson, Beatrice De Alba
THE TIME MACHINE - John M. Elliott Jr., Barbara Lorenz

Earlier this year, the makeup selection committee whittled down the contenders to eight possibilities: Frida, The Hours, K19: The Widowmaker, The Master of Disguise, The Pianist, The Santa Clause 2, Star Trek: Nemesis, and The Time Machine.

Presumably they felt that Two Towers shouldn't qualify because most of the major makeups -- excluding the old age makeup for the king's early scenes -- were the same as for Fellowship of the Ring.

The committee voted again and reduced the eight films to only two finalists -- Frida and Time Machine. The voting members of the makeup branch viewed selected scenes from both films at the "Makeup Bakeoff" and voted to nominate both of them -- if neither received enough votes, there would have been no makeup award whatsoever this year.

The selection of Time Machine may surprise some readers, since the Morlocks looked pretty phony, suffering greatly in comparison with William Tuttle's simpler designs for the original film. However, the makeup reel shown to the Academy included virtually no Morlock footage (not counting Jeremy Irons' uber-Morlock), and Stan Winston was not in competition for the nomination. Apparently the Morlocks are not considered makeup, since they're actors wearing animatronic heads.

The makeup category does, however, include hairstyling, which helped Frida (which uses both hair and makeup effects to age its main characters -- I hadn't even realized Alfred Molina wore a fake nose throughout the movie) and Time Machine (which is set in three different time periods, each with its own makeup and hair demands) make the final cut.

ATTACK OF THE CLONES - Rob Coleman, Pablo Helman, John Knoll, Ben Snow
THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS - Jim Rygiel, Joe Letteri, Randall William Cook, Alex Funke
SPIDER-MAN - John Dykstra, Scott Stokdyk, Anthony LaMolinara, John Frazier

The seven finalists this year were Attack of the Clones, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Men in Black II, Minority Report, Spider-Man, and XXX. The voting members of the effects branch attended a "Visual Effects Bake-Off," where they viewed fifteen minute reels of effects highlights from each film followed by a brief Q&A with the effects department heads, and voted immediately after.

Effects movies that didn't make it to the finalists level included The Adventures of Pluto Nash, Blade II, Clockstoppers, Die Another Day (that much-derided ice surfing scene probably didn't help), Eight Legged Freaks, Gangs of New York, I Spy, K19, Panic Room, Pinocchio, Queen of the Damned, Reign of Fire, The Ring, Road to Perdition, The Santa Clause 2, The Scorpion King, Signs, Solaris, Spy Kids 2, Star Trek: Nemesis, The Sum of All Fears, The Time Machine, The Tuxedo, and Windtalkers.

I was sorry that Spider-Man got the nomination instead of Minority Report. Report's effects are truly stunning, while Spidey himself far too often looked like a computer animation (as one of the effects men remarked, they couldn't do motion capture on a lot of the effects since the human body simply can't do those moves).

THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS - Ethan Van der Ryn, Michael Hopkins
MINORITY REPORT - Richard Hymns, Gary Rydstrom
ROAD TO PERDITION - Scott A. Hecker

The Sound branch holds a "Bakeoff" for this category similar to that of the Visual Effects branch, though here the reels are only ten minutes long and there is no Q&A. This year's finalists were Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Minority Report, Road to Perdition, Spider-Man, We Were Soldiers, and XXX.

Attack of the Clones didn't make the cut, especially surprising since the Star Wars films tend to require a greater variety of sound effects than most films. Maybe the branches are starting to take Star Wars for granted.

THE CATHEDRAL - Tomek Baginski
THE CHUBBCHUBBS! - Eric Armstrong
DAS RAD - Chris Stenner, Heidi Wittlinger
MIKE'S NEW CAR - Pete Docter, Roger Gould
MT. HEAD - Koji Yamamura

The ChubbChubbs! actually received some theatrical exposure, as it was screened with Men in Black II and Stuart Little 2 in some theaters. Mike's New Car stars the Billy Crystal character from Monsters, Inc.

FAIT D'HIVER - Dirk Belien, Anja Daelemans
I'LL WAIT FOR THE NEXT ONE (J'ATTENDRAI LE SUIVANT) - Philippe Orreindy, Thomas Gaudin
INJA (DOG) - Steven Pasvolsky, Joe Weatherstone
JOHNNY FLYNTON - Lexi Alexander, Alexander Buono
THIS CHARMING MAN (DER ER EN YNDIG MAND) - Martin Strange-Hansen, Mie Andreasen

I haven't seen any of these, though it's unusual that none of them were made by American actors. That had seemed to be the trend for awhile, with everyone from Jeff Goldblum to Christine Lahti to Sean Astin popping up in this category.

THE COLLECTOR OF BEDFORD STREET - Alice Elliott
MIGHTY TIMES: THE LEGACY OF ROSA PARKS - Robert Hudson, Bobby Houston
TWIN TOWERS - Bill Guttentag, Robert David Port
WHY CAN'T WE BE A FAMILY AGAIN? - Roger Weisberg, Murray Nossel

BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE - Michael Moore, Michael Donovan
DAUGHTER FROM DANANG - Gail Dolgin, Vincente Franco
PRISONER OF PARADISE - Malcolm Clarke, Stuart Sender
SPELLBOUND - Jeffrey Blitz, Sean Welch
WINGED MIGRATION - Jacques Perrin

Bowling seems the likely winner, but this is one of the few categories where members have to see all five films for their votes to count. Daughter From Danang is supposed to be amazing.

EL CRIMEN DEL PADRE AMARO - Mexico
HERO - People's Republic of China
THE MAN WITHOUT A PAST - Finland
NOWHERE IN AFRICA - Germany
ZUS & ZO - The Netherlands

Nowhere in Africa seems to be the most likely winner, based both on its reviews and the subject matter. I've only seen two of these: El Crimen del Padre Amaro is engrossing but memorable only for its extremely critical treatment of the Catholic Church, while Zus & Zo is a slick but weak farce about three sisters trying to keep their gay brother from marrying his girlfriend and inheriting the family's resort hotel.

City of God is the most surprising omission, though its violent subject matter may have turned off Academy members. 8 Women has an amazing cast but is a total snooze, while Pinocchio is no better in Italian than it was in English, just six minutes longer and with Roberto Benigni doing the nonstop yammering himself instead of being dubbed by an oddly Martin Short-sounding Breckin Meyer.

I'm disappointed but not surprised that the extraordinary Belgian film The Son (from the directors of La Promesse and Rosetta) didn't make the cut. It's an extremely difficult and demanding (though short) film, and the handheld camera style alone turns off a lot of viewers. I doubt, however, that I'll see a better film this year.

Academy member Ken Rudolph has posted an online diary of attending nearly all of the screenings, in case you're curious about the eligible films that didn't make the cut.

ICE AGE - Chris Wedge
LILO & STITCH - Chris Sanders
SPIRIT: STALLION OF THE CIMARRON - Jeffrey Katzenberg
SPIRITED AWAY - Hayao Miyazaki
TREASURE PLANET - Ron Clements

This is the one category I was able to predict with one hundred percent accuracy. The amazing Spirited Away deserves to win, and of the American nominees I'd vote for the moving, underrated Ice Age, though Lilo & Stitch will probably take home the award.

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