While Oscar prognosticators had widely predicted "The English Patient" would rake in the Oscar nominations, Tuesday morning's announcements still held plenty of surprises.
In the lead acting categories, newcomers Billy Bob Thornton and Emily Watson received nominations for their roles in "Sling Blade" and "Breaking the Waves," respectively. And it was Diane Keaton who picked up the actress nom for "Marvin's Room," rather than her co-star Meryl Streep, a perennial Academy favorite.
But as always, most of the surprises were generated by those left off of the nominees list. Dueling pop icons Madonna ("Evita") and Courtney Love ("The People vs. Larry Flynt") were shut out by members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences' acting branch.
While Lauren Bacall took home the first nomination in her career for her supporting role in "The Mirror Has Two Faces," another doyenne of Hollywood's golden age, Debbie Reynolds, was overlooked for the title role in Albert Brooks' "Mother."
Oft-nominated Woody Allen's offbeat musical "Everyone Says I Love You" was completely ignored.
The writing categories also held some interesting twists. While the lion's share of past best-pic nominations have tended to come from works with adapted screenplays, this year four of the five film noms are represented in the original screenplay category. Only "English Patient" was nominated for a script based on previously produced or published material.
Some saw it as ironic that Mike Leigh received an original screenplay nomination for "Secrets & Lies," despite the film's improvisatory nature, to say nothing of Kenneth Branagh's nom for screenplay adaptation for "Hamlet," a picture noted for its faithfulness to the Bard's text.
Despite all the talk about Hollywood's love affairs with Shakespeare and Jane Austen, the classics were all but absent from the key Oscar categories. Castle Rock and Columbia's "Hamlet" was denied noms in major categories other than screenplay, while surprise box office success "William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet" wooed only an art direction nomination. Fine Line's "Twelfth Night" and such Shakespeare-inspired pics as "Looking for Richard" and "A Midwinter's Tale" went unmentioned.
Nineteenth-century scribes didn't fare much better. While "Sense and Sensibility" picked up seven nominations in 1996, this year's "Emma," starring Gwyneth Paltrow, received noms only for costume design and comedy score. Miramax's "Jane Eyre," a specialized B.O. success, was shut out entirely.
While indies prospered, some critically acclaimed American independent films failed to make the Oscar cut: The Academy pulled the shade on Stanley Tucci and Campbell Scott's "Big Night." John Sayles' "Lone Star," which many saw as a contender after its June release, picked up a lone nom for Sayles' screenplay.
The Golden Globes turned out to be an erratic predictor of Oscar this year. "Evita" was nominated in four of the top six Golden Globe categories and went on to win awards for pic and actress in the musical or comedy category, but the musical bio had to settle for art direction, cinematography, film editing, original song and sound Oscar noms.
Depending on your perspective, "The People vs. Larry Flynt" either got snubbed, or overcame adversity to do as well as it did.
Director Milos Forman and actor Woody Harrelson received nominations, but the controversial film failed to garner noms for picture, actress Courtney Love or screenwriters Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski.
Asked if he was surprised that the pic wasn't nominated for best picture, Forman told Daily Variety, "I was surprised that Woody (Harrelson) and I were nominated, in light of the negative campaign."
Forman was referring to an ad in the Jan. 17 Daily Variety reprinting a New York Times editorial by Gloria Steinem critical of the film's depiction of Larry Flynt as a "champion of the first amendment deserving our respect."
"It is an ironic situation," Forman said, but then emphasized, "I am very honored by the nomination."
Contact the Variety newsroom at
news@variety.com