Close contest predicted for this year’s Oscars
With nominations to be announced tomorrow, this year has seen one of the closest contests in recent memory with only two movies Chicago and The Hours seeming to be shoo-ins for the best motion picture nomination and several other films vying for the three remaining spots.
Offbeat dramas Adaptation and About Schmidt appear to have an edge because they have been popular with critics, industry folk, early awards givers and audiences, so far.
Epic Gangs of New York is a sentimental favourite owing to its being a labour of love for director Martin Scorsese, but mixed reviews could leave it out of the race. Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers has been slipping in recent weeks due to a lack of wins in early award shows like the Golden Globes.
Experts are predicting nominations for possible dark horse entries such as Holocaust drama The Pianist, and possibly even acclaimed Spanish director Pedro Almodovar's Talk to Her.
Nicole Kidman of The Hours, a drama about suicidal author Virginia Woolf and two women with connections to her novel Mrs Dalloway, and Renee Zellweger of musical Chicago seem likely to score their second-straight nominations, along with Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson.
Kidman's co-stars Meryl Streep and Julianne Moore could each grab two nominations, Streep as best actress for The Hours and supporting actress for Adaptation, Moore as best actress for the 1950s melodrama Far From Heaven and supporting actress for The Hours.
A single nomination would lift Streep into the record books as the most nominated actor ever. Streep and Katharine Hepburn are tied with 12 nominations each.
With the most nominations among males, 11,Jack Nicholson probably will pad that total with a best-actor nomination for the dark comedy About Schmidt. A win for Nicholson would tie Hepburn's record of four acting Oscars.
