With a stack of Golden Globes already on the mantelpiece, and his trophy cabinet filling fast, Sam Mendes made yet more Hollywood history yesterday when American Beauty (opening in South Africa on February 25) was nominated for eight Oscars – the most by a first-time foreign director and more than any other film this year.
But the wünderkind, who runs the Donmar Warehouse theatre in London, was anything but blasé last night about the success of his dark satire on suburbia. ”I know, there’s been so many awards ceremonies you almost get inured to them,” he said.
”But when you get a load of Oscar nominations, and you look down the list of great directors who have won in the past, it’s really humbling. I know it sounds naff, but it’s true. I’ll wear my lucky suit, the one Prada gave me to wear at the Golden Globes.”
Mendes (34) is in no hurry to do another film and wants to direct a play at the Donmar first. ”I feel I need to come back down to earth. I don’t know what I’m going to do, and maybe it’s a mistake to decide now when I am in a euphoric state.”
Although there was disappointment that neither Mike Leigh’s much-fancied Topsy-Turvy, Anthony Minghella’s The Talented Mr Ripley, nor Neil Jordan’s The End of the Affair made it into the frame for best picture, the Brits did well overall. Leigh and Minghella were nominated for best screenplay, with Leigh an early favourite for his story about the comically strained relationship between Gilbert and Sullivan.
Janet McTeer won a nomination for best actress for her role in the low-budget American comedy Tumbleweeds, Samantha Morton is in the running for best supporting actress, while Jude Law and Michael Caine (The Cider House Rules) both appear on the list for best supporting actor. Though Caine is a previous winner, Law is already thought to be a surefire bet for his performance as a wastrel American shipping heir in The Talented Mr Ripley.
The biggest surprise was the inclusion of the Welsh film, Solomon and Gaenor, in the shortlist for best foreign language film. Directed and written by Paul Morrison, it is the story of a Jewish door-to-door salesman who falls in love with a good chapel girl, and is told in Welsh, Yiddish and English.
Eleven-year-old Haley Joel Osment’s nomination for The Sixth Sense showed that the academy’s weakness for child actors is alive and kicking, though he is far from the youngest ever. Justin Henry was eight when he was nominated for the 1979 film Kramer vs Kramer, and Anna Paquin won one for The Piano when she too was 11.
Two films received seven nominations: The Insider, the true story of a whistle-blower in the tobacco industry, and The Cider House Rules, an adaptation of the John Irving novel set in a New England orphanage. The Green Mile and The Sixth Sense also made the best film nominations.
The failure of The Hurricane to win a best picture nomination was a surprise. Based on the true story of the wrongful conviction of black boxer Rubin Carter, the film has been criticised for bending the facts, which may have damaged its chances, but its star, Denzel Washington, appears in the best actor category.
Richard Farnsworth (78) becomes the oldest actor ever to be nominated, for his part in David Lynch’s The Straight Story. Even so, the favourites for that category remain Kevin Spacey in American Beauty and Russell Crowe in The Insider. Sean Penn, who plays a jazz guitarist in Woody Allen’s Sweet and Lowdown, is also nominated.
Hilary Swank, who has already won a Golden Globe for her role in Boys Don’t Cry, is one of the favourites for the best actress Oscar, a category that sees Meryl Streep win a record 12th nomination for Music of the Heart. Annette Bening in American Beauty and Julianne Moore in Neil Jordan’s adaptation of Graham Greene’s novel The End of the Affair are also nominated.
Samantha Morton, much praised for her performance as the mute lover of Sean Penn in Sweet and Lowdown, was also nominated in the Golden Globes and faces competition from Chloe Sevingy who won the Globe for her part in Boys Don’t Cry. Angelina Jolie (Girl, Interrupted) and Catherine Keener (Being John Malkovich) were also nominated.
Pedro Almodovar’s All About My Mother is the favourite for best foreign film, having cleaned up on the festival circuit and won a Golden Globe to boot.
The academy dismissed claims that its announcement had been scooped by the Aint-It-Cool-News website which ran an early list of supposed nominees. A spokesperson described as ”a fake” the ”long list” of nominations. The supposedly leaked list contained the names of Kate Winslet (Holy Smoke) and Gwyneth Paltrow (The Talented Mr Ripley) as nominees but neither appeared in the final lists.
The votes of the 6 000 members of the invitation-only Academy of Motion Pictures have to be in by March 21. The Oscars ceremony is on March 26. – The Guardian