Four entries from the official 1997 Berlinale programme gathered up 18 nominations for this year's Academy Awards, as was announced by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Los Angeles on Tuesday. The films up for major Oscar gold are The English Patient, which received 12 nominations including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress; The People vs. Larry Flynt, with nominations for Best Actor and Best Directing; The Crucible (two), and Romeo + Juliet. A further nomination for Best Actress went to Diane Keaton for her role in Marvin's Room, a feature film running in Panorama.
And Hollywood legend Lauren Bacall, who made her screen debut way back in 1944, is up for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Barbra Streisand's mother in The Mirror Has Two Faces. (Bacall is also due in Berlin with thecompetition film Le jour et la nuit.)
Adaptations, particularly those that are based on Shakespeare and other classics, were favoured by the industry this year. In terms of award nomination, there is also a refreshing showing of independents, most notably the nod given to the controversial film Trainspotting (screenplay based on existing material.)
Contrary to her own prediction, Madonna's work in Evita was not acknowledged by the Academy; three of the five best actress nominations went to British women, including Emily Watson for Lars von Trier's Breaking the Waves. And British stage actress Marianne Jean-Baptiste was nominated in the Best Supporting Actress category for her first-ever film role in Secrets & Lies.
While The English Patient leads with the most nominations, other favourites include Shine and Fargo with seven nominations each, and Jerry Maguire, Secrets & Lies, and Evita, which all received five. UK outfit, Aardman Animations, which has been winning Oscars with almost monotonous regularity in recent years, is nominated yet again for their animated short, What's Pig.
Meredith Jones and staff reporters
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