'King' Rules Oscar Nominations

The J.R.R. Tolkien fantasy epic "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" snapped up 11 Oscar nominations Tuesday morning to lead all nominees for the 76th annual Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director for Peter Jackson.

Also nominated for Best Picture were the high-seas war epic "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World," the bittersweet tale of friendship "Lost in Translation," the crime drama "Mystic River" and the horse-racing drama "Seabiscuit."

"Return of the King's" Best Picture nomination was the third straight for a "Lord of the Rings" film, a feat unprecedented in the history of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. "The Return of the King's" predecessors, "The Fellowship of the Ring" and "The Two Towers" received Best Picture nominations in 2002 and 2003, respectively.

"King" also earned nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay for Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, Best Original Score for Howard Shore and Best Original Song for "Into the West" for Shore, Walsh and Annie Lennox -- but failed to receive any acting nominations.

"Master and Commander" got the second-most nominations with 10, including Best Director for Peter Weir. Like "The Return of the King," the film, which stars Oscar-winner Russell Crowe, did not receive any acting nominations.

Surprisingly absent from the most of the major categories was the critically acclaimed Civil War-era romance "Cold Mountain," which was shut out of the Best Picture and Best Director categories.

Jude Law did, however, make the cut for "Cold Mountain," for Best Actor. He'll face off against Johnny Depp for "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl," Ben Kingsley for "House of Sand and Fog, "Bill Murray for "Lost in Translation" and Sean Penn for "Mystic River."

Last year's Best Actress winner for "The Hours," Nicole Kidman, also failed to receive a nomination for "Cold Mountain." Competing instead for Best Actress are Diane Keaton for "Something's Gotta Give," Samantha Morton for "In America," Charlize Theron for "Monster" and Naomi Watts for "21 Grams."

The biggest surprise in the category was the inclusion of 13-year-old Keisha Castle-Hughes for "Whale Rider," who becomes the youngest actress to be nominated for Best Actress.

In the Best Supporting Actor race, the nominees were Alec Baldwin for "The Cooler," Benicio Del Toro for "21 Grams," Djimon Hounsou for "In America," Tim Robbins for "Mystic River" and Ken Watanabe for "The Last Samurai."

Although Patricia Clarkson missed out on a Best Actress nomination for "The Station Agent," she had better luck in the Best Supporting Actress for "Pieces of April." She'll compete against Shohreh Aghdashloo for "House of Sand and Fog," Marcia Gay Harden for "Mystic River," Holly Hunter for "thirteen" and Renee Zellweger for "Cold Mountain."

Like Best Picture and Best Actress, the Best Director category yielded some surprises. Gary Ross missed out on a nomination, despite a Best Picture nod for "Seabiscuit"; Fernando Meirelles was nominated for "City of God."

In addition to Meirelles, Jackson and Weir, the other nominees for Best Director were Clint Eastwood for "Mystic River" and Sofia Coppola for "Lost in Translation."

Sofia Coppola's nomination for Best Director is only the third for a woman in Academy history. The daughter of Oscar-winning filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola also grabbed a nomination for Best Original Screenplay.

Coppola wasn't the only second-generation filmmaker honored with an Oscar nomination Tuesday. Samuel Goldwyn Jr. -- who earned a nod for producing "Master and Commander" -- is the son of Samuel Goldwyn Sr., who produced the 1947 Best Picture winner "The Best Years Of Our Lives."

Coppola is also in the race for Best Original Screenplay, where she'll take on Denys Arcand for "The Barbarian Invasions," Steven Knight for "Dirty Pretty Things," Andrew Stanton, Bob Peterson and David Reynolds for "Finding Nemo" and Jim Sheridan, Naomi Sheridan and Kirsten Sheridan for "In America."

Facing off against "The Return of the King" for the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar are Robert Pulcini and Shari Springer Berman for "American Splendor," Braulio Mantovani for "City of God," Brian Helgeland for "Mystic River" and Ross for "Seabiscuit."

The highest grossing film of last year, the computer-animated family comedy "Finding Nemo," found a home in the Best Animated Feature category. Also nominated were "Brother Bear" and "The Triplets of Belleville."

Up for Best Foreign Film are "The Barbarian Invasions" (Canada), "Zelary" (Czech Republic), "The Twilight Samurai"(Japan), "Twin Sisters" (The Netherlands) and "Evil" (Sweden).

Academy president Frank Pierson and three-time Oscar nominee Sigourney Weaver revealed the nominations. The academy previously announced that "Pink Panther," "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and "Victor/Victoria" filmmaker Blake Edwards would be receiving an honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement.

Winners will be announced at the 76th annual Academy Awards ceremony on Feb. 29 at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood, Calif. Billy Crystal will return to host the show for the first time in four years -- his eighth gig as Oscar host.

Complete List of Nominations