Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 15, 1995 TAG: 9502150049
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: EXTRA EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: John Hart Seattle Times
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Tom Hanks, who won last year's Oscar for best actor for his role as a lawyer with AIDS in ``Philadelphia,'' again looks like the front-runner for best actor. In the Robert Zemeckis movie, he played Forrest Gump, a Vietnam veteran with an IQ of 75 who becomes a witness to much of 20th-century American history.
Competing with ``Gump'' for best picture of 1994 will be Frank Darabont's prison drama, ``The Shawshank Redemption'' and Quentin Tarantino's sassy crime movie, ``Pulp Fiction,'' both with seven nominations apiece.
Also in the running for the top prize are Mike Newell's witty romantic comedy, ``Four Weddings and a Funeral,'' and Robert Redford's thoughtful drama about late-1950s television scandals, ``Quiz Show.''
As usually happens, director and picture didn't line up perfectly. Zemeckis, Redford and Tarantino were all nominated for best director, but Newell and Darabont were not. Filling those slots were Woody Allen, nominated for ``Bullets Over Broadway,'' and Polish filmmaker Krzysztof Kieslowki, who was nominated for the third part of his trilogy, ``Three Colors: Red.'' Allen and Redford have both won before in this category, Allen for ``Annie Hall'' (1977) and Redford for ``Ordinary People'' (1980).
Perhaps the biggest surprise in this year's Oscar race: ``Hoop Dreams,'' a non-fiction prize winner that was being promoted as a contender for best picture, didn't even land a nomination for best documentary. It received a single nomination for best film editing.
Hanks' chief competition will come from Paul Newman, nominated for his role as an aging small-town father who befriends his alienated son and grandson in ``Nobody's Fool,'' and Nigel Hawthorne, who recreated his London stage role in the art-house sleeper hit, ``The Madness of King George.''
Also in the contest for best actor: Morgan Freeman, for his role as a longtime prisoner in ``The Shawshank Redemption,'' and John Travolta for his comeback performance as a hit man in ``Pulp Fiction.'' Travolta was previously nominated for ``Saturday Night Fever'' in 1978. Newman has been nominated eight times; he won in 1987 for ``The Color of Money.'' Freeman was previously nominated for ``Driving Miss Daisy'' (1989) and ``Street Smart'' (1987).
None of the nominees for best actress came from the front-runner films.
Jessica Lange, who won a Golden Globe and a Los Angeles Film Critics' award for her performance as an unstable early-1960s Army wife in ``Blue Sky,'' appears to be in the lead. However, her long-delayed film, which was directed four years ago by the late Tony Richardson, was a box-office wipeout when it finally went into release last fall. Lange won a supporting-actress Oscar for ``Tootsie'' in 1983.
Her competition includes Jodie Foster, who had the title role in the backwoods drama, ``Nell''; Susan Sarandon as the lawyer who defends a threatened child in ``The Client''; Miranda Richardson for her role as T.S. Eliot's disturbed wife, Vivienne Haigh-Wood, in ``Tom and Viv''; and Winona Ryder as Louisa May Alcott's alter ego, Jo, in ``Little Women.''
Foster has won two Oscars in this category. Sarandon has been nominated three previous times. Ryder was nominated last year for ``The Age of Innocence,'' and Richardson two years ago for ``Damage.''
Perhaps the least surprising nominations were those awarded to Martin Landau and Dianne Wiest. Both have collected Golden Globes and most of the year-end critics' prizes for their supporting performances - Landau in ``Ed Wood,'' in which he brought dignity and wit to the role of fading horror star Bela Lugosi, and Wiest in Woody Allen's ``Bullets Over Broadway,'' which was dominated by her hilarious performance as a manipulative Broadway actress in the 1920s.
Tarantino, eliminated from this year's Writers' Guild awards because he wasn't a Guild member, has nevertheless been nominated for an Oscar for best original screenplay for ``Pulp Fiction.'' Also in the running: Woody Allen and Douglas McGrath for ``Bullets Over Broadway,'' Richard Curtis for ``Four Weddings and a Funeral,'' Frances Walsh and Peter Jackson for ``Heavenly Creatures'' and Krzysztof Piesiewicz and Krzysztof Kieslowski for ``Red.''
For best screenplay (adaptation), Eric Roth was nominated for his reworking of Winston Groom's novel, ``Forrest Gump,'' and former film critic Paul Attanasio was named for ``Quiz Show,'' his adaptation of a portion of Richard Goodwin's memoir, ``Remembering America: A Voice From the Sixties.''
The other nominees in this category look like also-rans: Robert Benton for his adaptation of the Richard Russo novel, ``Nobody's Fool''; Alan Bennett for his adaptation of his own play, ``The Madness of King George''; and Frank Darabont for ``The Shawshank Redemption,'' his treatment of Stephen King's short novel, ``Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption.''
``Circle of Life,'' ``Hakuna Matata'' and ``Can You Feel the Love Tonight,'' three Elton John/Tim Rice numbers from the year's top-grossing film, Disney's ``The Lion King,'' were nominated for best song. Competing with them are ``Look What Love has Done'' from ``Junior'' and ``Make Up Your Mind'' from ``The Paper.''
The most competitive foreign-film race in Oscar's history ended with five of the 45 submitted movies named as finalists. Ang Lee's ``Eat Drink Man Woman'' (from Taiwan) looks like the favorite, although upsets are almost expected in this category. Lee was nominated in the same category last year for ``The Wedding Banquet,'' also from Taiwan.
Also in the running this year: Milcho Manchevski's ``Before the Rain'' (Macedonia), Nikita Mikhalkov's ``Burnt By The Sun'' (Russia), Gerard Corbieau's ``Farinelli: Il Castrato'' (Belgium) and Tomas Gutierrez Alea and Juan Carlos Tabio's Cuban comedy, ``Strawberry and Chocolate.'' Last month, the Golden Globe in this category went to ``Farinelli.''
Several special Oscars have also been announced. Quincy Jones will receive the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian award and Clint Eastwood will be presented with the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial award. Michelangelo Antonioni, the 82-year-old Italian director of ``Blow Up'' and ``L'Avventura,'' will attend the March 27 ceremonies to accept an honorary award voted by the academy's board of governors.
The Academy Awards will be presented at 9 p.m. ET Monday, March 27, in Los Angeles. ABC-TV will again carry the broadcast. David Letterman is the host.
by CNB