Beverly Hills (California), Jan 25: The Howard Hughes epic `The Aviator` led Academy Awards contenders with 11 nominations today, including best picture, plus acting honours for Leonardo Dicaprio, Cate Blanchett and Alan Alda and a directing slot for Martin Scorsese.
The boxing saga `Million Dollar Baby` and the J M Barrie tale `Finding Neverland` followed with seven nominations each, among them best picture and acting nominations for Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman, Hilary Swank and Johnny Depp.
Eastwood also got a directing nomination for `Million Dollar Baby.`
The other best-picture nominees were the Ray Charles portrait `Ray` and the buddy comedy `Sideways.`
Along with Eastwood, Jamie Foxx also scored two nominations, as best actor for the title role in `Ray` and supporting actor as a taxi driver whose cab is hijacked by a hit man in `Collateral`.
Foxx`s dead-on emulation of Ray Charles has made him the front-runner in the lead-actor category.
Starring as aviation trailblazer and Hollywood rebel Hughes, Dicaprio also was nominated for best actor. He and Foxx will compete against Depp as Peter Pan playwright Barrie in `Finding Neverland`; Eastwood as a cantankerous boxing trainer in `Million Dollar Baby`; and Don Chedle for `Hotel Rwanda`, starring as hotel manager Paul Rusesabagina, who sheltered refugees from the Rwandan genocide.
The best actress category presents a rematch of the 1999 showdown, when underdog Swank won the Oscar for `Boys Don`t Cry` over Anette Bening, who had been the front-runner for `American Beauty`.
This time, Swank is nominated as a bullheaded boxing champ whose life takes a cruel twist in `Million Dollar Baby`. Bening was chosen for `Being Julia`, in which she plays an
aging 1930s stage diva exacting wickedly comic revenge on the men in her life and a young rival.
Both actresses won Golden Globes for the roles, Swank for best dramatic actress, Bening for actress in a musical or comedy.
Also nominated for the best-actress Oscar were Catalina Sandino Moreno as a Colombian woman imperiled when she signs on to smuggle heroin in `Maria Full of Grace`; Imelda Staunton as a saintly housekeeper in 1950s Britain who performs illegal abortions on the side in `Vera Drake`; and Kate Winslet as a woman who has had memories of her ex-boyfriend erased in `Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind`.
Joining Eastwood and Scorsese among directing nominees are Taylor Hackord for `Ray`; Mike Leigh for `Vera Drake`; and Alexander Paye for `Sideways`.
Scorsese, arguably the most prominent modern filmmaker who has never won an Oscar, also has never delivered a best picture winner. Considered a nominal best picture favorite, `The Aviator` offers him a shot to finally triumph on Oscar night, though Eastwood`s `Million Dollar Baby` is a formidable competitor.
Along with Foxx in `Collateral`, Alda was nominated for supporting actor as a senator tussling with Hughes in `The Aviator` while Freeman was picked as a worldly-wise ex-boxer in `Million Dollar Baby.`
Bureau Report
