Judi leads British Oscar hopes again
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Your support makes all the difference.Dame Judi Dench and Tom Wilkinson led British hopes today as they were nominated for top acting honours in this year's Oscars.
But there was also a Brit bonanza with three in each of the supporting categories, including Kate Winslet who is up for her third prize for her performance in Iris.
Best actress nominee Dame Judi, 67, who is also up for Iris, has now been shortlisted for the Oscars for four of the past five years.
Wilkinson, 53, lauded for his performance in In The Bedroom, is listed for best actor and has never before been nominated for an Oscar.
The ceremony takes place in Los Angeles on March 24.
British nominees for best supporting actress alongside Winslet, 26, are Dame
Maggie Smith, 67, and Helen Mirren, 56, who are both honoured for their roles in
Gosford Park.
Homegrown supporting actor hopes are recently knighted Sir Ben Kingsley, 58, for his role in Sexy Beast, Jim Broadbent, 52, for Iris, and Sir Ian McKellen, 62, for the fantasy epic Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring.
Lord Of The Rings, widely seen as a cinematic milestone, picks up the highest number of nominations with its tally of 13.
Other high achievers are A Beautiful Mind and Moulin Rouge, which both picked up eight nominations.
Other British hopes include film–maker Ridley Scott who is up for best director - for the second year running – for his action movie Black Hawk Down.
He missed out last year to Steven Soderbergh, although his film Gladiator was one of the big winners of 2001.
Up against Wilkinson for best actor are Russell Crowe for his portrayal of a maths genius in A Beautiful Mind, Sean Penn in I Am Sam, Will Smith in Ali and Denzel Washington in Training Day.
Crowe has been nominated for best actor for the third consecutive year and won the title last year for Gladiator. If he triumphs in 2002 he will be only the third actor to win the title in two consecutive years, after Spencer Tracy and Tom Hanks.
Dame Judi – who won the best supporting actress Oscar in 1999 for Shakespeare In Love – is nominated for her portrayal of writer Iris Murdoch, opposite Jim Broadbent, who played the author's husband John Bayley in the film which was partly funded by the BBC.
She faces competition from Halle Berry (Monster's Ball), Nicole Kidman (Moulin Rouge), Sissy Spacek (In the Bedroom) and Renee Zellweger for Bridget Jones's Diary.
Also flying the flag for Britain is writer Julian Fellowes who is up for best original screenplay for Gosford Park.
There was disappointment for Harry Potter And The Philospher's Stone, which despite being a huge box office moneyspinner picked up only three noninations for art direction, costume design, and music.
Sir Paul McCartney is up for his second Oscar after making the shortlist for best original song for the title track from Vanilla Sky. He previously won in 1970 with The Beatles for Let It Be.
Sting is also up for best song for his track Until from Kate And Leopold.
BBC2 is carrying the Oscars live on March 24 with highlights on BBC1 the following day under a new broadcasting deal.
Competing for best film are A Beautiful Mind, Gosford Park, In the Bedroom, Lord of the Rings and Moulin Rouge. The latter is the first musical to be shortlisted for the title for more than 20 years.
More than 5,000 members of the Oscars Academy cast their votes to draw up the shortlist.
Emma Cochrane, the editor of film magazine Empire, said she thought Tom Wilkinson could be the dark horse who takes the best actor title for Britain.
"You never know, he could get it. The performance in In The Bedroom was very good and he is one of our strongest hopes.
"But I think Russell Crowe is probably the favourite. Nicole Kidman should get it for best actress. People have been very impressed with her performances in both Moulin Rouge and The Others.
"I would imagine A Beautiful Mind will get best film and Peter Jackson will be best director for Lord Of The Rings, so they will split the honours."
She said many Britons have been upset that Harry Potter has been so overlooked, particularly in terms of visual effects.
"The Americans just don't seem to like Harry Potter," she said.
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