Oscars Brits' golden year
February 13, 2002

From CLODAGH HARTLEY in Los Angeles

FULL MONTY star TOM WILKINSON heads a strong showing for Britain in the Oscar nominations which were announced yesterday.

Twelve Brits are up for glory in the annual movie awards next month — making 2002 one of our best years ever.

Tom is in the running for Best Actor for In The Bedroom up against Hollywood heavyweights Russell Crowe, Will Smith, Denzel Washington and Sean Penn.

The 54-year-old said last night: “When I first saw the script I knew it was special. Now I know it was something very special indeed.”

And he added that he hoped being named with Hollywood’s A list would bring a few more top roles his way.

DAME JUDI DENCH is nominated for Best Actress for her performance in Iris, about the British novelist Iris Murdoch.

It is the fourth time she has been put forward in the past five years. She won Best Supporting actress in 1998 for her brief role in Shakespeare In Love.

This year Dame Judi, 68, faces competition from Halle Berry, Nicole Kidman, Sissy Spacek and Renee Zellweger.

Three out of the five stars nominated for Best Supporting Actor are British. JIM BROADBENT, 56, is up for Iris, SIR BEN KINGSLEY for Sexy Beast and SIR IAN McKELLEN, 62, for The Lord Of The Rings.

Jim — the man who turned down the chance to play Del Boy in Only Fools And Horses — was already "completely staggered” when he collected a Golden Globe last month for his role as Iris Murdoch’s husband, John Bayley.

Sir Ben already has a Best Actor Oscar for 1982 movie Gandhi.

Three Best Supporting Actress nominations are also British. KATE WINSLET earns one for her role as the young Iris Murdoch in Iris.

The 26-year-old was previously nominated in 1998 for Best Actress in Titanic and for Best Suporting Actress in Sense And Sensibility in 1996.

MAGGIE SMITH, 67, and HELEN MIRREN, 56, are both nominated for their roles in upstairs-downstairs murder drama Gosford Park.

British actor and screenwriter JULIAN FELLOWES is up for a gong for Best Original Screenplay for Gosford Park.

And veteran British rock stars STING and SIR PAUL McCARTNEY will compete in the Best Song category. Sting got his second Academy Award nomination for Until, from the movie Kate And Leopold.

Sir Paul wrote the title track for Vanilla Sky, starring Tom Cruise. He has previously won the gong as part of The Beatles in 1970 for Let It Be.

Briton RIDLEY SCOTT, 64, is nominated for the third time in the Best Director category and his film Black Hawk Down has several other nominations.

Harry Potter fans will be disappointed to find that there is NO mention of his first film in the major nominations despite its box-office success worldwide.

It does feature in three lesser categories, however.

Gosford Park, which was made in the UK, has seven nominations in all.

And stirring drama A Beautiful Mind, starring Russell Crowe, is nominated in eight of the ten major categories including Best Picture.

Moulin Rouge, which is also up for Best Picture at the March 24 awards, is the first musical to be shortlisted for the title for more than 20 years.

Fantasy blockbuster The Lord Of The Rings ranks second main contender with four nominations in the major categories. Including the lesser awards, it got the most nominations of any film — 13.

More than 5,000 members of the Oscars Academy cast their votes to draw up the shortlist of nominations.

Source: The Sun