'Chicago,' 'Gangs' top British award picks
By Matt Wolf
Associated Press
LONDON — The musical "Chicago" and Martin Scorsese's violent epic "Gangs of New York" led the field yesterday with 12 nominations each for the Orange British Academy Film Awards, known as the Baftas.
Following close behind with 11 nominations was "The Hours," English director Stephen Daldry's adaptation of American writer Michael Cunningham's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. The film was named best drama last week at the Golden Globes in the United States, where "Chicago" took the prize for best musical-comedy.
The three films will compete as the year's best with "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers," which received nine Bafta nominations; and Roman Polanski's deeply personal Holocaust film "The Pianist," which got seven.
The winners will be named Feb. 23, a month before the Academy Awards. Oscar nominations will be announced Feb. 11 in Los Angeles.
The directors of the above five films were nominated for best director. A noticeable omission from best film and best director were "Road To Perdition" and Sam Mendes, the Englishman who made it.
Mendes' film did get a nomination for supporting actor Paul Newman, who's up against Chris Cooper ("Adaptation"), Ed Harris ("The Hours"), Alfred Molina ("Frida") and Christopher Walken ("Catch Me If You Can").
The best-actor category pits two Britons — Michael Caine for "The Quiet American," and Daniel Day-Lewis for "Gangs of New York" — against Nicolas Cage ("Adaptation"), Adrien Brody ("The Pianist") and Jack Nicholson ("About Schmidt").
Last year's Oscar winner for best actress, Halle Berry in "Monster's Ball," is a Bafta nominee this year because the film opened in Britain in 2002. She's up against Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman, both for "The Hours," Salma Hayek ("Frida") and Renee Zellweger ("Chicago").
Streep also is up for supporting actress honors for "Adaptation." Also nominated were Toni Collette for "About a Boy," Julianne Moore for "The Hours," and Queen Latifah and Catherine Zeta-Jones for "Chicago."
In the past, the Baftas followed the Academy Awards. But they've preceded the Oscars since last year, making the British Academy ceremony an essential part of the pre-Oscar sequence of prizes that includes the Golden Globes.
Though films in the United States must play commercially during a given calendar year to qualify for Oscar consideration, the Bafta selection depends on a series of screenings for Bafta voters, often attended by the creative talent from that particular movie. "The Hours," for instance, doesn't open in Britain until Feb. 14.
In a nod to the Baftas' origins, there's a separate category for outstanding British film of the year. That lineup includes "The Hours," "Bend It Like Beckham," "Dirty Pretty Things," "The Magdalene Sisters" and "The Warrior."
The foreign-language film list includes the Mexican movie "Y Tu Mama Tambien" and Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodovar's "Talk To Her."
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