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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, February 11, 2002

Hollywood's Oscar Season is Set to Climax

After weeks of frenzied speculation, maneuvering and costly advertising blitzes, Hollywood's Oscar season is set to climax Tuesday with the announcement of this year's Academy Award nominations.


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After weeks of frenzied speculation, maneuvering and costly advertising blitzes, Hollywood's Oscar season is set to climax Tuesday with the announcement of this year's Academy Award nominations.

"A Beautiful Mind" and fantasy flick "The Lord of the Rings" appeared to be the front-runners in the hard-fought race to win Tinseltown's highest kudos, along with plush musical "Moulin Rouge" and family drama "In the Bedroom."

But apart from the four films that have emerged as the strongest contenders for the 2002 Oscars, the pundits are still battling to predict which of the 244 other hopefuls might make the coveted nominations list.

"The only sure favorites for multiple nominations are 'A Beautiful Mind' and 'Lord of the Rings,'" said Los Angeles Times film critic Richard Natale. "'Moulin Rouge' and 'In the Bedroom' come in next, but after that the line-up becomes far more murky," he said. The four films have all been enormous critical and box office successes and have also done well at many of the dizzying welter of Hollywood awards ceremonies that lead up to the Oscar nominations.

Amid the uncertainty and under growing pressure for their films to perform, movie studios have bombarded the trade press with millions of dollars' worth of glossy ads, touting their pictures under the banner "For your consideration." Of the 248 films elligible for nomination in 24 categories, only 112 will win nominations -- which not only boost the box office performance of the high-budget pictures but can also propel the nominees to global stardom.

"This year has been very different from other years in that any Oscar favorites have been very slow to emerge from a very wide open and varied field," said Tim Gray of Daily Variety magazine. "It's been much more exciting." Psycho-drama "Mind" will go up against the hobbits and ringwraiths of the 270 million-dollar film version of J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" for the most nominations, pundits said. They will be joined by "Moulin Rouge," Australian director Baz Luhrmann's attempt to revive the Hollywood musicals of old, starring Nicole Kidman, and low-budget family drama "In the Bedroom."







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