TITANIC SWEEPS
OSCAR NOMINATIONS

James Cameron’s Titanic, the epic account of a fateful love affair on the doomed ocean liner, captured a record-tying 14 Academy Award nominations, including a nomination for best picture, best actress and best director. The only other film to receive 14 Oscar nominations was 1950’s All About Eve. The record for most wins for a single film is held by 1959’s Ben-Hur, which won 11 Oscars.

LA Confidential and Good Will Hunting each received nine nominations, including best picture. The other best picture nominees were As Good As It Gets and The Full Monty.

Titanic’s Kate Winslet was nominated for best actress, as were Helena Bonham Carter for The Wings of the Dove, Julie Christie for Afterglow, Judi Dench for Mrs Brown and Helen Hunt for As Good As It Gets.

Robert Duvall’s role in The Apostle earned him a best actor nomination. He will face Matt Damon in Good Will Hunting, Peter Fonda in Ulee’s Gold, Dustin Hoffman in Wag the Dog and Jack Nicholson in As Good As It Gets.

The 87-year-old Gloria Stuart was nominated for best supporting actress for Titanic. Also nominated in this category were Joan Cusack for In and Out, Minnie Driver for Good Will Hunting, Julianne Moore for Boogie Nights and Kim Basinger in LA Confidential.

Burt Reynolds was nominated for best supporting actor for Boogie Nights. The other nominees in the category were Robert Forster for Jackie Brown, Anthony Hopkins for Amistad, Greg Kinnear for As Good As It Gets and Robin Williams for Good Will Hunting.

This year, many of the Academy Award nominees are performers had their heydays in the ’60s, the ’70s and even the ’30s. Four show business veterans who have not really been in the Hollywood spotlight for years were honoured with Oscar nominations — Burt Reynolds, Peter Fonda, Julie Christie and Gloria Stuart.

The 87-year-old Gloria Stuart, who received a Best Supporting Actress nomination for her depiction of the 101-year old Rose in Titanic, is now the oldest performer ever nominated for an acting award. The actress was a star in the 1930s, and appeared in films like The Old Dark House and Air Mail.

Julie Christie, 56, was last nominated 26 years ago for Mccabe and Mrs Miller. She won an Oscar for her performance in the 1965 film Darling. Of the five films she did in the 1990s, few attracted attention.

Reynolds, 62, was nominated for his depiction of adult filmmaker Jack Horner in Boogie Nights. His last few films, such as Striptease and Citizen Ruth have all fizzled out at the box-office. Peter Fonda, who shot to fame as the writer and co-star of 1969’s Easy Rider, was nominated for his role as the beekeeper, Ulee Jackson, in Ulee’s Gold. The performance also won him a Golden Globe last month.