Hollywood , CA.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences released the Oscar nominees list to the press this past week, and the front runner, leading the pack with 11 nominations is...you guessed it, "The Lord of the Rings: the Return of the King". Director Peter Jackson's final installment of Tolkien's fantasy epic garnered a total of 11 oscar nominations including ; best picture and best director, along with various technical and artistic categories... The other nominees for "Best Picture" are; Clint Eastwood's "Mystic River", the Russell Crowe naval adventure "Master & Commander" , the true life story of; "Seabiscuit", and Bill Murray's "Lost in Translation"... Unfortunately, recent history doesn't favor the "ringbearer", both previous chapters of the history making trilogy have also attracted oscar notoriety only to come up short...but who knows maybe this will be the year that Frodo and friends will walk away with the gold, what stands out most about the 11 nominations of "King" is that not one is for acting, not even in a supporting capacity...

The last film to "clean house" at the ceremonies was James Cameron's "Titanic"(1997)which took home 11 oscars, tying a record for oscar wins with William Wyler's classic biblical epic "Ben-Hur"(1959). The last big "losers" at oscar were Steven Spielberg's "the Color Purple"(1985) , and "The Turning Point"(1977), both of which earned 10 or more nominations but walked away empty handed.

Best of luck to Peter Jackson and the cast and crew of "the Lord of the Rings"...