Chicago leads Oscar nominations

The musical Chicago was nominated for 13 Oscars this afternoon, pitting it against literary drama The Hours and Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York for the big prizes.

Pedro Almodovar was plentifully consoled for the snub of not being selected as Spain's entrant for best foreign language picture when his film Talk to Her was nominated for best direction and best screenplay at this year's Academy Awards.

In a selection that boasted relatively few surprises in other categories, the screenplay nominations were the most obvious departure from expectations; My Big Fat Greek Wedding, a sleeper hit that could well have been passed over, and Y Tu Mama Tambien, the Mexican teen-romp-with-a-conscience, were both nominated.

As expected elsewhere, the bulk of the nominations are shared out between Chicago (13 nominations - though two are in the same category) Gangs of New York (10 nominations ), and The Hours (nine).

The best picture field consisted of those films plus Roman Polanski's The Pianist, and The Two Towers. It is widely expected that the Academy will hold off on rewarding Peter Jackson's Tolkien trilogy until it is finished. Best director takes in the big three plus The Pianist and Talk to Her.

Best actress is contested between Nicole Kidman (in pole position), her Hours co-star Julianne Moore (nominated for Far From Heaven), Salma Hayek, Diane Lane and Renee Zellweger, while best supporting actress will be fought out between Chicago co-stars Queen Latifah and Catherine Zeta-Jones, Meryl Streep (another Hours alumna) for Adaptation, Julianne Moore again (for The Hours), and Diane Lane.

Best actor is shared out exactly as expected: Adrien Brody, Nicolas Cage, Michael Caine, Daniel Day-Lewis and Jack Nicholson. The only surprise here, unless Nicholson doesn't win on the night, is that Michael Caine's performance in the "anti-American" Greene adaptation, The Quiet American, was recognised at all.

Elsewhere, pleasant surprises were afforded to Sam Mendes' Road to Perdition, which picked up nominations for best supporting actor (Paul Newman), best cinematography (a shoo-in for the recently departed Conrad Hall) and best score.

The success of foreign and "ethnic" films in the screenplay and directorial categories left the best foreign language award looking a bit lacklustre: Mexico's The Crime of Father Amaro faces limp opposition from relatively little-known films from China, Finland, Germany and the Netherlands.