On February 12th, millions of people all over the world turned on their television sets and with anticipation watched as this years nominations were announced for the 74th Academy Awawrds, the most important awards in the movie business. Not without its usual suprises and upsets, it was clear what would be the making the headlines for all the right reasons: thirteen nominations for Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring, Peter Jackson’s first installment of Tolkien’s epic trilogy brought to the silver screen.
Thirteen nominations is quite a feat in itself, but thirteen nominations for a fantasy film is quite incredible. And it was clear what it meant to both Peter Jackson and Sir Ian McKellen as they gave interviews to the media within the hour of the announcement: for Sir Ian it was a mixture of relief and delight, while for Peter Jackson it was not only pride for what he had achieved but happiness for all two thousand five hundred plus involved in the Trilogy.
Only four other films have shared the (un)lucky number thirteen in the Academy’s history: Gone With The Wind, From Here to Eternity, Mary Poppins, and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf. Only two more, All About Eve and Titanic have gone one better with a record-breaking fourteen. Yet unlike the last few years, this Oscar race is a neck-and-neck race to the finish,, where A Beautiful Mind, Moulin Rouge and The Fellowship of the Ring are heading into April with a room full of awards and accolades between them. The only thing that is certain about the 74th awards is that nothing is certain.
This weekend, the Hall of Fire crew want to get your reaction on the week’s events and how The Fellowship of the Ring will fare when it comes to Oscar night. Peter Jackson commented on the level of believability and credibility Sir Ian McKellen gave to the role of Gandalf…will it be enough to give him the Best Supporting nod? And what about PJ himself, will his debut at the Oscars be greeted with success? And what about Moulin Rouge and A Beautiful Mind, will Fellowship of the Ring be able to see off their claim to the golden statue? It’s all for discussion this weekend as Oscar fever begins to kick in!
Upcoming Discussions:
Feb 23 & 24: The Misconcepted ‘Errors’ in FotR
Place:
#thehalloffire on theonering.net server; come to theonering.net’s chat room Barliman’s and then type /join #thehalloffire .
Saturday Chat: 5:30 pm ET (17:30) [also 11:30 pm (23:30) CET and 7:30 am Sunday (07:30) AET]
Sunday Chat: 7:00 pm (19:00) CET [also 1:00 pm (13:00) ET and 4:00 am (04:00) Monday morning AET]
ET = Eastern Time, USA’s East Coast
CET = Central European Time, Central Europe
Questions? Topics? Send ‘em here.
