Oscars: Aviator gets 11 nods

The Howard Hughes biopic The Aviator led Academy Awards contenders with 11 nominations today, including best picture, plus acting honours fo...

The Howard Hughes biopic The Aviator led Academy Awards contenders with 11 nominations today, including best picture, plus acting honours for Leonardo DiCaprio, Cate Blanchett and Alan Alda and a directing slot for Martin Scorsese.

The boxing saga Million Dollar Baby and the J M Barrie tale Finding Neverland followed with seven nominations each, among them best picture and acting nominations for Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman, Hilary Swank and Johnny Depp.

Eastwood also got a directing nomination for Million Dollar Baby. The other best-picture nominees were the Ray Charles portrait Ray and the buddy comedy Sideways.

Along with Eastwood, Jamie Foxx also scored two nominations, as best actor for the title role in Ray and supporting actor as a taxi driver whose cab is hijacked by a hit man in Collateral.

Foxx8217;s dead-on emulation of Charles has made him the front-runner in the lead-actor category.

Starring as aviation trailblazer and Hollywood rebel Hughes, DiCaprio also was nominated for best actor. He and Foxx will compete against Depp as Peter Pan playwright Barrie in Finding Neverland; Eastwood as a cantankerous boxing trainer in Million dollar Baby; and Don Cheadle for Hotel Rwanda, starring as hotel manager Paul Rusesabagina, who sheltered refugees from the Rwandan genocide.

The best actress category presents a rematch of the 1999 showdown, when underdog Swank won the Oscar for Boys Don8217;t Cry over Annette Bening, who had been the front-runner for American Beauty.

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This time, Swank was nominated as a bullheaded boxing champ whose life takes a cruel twist in Million Dollar Baby. Bening was chosen for Being Julia, in which she plays an aging 1930s stage diva exacting wickedly comic revenge on the men in her life and a young rival.

Both actresses won Golden Globes for the roles, Swank for best dramatic actress, Bening for actress in a musical or comedy.

Also nominated for the best-actress Oscar were Catalina Sandino Moreno as a Colombian woman imperiled when she signs on to smuggle heroin in Maria Full of Grace; Imelda Staunton as a saintly housekeeper in 1950s Britain who performs illegal abortions on the side in Vera Drake; and Kate Winslet as a woman who has had memories of her ex-boyfriend erased in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

Joining Eastwood and Scorsese among directing nominees are Taylor Hackord for Ray; Mike Leigh for Vera Drake; and Alexander Payne for Sideways.

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Scorsese, arguably the most prominent modern filmmaker who has never won an Oscar, also has never delivered a best picture winner. Considered a nominal best picture favorite, The Aviator offers him a shot to finally triumph on Oscar night, though Eastwood8217;s Million Dollar Baby is a formidable competitor.

Along with Foxx, Alan Alda was nominated for supporting actor as a senator tussling with Hughes in The Aviator while Morgan Freeman was picked for Million Dollar Baby. 8212;PTI