Feeling like a critic after the Oscar nominations? Here's your chance
to view the entries in the 35th Ann Arbor Film Festival. Tonight at
the Gypsy Cafe, the Film Festival committee will be watching the
local screen gems and you can come too. The evening of free fun
begins at 7 p.m. and it's at 214 N. 4th Ave. For more informnation,
call 995-5356.
Wednesday
February 12, 1997
5
AP PHOTO
Arthur Hiller, president of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts, and Sclences and actress Mira Sorvino announce nominees for best
picture at the Academy headquarters In Beverly Hills, Calif.
"Fargo"'s Coen brothers Ethan (left) and Joel
(right), pictured with Director of Photography Roger
Deakins, received seven nominations for their film.
Both Tom Cruise and Cuba Gooding Jr. are nomnat-
ed for lead actor and supporting actor, respectively,
for their roles in "Jerry Maguire."
Academy announces Award nominees
By Bryan Lark
Daily lm Editor
* My awards show has a first name, it's O-S-C-A-R.
And now that awards show has more than just a first name
- Oscar is now accompanied by names like Cruise, Bacall,
Harrelson, McDormand, Rush and Jean-Baptiste.
If you don't recognize some of those names, you aren't
alone. It was a festival of small names and big egos yesterday
morning as the nominations for the 69th Annual Academy
Awards were announced in Hollywood.
Read by Academy president Arthur Hiller and Oscar winner
Mira Sorvino, the nominations ranged from surprising (Billy
.ob Thornton?) to dismally predictable as the focus of the
"ards shifted onto the worthy world of independent cinema.
Independently released, "The English Patient" proved itself
to be extremely healthy, garnering 12 nominations including
Best Picture, Best Director and three acting honors. Its 12
nods place the film as the second-most-nominated film of all-
time, behind 1950's "All About Eve."
Other independent films receiving multiple nods include
the Coen Brothers' "Fargo," and the Australian wonder
"Shine" with seven each and the tiny British production
"Secrets & Lies,' totaling five nominations.
Not to be outdone, the studio system also made a strong
owing with Sony's "Jerry Maguire" and Disney's "Evita"
getting five accolades each.
Perhaps more notable than anything that was nominated
were the people and films that did not get any nominations,
glaring omissions that included Madonna. Samuel L
Jackson, Gwyneth Paltrow, Denzel Washington. "Big Night;'
"Swingers;" Ewan McGregor and anything related to "The
People vs. Larry Flynt."
Though none of the omissions qualify as injustices (ike
last year's lack of nominations for Nicole Kidman and John
Travolta), there are some frustrating mysteries surrounding
this year's Oscar nominations.
Mysteries such as Diane Keaton's left-field nomination for
"Marvin's Room," "Evita" not getting nominated for costume
design, and "Independence Day" and "Twister" getting more
nominations (two each) than "Lone Star" create an overall
feeling pf "What thl hell just happened there?
But perhaps the most mysterious of all is the phenomenon
of "Sling Blade,' a film released in only 10 theaters thus far.
Garnering two high-profile nominations for Best Actor and
Best Adapted Screenplay, the film's writer. director and star
Billy Bob Thornton stands poised to make the Oscars his
own, not to mention becoming the first Oscar nominee ever
to be named Billy Bob.
With all of the strange honors, mysteries and omissions,
the Oscar telecast will certainly be memorable, with host
Billy Crystal certain to enjoy himself with catch-phrases like
"Show me the money" and unique names like Armin and
Cuba. "Armin, Cuba. Cuba, Armin."
Regardless of what names are called or ridiculed on March
24, there is only one name synonymous with excellence in
the film industry - Oscar.
The 69th Annual Academy Award Nominees
nest Picture
"The English Patient" '
'Fargo"
,Jerry Maguire'"
"Secrets & Lies"
"Shine"
Lead Actress
Brenda Blethyn, "Secrets & Lies"
Diane Keaton, "Marvin's Room"
Frances Metormand, "Fargo"
Kristin Scott Thomas, "The English
P tientn"
Eniiy Watson, "Breaing The Waves".
Lead Actor
Tom Cruise, "Jerry Maguire"
flalph Fiennes, "The English Patient" .
Woody Harrelson, 'The People vs.
Lary Flynt"
Golfrey Rush, "Shine.
F y 4ol i Thomrton, "S ing Blade" -
Supporting Actress
Joan Allen, "The Crucible'
Lauren Bacall, "The Mirror Has Two
Faces'
Juliette linoche, "The English
Patient"
Barbara Hershey, 'The Portrait of a
Lady"
Marianne Jean-Baptiste, "Secrets &
Ues"
Supporting Actor
Cuba Gooding Jr., "Jerry Maguire"
Wiliam H. Macy, "Fargo"
Armin Mueller-Stahl. "Shine"
Edwafd Norton, 'Primal Fear"
James Woods, "Ghosts of
Mississippi"
OrigInal Screenplay
'Fargo' - Ethan Coon & Joel Cohen
"Jerry Maguire" - Cameron Crowe
"Lone Star' - John Sayles
"Secrets & Lies" - Mike Leigh
"Shine' -Jan Sardi
Director
Anthony Minghella, "The English
Patient"
Joel Coen, "Fargo"
Milos Forman, "The People vs. Larry
Flynt"
Mike Leigh, "Secrets & Lies"
Scott Hicks, "Shine"
Adapted Screenplay
"The Crucible" - Arthur Miller
"The English Patient" - Anthony
Minghella
"Hamlet" - Kenneth Branagh
"Sling Blade" - Silly Bob Thornton
"Trainspotting" - John Hodge
Origlnai Song
"Because You Loved Me,' "Up Close
and Personal"
'For The First Time,' "One FinestDay'
"1 Finally Found Someone," "The
Mirror Has Two Faces"
"That Thing You Do!, "That Thing
You Doi"
'You Must Love Me," "Evita"
'L-ughnasa
Sakes the
stage in A
By Stephanie Love
Daly Arts Wiiter
If you didn't make it to New Orleans
for Mardi Gras, there is still a chance to
let go of your primal instincts. Starting
* morrow at the Mendelssohn Theatre,
e conflict between the passionate
intensity of Celtic paganism and the
ritual of rural Irish Catholicism comes
to Ann Arbor in Brian Friel's Tony
Award-winning play "Dancing at
Lughnasa."
Guest-directed by Kim Rubinstein,
a Chicago-based theatre professional
and acting teacher at Northwestern
University, Friel's drama is performed
students in the
Department of p
Theatre and
D r a m a .
Rubinstein also
directed the suc-
cessful national Thurs. - Sat. a
*a..'. i4' "Anap noI
Marsalis makes Hill appearance (without the Muppets)
Elif Celebi takes a drag in the Theatre Department's "Dancing at Lughnasa."
m
t8
allure of the hidden pagan culture,
which has persisted for centuries in the
back hills of County Donegal, attracts
the Mundy sisters.
"This play is not about plot, rather
how people affect each other and the
tiny moments
EVIEW between family -
the relationship
between fantasy
Lughnasa and reality, hope
Mendelssohn Theatre and despair"
ickets call 7641450 Rubenstein said
3 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. lue~Ei ad
A r'rncrdinvl
Additionally, this particular play
does not allow as much freedom for
the director as other productions
because of the specific nature of Friel's
writing.
According to Rubinstein, "many
plays have a lot of room for the direc-
tor. This is a well-made play in the
sense that there's a perfect construc-
tion, specific in the directions. The role
of the director is to find all the tiny
moments between people which create
the action, and finding a balance
One of the most gifted and controversial figures in the jam world today, Wynton Marsalis, will be In Ann Arbor tonight
at 8 at Hill Auditorium. Marsalis, flanked with muscle like Cassandra Wilson and the great and powerful John
Hendricks, will be performing his nrew oratorio, "Blood on the Fields." Those looking for a happy marriage of slave-era
folk music and traditional European art music forms are advised to attend. Tickets are $18-$38. For more information,
call 762538.
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