'Rings' favourite to sweep Oscars

Oscar fever has shifted into top gear as organisers of cinema's most celebrated event send out the voting ballots that will determine who reigns over Hollywood this year.

New Zealander Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring is a hot favourite, with nominations in 13 categories, including best picture.

Psychological drama A Beautiful Mind, starring Russell Crowe, and Moulin Rouge, the Australian-masterminded revival of the Hollywood musical, are also strong contenders.

Final ballots for the 74th annual Academy Awards were mailed to more than 4200 members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences yesterday.

On the sheets are the names of all movies, actors, producers, directors and other film-makers in 19 categories eligible to win a golden statuette at the ceremony in Hollywood on March 24.

Separate ballots for the remaining five categories - best foreign language film, best short and feature-length documentaries, best animated and best live-action short films - will be distributed later.

Completed ballots for the Oscars must be returned to the Academy's auditors by March 19 to be eligible.

For the first time in Oscar history, organisers named three producers of The Lord of the Rings as the official nominees for the fantasy flick's best film nomination, dropping one film-maker from the list.

A panel of the academy named producers Jackson and his wife, Fran Walsh, and Barrie Osborne as those who would receive the Oscar if the film won best picture.

Fellow producer Tim Sanders was left off the roll of honour after the panel met over two days to make the first such decision in the history of the Oscars.

New Oscar rules introduced two years ago stipulate that a maximum of three producers can be given credit for a best-film nominee or winner, but backer New Line Cinema was unable to decide which of the producers should be dropped.

Under the rules, cinema's top award will go to the three producers "who have performed the major portion of the producing functions". The 23-member panel had to to decide which of the four had been least involved.

- NZPA

nzherald.co.nz/oscars

Oscar nominees (full list)