Monday night, Feb. 11 marked the beginning of the annual Academy overnight. Twenty voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences spent the evening deciding this year’s nominations for the 74th Annual Academy Awards. Mardi Gras Tuesday was greeted with this year’s list of golden statuette hopefuls, and the list is a mix of the epic, surreal, posh and inspirational.

By far the biggest nominee this year is Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings.

This highly praised fantasy epic is the second biggest blockbuster of 2001 and received an impressive 13 nominations. The film adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s world renowned Lord of the Rings trilogy was selected for such categories as Best Picture, Best Director Peter Jackson, Ian McKellon for Best Supporting Actor and a host of technical, musical and writing nominations.

The film may have a difficult time capturing the best picture, because the Academy has never bestowed its highest honor on a fantasy film.

However, it remains a strong favorite for many of its other nominations.

Moulin Rouge, A Beautiful Mind, Gosford Park and In The Bedroom round out the rest of the nominees for Best Picture. A Beautiful Mind and Moulin Rouge tied with seven nominations each, the second highest number of nominations next to The Fellowship.

A Beautiful Mind has been having major success critically and in the theaters, but it may run into some troubles in light of some plot alterations to the real life of Nobel Prize winner John Nash.

Moulin Rouge was critically acclaimed and has a modest financial success, but it will run into some stiff competition with In The Bedroom, due to Oscar nominated Best Actor and Actress nominated performances by Tom Wilkinson and Sissy Spacek. Although Nicole Kidman did receive an Oscar nod for her work in Rouge. The dark horse to watch out for is definitely Gosford Park, the slice-of-life look at 1920s London.

This film has received rave reviews since its release last year, but the mainstream viewing public has been avoiding the film, in favor of big action flicks like Black Hawk Down and Fellowship.

Black Hawk Down was absent from many of the categories, which was surprising due to its high profile in both the Golden Globes and the European Oscars. Ali was also not given a Best Picture nod. The motley list of nominees will make for an interesting campaign in the coming weeks.

Best Actor nominees will be less hotly contested, but will none the less be a hotly debated category due to the excellent performances by all five actors.

The list includes Russell Crowe for A Beautiful Mind, Wilkinson for In the Bedroom, Denzel Washington for Training Day, Sean Penn for I Am Sam and Will Smith for Ali. Crowe is the only previous winner in this category.

Best actress nominees are Halle Berry for her performance in Monster’s Ball, Judi Dench for Iris, Kidman for Moulin Rouge, Renee Zelwegger for Bridget Jones’ Diary and Spacek for In the Bedroom.

Best Director nominations include David Lynch for Mulholland Drive, Jackson for The Fellowship of The Rings, Robert Altman for Gosford Park, Ron Howard for A Beautiful Mind and Ridley Scott was nominated again this year for his work on Black Hawk Down.

The Best Supporting Actor category has some familiar faces. Ben Kingsley is nominated for Sexy Beast, Ethan Hawke for Training Day, McKellen for The Fellowship, Jim Broadbent for Iris and Jon Voight for Ali.

Rounding out the big six is Supporting Actress and finds Helen Mirren nominated for Gosford Park, Jennifer Connelly in A Beautiful Mind, Kate Winslet in Iris, Maggie Smith for Gosford Park and Marisa Tomei nominated for her work in In The Bedroom.

Look for many of these films in the theater. Gosford Park, A Beautiful Mind, In The Bedroom, The Fellowship of the Rings, I Am Sam, Ali, Monster’s Ball, and Black Hawk Down are still playing at theaters in the St. Louis area.

Look for Moulin Rouge and Training Day on DVD or video. Start brushing up on your Oscar trivia, get in on a few Academy Award pools and start rooting for your favorite film.

If it’s not on the list then you, too, have something to contribute to the debate.

Let the Oscars begin!