Beverly Hills, Calif. – Martin Scorsese finally may be positioned for Academy Awards glory, but his Howard Hughes epic “The Aviator” will have to duke it out with Clint Eastwood’s boxing drama.
The honors for best picture and director are shaping up as a two-film race between Scorsese’s and Eastwood’s flicks, with “The Aviator” having the inside track as front-runner by leading the pack with 11 nominations Tuesday.
Scorsese could be the story come Oscar night Feb. 27. The filmmaker behind such modern classics as “Raging Bull,” “Taxi Driver” and “GoodFellas” has never delivered a best-picture winner, and Scorsese has never won a directing Oscar despite four previous nominations.
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RACE FOR THE OSCARS
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Along with his directing slot, Eastwood was nominated for best actor as a cantankerous boxing trainer in “Million Dollar Baby.”
“I heard his name and I screamed. I’m so happy,” said Hilary Swank, a best-actress nominee for “Million Dollar Baby,” in which she plays a fearless boxer struck by tragedy. “In my humble opinion, it’s his best work to date.”
Jamie Foxx landed dual nominations. Foxx is considered the favorite in the best-actor race for his dazzling emulation of Ray Charles in “Ray,” and he was picked in the supporting category for “Collateral,” in which he plays a cabdriver forced to drive a hit man on a killing spree.
“Sideways” star Paul Giamatti was the most notable absentee from the Oscar mix. The film was a darling among critics and brought Giamatti heaps of praise in earlier film honors.
The best-actress category presents a rematch of the 1999 showdown, when underdog Swank won the Oscar for “Boys Don’t Cry” over Annette Bening, who had been the front-runner for “American Beauty.”
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Along with Swank in “Million Dollar Baby,” Bening was nominated 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.
