Hollywood analysis: New faces of 2001

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 17 (UPI) -- Four film societies have announced their end-of-year film awards, and three different movies have come out on top -- leaving the annual Oscars race without a clear frontrunner.

In a season when such big studio productions as "A Beautiful Mind" and "Ali" approach the marketplace with considerable Oscar buzz, the awards that have been announced up to now reflect a preference among critics for independent productions.

"Mulholland Drive" -- director David Lynch's dark tale of a young woman who comes to Hollywood and fails in the worst way to find success -- has been named best picture by both the New York Film Critics Circle and the Boston Film Critics Association.

"In the Bedroom," starring Sissy Spacek and Tom Wilkinson as a grieving couple who resort to vengeance following the death of their child, was named best picture by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. "Moulin Rouge," director Baz Lurhmann's flashy, MTV-style taken on Paris at the dawn of the 20th century, came out on top of the National Board of Review's annual list of the 10 best films of 2001.

While no picture is dominating the proceedings, some individual performers' names are showing up often.

The New York and Los Angeles film critics have named Spacek best actress. The Boston critics chose Tilda Swinton for her performance in "The Deep End" as a woman who spirals out of control in a desperate attempt to keep her son from being implicated in a murder, while the National Board of Review preferred Halle Berry's performance as a death row widow who falls for the warden (Billy Bob Thornton) in "Monster's Ball."

The NBR named Thornton best actor for "Monster's Ball," "The Man Who Wasn't There" and "Bandits."

Denzel Washington's name frequently comes up during awards seasons, but there was little Oscar buzz around his performance as a dirty cop in "Training Day" when the picture was released in September. That may change now that the Los Angeles critics and the Boston critics have named Washington best actor of 2001.

Washington shared the Boston critics' award with Brian Cox, who was honored for his performance as a child molester in "L.I.E."

Lynch has two director awards in his pocket for "Mulholland Drive" -- from the Los Angeles and Boston critics -- but the other two awards that have been announced so far have gone to Robert Altman for "Gosford Park" (New York Critics Circle) and Todd Field for "In the Bedroom" (NBR).

Christopher Nolan's screenplay for "Memento" -- starring Guy Pearce as a man with short-term memory loss who struggles to collect clues in the search for his wife's killer -- has won screenplay awards from the Los Angeles and Boston critics. The NBR gave its screenplay award to Field and his writing partner, Rob Festinger for "In the Bedroom," and the New York critics honored Julian Fellowes for his screenplay for "Gosford Park" -- a drama set in 1930 about the lives of upstairs guests and downstairs servants at a country house in England.

"Shrek" seems to be establishing itself as the favorite animated movie of the year, and may be making a case for a best picture Oscar nomination, with an appearance on the NBR's 10 best list and the AFI's list of 10 nominees for best picture. The cheeky fairy tale satire won best animated picture honors from the NBR and the Los Angeles critics, while the New York critics honored Richard Linklater's animated feature, "Waking Life."

If it can be fairly said that there is an awards season showdown between "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" and "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring," the edge so far goes to the first installment of the "Rings" trilogy.

Few in Hollywood expected "Harry Potter" to be in line for any awards outside of the technical areas -- costume design, cinematography, music, etc. In those categories, "Rings" is shutting "Potter" down.

It's one of the AFI's 10 best picture finalists, and the NBR singled out director Peter Jackson for special achievement in filmmaking. The Los Angeles critics chose Howard Shore's score for "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" over John Williams' score for "Harry Potter" -- which wasn't even nominated in the AFI music score category.

Similarly, "Ring's" production design is up for an AFI award, and Potter's is not -- although both are among the nominees for a digital artist trophy at the AFI Awards.

Of the big Hollywood studio pictures that generated Oscar buzz, only a handful are throwing any weight around so far this awards season.

"Ocean's Eleven," "Black Hawk Down" and "A.I. Artificial Intelligence" made the NBR's Top 10 list.

"Black Hawk Down" -- based on a disastrous U.S. military operation in Somalia in 1993 -- received five AFI nominations, as many as "In the Bedroom."

The AFI nominated Russell Crowe for best actor for his performance as the trouble math genius John Forbes Nash Jr. in "A Beautiful Mind." The other nominees in the category are Wilkinson, Washington and Thornton, for his performance in the Coen Brothers' "The Man Who Wasn't There."

The AFI nominees for best actress, along with Spacek, are Halle Berry ("Monster's Ball"), Stockard Channing ("The Business of Strangers") and Naomi Watts ("Mulholland Drive"). All but Spacek are relative newcomers to the Hollywood awards season winners' circle, although Berry has won a Golden Globe and an Emmy for her performance in the title role of the HBO movie, "Introducing Dorothy Dandridge," and Channing has been nominated six times for an Emmy.

In the lead-up to the awards season, most of the Oscar speculation has centered on movies such as "A Beautiful Mind," "Ali," "The Majestic" and -- in some circles anyway -- "Life as a House." The actors most frequently mentioned have included Crowe, Will Smith ("Ali"), Kevin Kline (Life as a House"), Gene Hackman ("The Royal Tenenbaums") and even Jim Carrey ("The Majestic."

So far, with the exception of Crowe, Thornton, Washington and a few others, the A-list seems to be giving ground to relatively unfamiliar faces and names.

That could change, however, when the Hollywood Foreign Press Association announces the nominees Thursday for the 59th Annual Golden Globe Awards. The HPFA has displayed a tendency in the past to honor the biggest stars in Hollywood, so movie fans with a preference for the familiar may yet have something to cheer about.

For now, however, it looks as though a casual movie fan checking out the awards season won't be able to tell the players without a scorecard.