Glorious dizziness of 'Chicago' dominates Oscar nominations

The musical Chicago ran away with a dizzying 13 Oscar nominations yesterday, leading a dense – if by now familiar -- field of contenders for Hollywood's greatest movie awards in which escapist entertainment is vying with existential despair, genocide and the global struggle between good and evil.

Chicago picked up mentions in almost every category going, including best film, best director, best actress (Renée Zellweger), best supporting actor (John C Reilly) and best supporting actresses (Queen Latifah and Britain's own Catherine Zeta Jones).

Its closest competitor for best picture is almost certainly The Hours, Stephen Daldry's acclaimed post-modern riff on Virginia Woolf and the closest thing to a British film in the line-up. Daldry received a directing nomination, and David Hare is up for best adapted screenplay. The film's stellar cast has reason to feel short-changed, although Nicole Kidman picked up a best actress nomination for her breathtaking transformation into the very body and soul of Virginia Woolf.

Rounding out the list of top nominees was Gangs of New York, Martin Scorsese's historical epic (10 nominations, including Daniel Day Lewis for best actor), Roman Polanski's tale of Holocaust survival, The Pianist (seven nominations, including Adrien Brody for best actor) and The Two Towers, the latest instalment of the Lord of the Rings saga (six).

After two months of intense campaigning – Meryl Streep (up for best supporting actress in Adaptation) is among many to have likened it to an interminable presidential election – the Oscars nomination list more or less wrote itself. Streep is rewriting the record books, having earned her 13th nomination to outstrip the 12 won by Katharine Hepburn.

The Pianist found slightly more favour than it has elsewhere, the Holocaust always being a popular theme with Academy voters. And there were two relatively low- visibility acclaimed Spanish-language films, Talk To Her and Y Tu Mama Tambien, neither of which was eligible for best foreign-language film. Talk To Her picked up a nomination for Pedro Almodovar as best director, and Y Tu Mama Tambien was nominated only for its screenplay.

Michael Caine, who has won twice for best supporting actor, clinched a nomination for his leading role in The Quiet American, a quiet vindication after being snubbed by the Screen Actors Guild last week.

For those who like to turn to the Oscars as a measure of the zeitgeist, this year's race presents an intriguing choice between the brilliantly executed fluff that is Chicago – escapism in the best sense of the word – and the much more uncomfortable subject-matter of the other top nominees.

The Hours, in particular, would be an astonishing choice for best picture: how many other Oscar-winning films, after all, have so directly addressed the issue of death and at the same time challenged every Hollywood convention on structure, plot and character? The deciding factor might not be the films themselves so much as the mood of the Academy as the deadline looms. If a war in Iraq is in full swing in mid-March, escapism might carry the day. But if war is averted, or is already over, things might go differently. Chicago will interrupt a long-established trend if it is named best picture; no musical has won since Oliver! in 1968.

War or no war, the awards ceremony on 23 March will be marked by a couple of prominent no-shows. Peter O'Toole, awarded an honorary Oscar, has said he does not want to collect it because his career is not yet over. And Roman Polanski is still unable to enter the United States without risking arrest for statutory rape.

He fled the country in 1977, after prosecutors pressed charges over an incident at Jack Nicholson's house in which he slept with a girl of 13.

The girl, now a married woman living in Hawaii, has made clear she does not want to see Mr Polanski prosecuted. But the Los Angeles district attorney's office has said it stills consider the director a fugitive from justice.

The contenders - 75th Academy Awards

BEST ACTOR

Adrien Brody The Pianist, Nicolas Cage Adaptation, Michael Caine The Quiet American, Daniel Day-Lewis Gangs of New York, Jack Nicholson About Schmidt

BEST ACTRESS

Salma Hayek Frida, Nicole Kidman The Hours, Diane Lane Unfaithful, Julianne Moore Far From Heave,n Renee Zellweger Chicago

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Chris Cooper Adaptation, Ed Harris The Hours, Paul Newman Road to Perdition, John C Reilly Chicago, Christopher Walken Catch Me If You Can

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Kathy Bates About Schmidt, Julianne Moore The Hours, Queen Latifah Chicago, Meryl Streep Adaptation, Catherine Zeta Jones Chicago

BEST PICTURE

Chicago, Gangs of New York, The Hours, The Lord of The Rings: The Two Towers

BEST DIRECTOR

Rob Marshall Chicago, Martin Scorsese Gangs of New York, Stephen Daldry The Hours, Roman Polanski The Pianist, Pedro Almodovar Talk To Her

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Todd Haynes Far From Heaven, Jay Cocks, Steve Zaillian, Kenneth Lonergan Gangs of New York, Nia Vardalos My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Pedro Almodovar Talk To Her, Carlos Cuaron, Alfonso Cuaron Y Tu Mama Tambien

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Peter Hedges, Chris Weitz, Paul Weitz About A Boy, Charlie Kaufman, Donald Kaufman Adaptation, Bill Condon Chicago, David Hare The Hours, Ronald Harwood The Pianist

BEST ANIMATED FILM

Ice Age, Lilo & Stitch, Spirit: Stallion of The Cimarron, Spirited Away, Treasure Planet

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

Bowling For Columbine, Daughter From Danang, Prisoner of Paradise, Spellbound, Winged Migration

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

El Crimen Del Padre Amaro

Hero, The Man Without a Past, Nowhere in Africa, Zus & Zo

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

John Williams 'Catch Me If You Can' Bernstein 'Far From Heaven' Elliot Goldenthal 'Frida' Philip Glass 'The Hours' Thomas Newman 'Road to Perdition'

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

'Burn It Blue' Frida, 'Father and Daughter' The Wild Thornberrys Movie, 'The Hands That Built America' Gangs of New York, 'I Move On' Chicago, 'Lose Yourself' 8 Mile