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BOB EDWARDS, HOST: The Academy Award nominations have been
announced in Los Angeles. "The English Patient" earned the most, 12,
followed by "Shine" and "Fargo" with seven each.
Pat Dowell joins me now.
Good morning.
PAT DOWELL, NPR FILM CRITIC: Good morning.
EDWARDS: Not many surprises except that Hollywood was virtually shut out.
DOWELL: Yes, that's right. Four of the five best picture nominees are either independent productions or foreign films, in fact, imports. "Jerry Maguire" was the only Hollywood movie that was nominated for best picture.
And people are surprised, I think, that there was not any best picture nomination for "The People vs. Larry Flynt," or really for "Evita."
And I think that, in fact, you could say with "Evita" that Hollywood, at least the academy, seems to dislike Madonna so much -- she was also shut out of best actress -- that they gave virtually no major nominations at all to "Evita."
EDWARDS: What about "Shine" and "Secrets and Lies"? Are they not foreign movies?
DOWELL: Well, yes, they are, and sometimes people think those should be nominated for foreign film. But, you know, that category, as most people don't realize, is actually foreign language films. So, it's those films that are not in English that are eligible for that.
And, you know, those films are not nominated the way other films are. They're actually, the foreign language films, selected by a committee in each country who then submit them to the academy, and the academy chooses five nominees.
And this year a Czech film, "Kolya," is expected to win.
EDWARDS: It's always said the Oscars mean millions in additional revenue for a movie. Why?
DOWELL: Well, actually what happens is, if the movie is not already in release -- and these days the studios try to release them around the time of the nominations if they expect to get any -- they'll re-release it; they'll bring it back. "Fargo" will be opening soon at a theater near you, for instance, and so will "Secrets and Lies," the English film by Mike Leigh.
You know, what's interesting about this is that those films are going to make the most money.
A big movie like "Jerry Maguire," which has already made $100 million, is going to have some, you know, $10 million probably added to its total, maybe more depending on whether Tom Cruise wins best actor, for which he was nominated.
And yet those movies, like the imports and the independent productions which generally earn much less money to begin with, may see their totals double at the box office just for this number of nominations.
The biggest beneficiary is expected to be "The English Patient" which is likely to win best picture.
The other nominees, incidentally, the one Hollywood film, of course, "Jerry Maguire," "Secrets and Lies" from England, "Shine" from Australia, "Fargo" an independent American production.
EDWARDS: NPR's Pat Dowell.
