31 Jan 2006: … Brokeback Mountain is leading the field with eight nominations at the 78th Academy Awards, including best film. Ang Lee won a best director nomination for the cowboy romance – building on his Golden Globe success, while its star Heath Ledger is up for best actor. Fellow best film nominees are Good Night, and Good Luck, Crash, Capote and Steven Spielberg’s Munich. The Academy Awards ceremony will take place at in Los Angeles at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood on 5 March. British actresses Dame Judi Dench and Keira Knightley will go head to head for the best actress Oscar, for Mrs Henderson Presents and Pride and Prejudice respectively.
They face competition from Walk the Line’s Reese Witherspoon, Charlize Theron for North Country and Desperate Housewives’ Felicity Huffman, who starred in Transamerica.
Dame Judi is up for her fifth Oscar nod while it is Knightley’s first Oscar nomination, for her role as Elizabeth Bennet. In the best actor category, Ledger goes head to head with Terrence Howard for Hustle and Flow, David Strathairn for Good Night and Good Luck, Capote’s Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Walk the Line’s Joaquin Phoenix. British actor Ralph Fiennes missed out on an Oscar nomination, but co-star Rachel Weisz is in the running for best supporting actress for her role in British thriller The Constant Gardener.
Comedian Jon Stewart will host the awards, following in the footsteps of Billy Crystal, Whoopi Goldberg and Steve Martin.
