The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced the nominations for the 75th Annual Academy Awards. Comic-based movies garnered a grand total of eight nominations, quite a jump from the one nomination in 2002.
Not surprisingly, the critically lauded Road To Perdition is responsible for six of those nominations, including a Best Supporting Actor nod to Paul Newman. But Spider-Man, the blockbuster of all comic book movies has not gone unacknowledged. That movie also picked up two nominations.
Newman's competition in the "Actor in a Supporting Role" category is Chris Cooper for "Adaptation", Ed Harris for "The Hours", John C. Riley for "Chicago" and Christopher Walken for "Catch Me If You Can".
Perdition's Dennis Gassner (Art Direction) and Nancy Haigh (Set Decoration) also picked up nods in the "Art Direction" category. Other movies to get nods here are "Chicago", "Frida", "Gangs of New York" and "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers."
Conrad L. Hall got a nomination in the "Cinematography" category for his work on Perdition. The competition there includes "Chicago", "Far From Heaven", "Gangs of New York" and "The Pianist".
Thomas Newman's musical work on the movie was nominated in the "Music (Score)" category. Other top picks there are "Catch Me If You Can", "Far From Heaven", "Frida" and "The Hours".
Both Perdition and Spider-Man garnered nods in the "Sound" category. Scott Millan, Bob Beemer and John Patrick Pritchett filled that role on the gangster pic, while Kevin O'Connell, Greg P. Russell and Ed Novick did the honors for the superhero movie. They'll be competing with sound wizards for "Chicago", "Gangs of New York" and "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers".
Scott A. Hecker was also acknowledged in the "Sound Editing" category for his work on Perdition. His work will have to top that done on "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" and "Minority Report" for him to collect the Oscar.
Finally, John Dykstra, Scott Stokdyk, Anthony LaMolinara and John Frazier earned nominations in the "Visual Effects" category for making Spider-Man swing. It'll be some rough sledding here though, with F/X showpieces "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" and "Star Wars: Episode II: Attack of the Clones" also getting nods.
Click over to Oscar.com for the complete list of all nominations.