The Oscar nomination excitement again

Press, 4 March 1978, Page 10

The Oscar nomination excitement again

Los Angeles NZPA “Star Wars” and “Close Encounters Of The Third Kind,” the two science fiction epics which are proving box office smash hits for Hollywood, will battle it out in the coveted academy awards. Both are in the Oscar nominations. The two films, both of which rely heavily on special effects, will compete for support among nearly 4000 voters in the academy for most original score, best sound, best art direction and best special effects. “Star Wars” alone was nominated for a bestcpicture Oscar. The statuettes will be awarded on April 3. Apart from the battle of the space giants, attention is being focussed on the women stars, Jane Fonda, Diane Keaton, Anne Bancroft and Shirley Maclaine all vying for the best-actress Oscar. Miss Bancroft and Miss Maclaine have been nominated for the ballet film “Turning Point.” Miss Fonda gets her chance for her role in “Julia” and Miss Keaton for “Annie Hall.” There were some surprises among the male nominations. Woody Allen (“Annie

Hall”) , Richard Burton (“Equus”), Richard Dreyfuss ("The Goodbye Girl”) were all expected, but Marcello Mastroianni for “A Special Day” and John Travolta for his disco-dancing in “Saturday Night Fever” were not. The militant Jewish

Defence League threatened last month to picket the ceremonies if Britain’s Vanessa Redgrave, maker of a pro-Palestinian documentary, got a nomination. Miss Redgrave was named best supporting actress for her role in “Julia.”

The comedian, Woody Allen, not only got his first nomination this year but made it a triple. He was named for best actor, director and writer for “Annie Hall,” the first time that has happened since Orson Welles was honoured for “Citizen Kane” in 1941. Burton has previously been nominated seven times but has never won. His young co-star in “Equus” .Peter Firth, got a best supporting actor nomination. The ballet star, Mikhail Baryshnikov, made a spectacular leap into a film career by getting a supporting actor nomination for his role as the amorous ballet star in “The Turning Point.” Other supporting actor nominations were Sir Alec Guinness for “Star Wars” and Jason Robards and Maximillian Schell for “Julia.” The five best films named were “Annie Hall,” “The Goodbye Girl,” “Star Wars,” “The Turning Point,” and “Julia.” The best foreignlanguage pictures were “That Obscure Object of Desire,” (Spain), “A Special Day” (Italy), “Operation Thunderbolt,” (Israel), “Madam Rosa,” (France) and “Iphigenia” (Greece).