Angling For An Oscar Whose Performance Will Be Noted? Our Film Critic Offers His Nominees For This Year’s Big Film Prizes

Now that the critics have had their say, and the Golden Globes have handed out their dumpy-looking little awards, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is ready to take its turn at rewarding the “best” movie work of 1995.

On Tuesday, the Academy will announce its Oscar nominations in 24 categories as voted on by this year’s 5,043 members. And just as soon as those nominations are announced, the guessing game will begin.

As, no doubt, will the catcalls.

What actor or actress will get ignored this year? What director’s film will be nominated but his or her directing efforts get ignored? What trendy new style will win out, or more likely lose out, to what time-honored example of Hollywood tradition?

Really, when you think about it, the very notion of such awards is absurd. Art isn’t a competition, which is an idea that Garth Brooks stressed at the recent American Music Awards.

Saying that he didn’t believe in the concept, the country singing star left his Artist of the Year trophy sitting on the podium.

Gee, who does he think he is anyway, George C. Scott?

But the fact is that such shows are held regularly, they do comprise competition and we do like them. And why is that? For much the same reason as we watch figure skaters try triple Lutzes, we watch as grim-but-smiling movie stars wait for some other celluloid celebrity to rip open an envelope with one of five names on it.

And for every stumble by a Nicole Bobek, there’s a perfect glide by a Rudy Galindo. Imagine Galindo, the recently crowned men’s national figure-skating champion, telling the television audience, “You like me! You really like me!”

Sadly, Sally Field probably won’t be nominated this year.

But the requisite number of other usual suspects will be. Following is our category-by-category breakdown of the top six races.

BEST ACTRESS

In years past, this has been a category of want. And the main object of want has not been for talent or performance but merely material. The words the top women have spoken just have not matched their abilities to speak them.

Not so this year. There are easily a half dozen sterling performances to consider, but only five slots to fill.

Meryl Streep shouldn’t be overlooked for her work in Clint Eastwood’s surprisingly good adaptation of “The Bridges of Madison County.” As a gentle nun acting as spiritual adviser to a deathrow inmate, Susan Sarandon matches the fury of Sean Penn in “Dead Man Walking.”

Golden Globe winner Nicole Kidman pulled off the performance of her career as an ambitious, if not very bright, would-be television personality in Gus Van Sant’s “To Die For.” And Sharon Stone, also honored with a Golden Globe, achieved the end by playing a casino operator’s wild wife in Martin Scorsese’s “Casino.”

Emma Thompson not only wrote the screenplay for the critically acclaimed “Sense and Sensibility,” but she also gave one of her trademark performances as one of Jane Austen’s heroines.

But don’t forget the hard-living characters that have drawn acclaim: Elisabeth Shue as the hooker who befriends Nicolas Cage in “Leaving Las Vegas,” Jennifer Jason Leigh who is breathlessly harsh as a wannabe rock singer in “Georgia” and New Zealand actress Rena Owen as a battered woman in “Once Were Warriors.”

Long shots include Joan Allen as Pat Nixon in “Nixon,” if only because her role is more one of support; Angela Bassett as an abandoned wife in “Waiting to Exhale” and Annette Bening as a lobbyist dating Michael Douglas in “The American President.”

The probable nominees:

Meryl Streep, “The Bridges of Madison County.

Susan Sarandon, “Dead Man Walking.”

Nicole Kidman, “To Die For.”

Elisabeth Shue, “Leaving Las Vegas.”

Sharon Stone, “Casino.”

Other possibilities: Jennifer Jason Leigh, “Georgia”; Joan Allen, “Nixon”; Emma Thompson, “Sense and Sensibility”; Angela Bassett, “Waiting to Exhale”; Annette Bening, “The American President”; Michelle Pfeiffer, “Dangerous Minds”; Vanessa Redgrave, “A Month in the Country”; Toni Collette, “Muriel’s Wedding”; Rena Owen, “Once Were Warriors”; Gong Li, “Shanghai Triad”; Kathy Bates, “Dolores Claiborne.”

BEST ACTOR

So far, Nicolas Cage has won most everything in sight. His performance as a doomed drunk in Mike Figgis’ downbeat “Leaving Las Vegas” has earned him the best notices of his relatively short career - as well as a Golden Globe award.

But don’t hand him the Oscar just yet. Sean Penn is getting just as much critical acclaim for his role as a condemned killer in the death-penalty study “Dead Man Walking,” and Anthony Hopkins makes a superbly chilling Richard Nixon in Oliver Stone’s surprisingly compassionate bio-pic “Nixon.”

Don’t forget Richard Dreyfuss as a sensitive music teacher in “Mr. Holland’s Opus,” Golden Globe winner John Travolta as a friendly loan-enforcer-turned-movie-producer in “Get Shorty” and two-time Oscar winner Tom Hanks as astronaut James Lovell in “Apollo 13.”

Other possible nominees include Ian McKellan in a riveting adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Richard III,” Kenneth Branagh as a particularly evil Iago in “Othello” and Michael Douglas as a get-tough politician in “The American President.”

Long shots include Jack Nicholson as a grieving parent in “The Crossing Guard” and Jonathan Pryce as the late literary critic Lytton Strachey in “Carrington.”

The probable nominees:

Anthony Hopkins, “Nixon.”

Nicolas Cage, “Leaving Las Vegas.”

Sean Penn, “Dead Man Walking.”

Richard Dreyfuss, “Mr. Holland’s Opus.”

John Travolta, “Get Shorty.”

Other possibilities: Tom Hanks, “Apollo 13”; Ian McKellan, “Richard III”; Michael Douglas, “An American President”; Jack Nicholson, “The Crossing Guard”; Jonathan Pryce, “Carrington.”

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

This is usually a tough category, and this year is no different. Hollywood films are typically only as good as their supporting characters, and 1995 featured several worthy examples.

Ed Harris played a down-to-earth head of flight operations in “Apollo 13,” while Kevin Spacey was memorable in at least three films - as a film studio barracuda in “Swimming With Sharks,” as the sole surviving member of a heist gone bad in “The Usual Suspects” and as a psychotic killer in “Seven.”

The always good Tim Roth made a credibly deadly, if effete, swordsman in “Rob Roy”; Golden Globe winner Brad Pitt was capable as a wacko animal-rights activist in Terry Gilliam’s “12 Monkeys,” and John Leguizamo out-swished Patrick Swayze and Wesley Snipes in the cross-dressing comedy “To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything, Julie Newmar.”

The probable nominees:

Ed Harris, “Apollo 13.”

Kevin Spacey, “The Usual Suspects.”

Tim Roth, “Rob Roy.”

Brad Pitt, “12 Monkeys.”

John Leguizamo, “To Wong Foo…”

Other possibilities: Alan Rickman, “Sense and Sensibility”; Don Cheadle, “Devil in a Blue Dress”; Gene Hackman, “Get Shorty”; Kevin Bacon, “Murder in the First”; Patrick Stewart, “Jeffrey.”

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

It’s really too bad that two of this year’s sure-to-be-nominated actresses can’t both win. For barring a tie, which is rare, either Mira Sorvino or Kate Winslet should go home a loser.

Golden Globe winner Sorvino makes a gentle, if utterly practical, prostitute in Woody Allen’s “Mighty Aphrodite.” And Winslet, so good in last year’s “Heavenly Creatures,” puts in perhaps the top performance in “Sense and Sensibility.”

Joan Allen could win here, if the Academy decides that she belongs in the category, but then so could, say, Kyra Sedgwick for “Something to Talk About.” Stranger things have occurred.

Not to be ignored, Mare Winningham was the yin to Jennifer Jason Leigh’s yang in “Georgia.”

The probable nominees: Mira Sorvino, “Mighty Aphrodite.”

Kate Winslet, “Sense and Sensibility.”

Joan Allen, “Nixon.”

Kathleen Quinlan, “Apollo 13.”

Mare Winningham, “Georgia.”

Other possibilities: Anjelica Huston, “The Crossing Guard”; Kyra Sedgwick, “Something to Talk About”; Anne Bancroft, “Home For the Holidays”; Maggie Smith, “Richard III.”

BEST DIRECTOR

Oliver Stone is no stranger to Oscar, and his “Nixon” could earn him another nomination here. Then again, their films might win first nods for a couple of other familiar faces - Ron Howard for “Apollo 13” and Rob Reiner for “The American President.”

But the sure bets are likely to go to Taiwanese director Ang Lee, architect of the properly British “Sense and Sensibility,” and to Mike Figgis, whose “Leaving Las Vegas” is a critics’ darling.

And don’t forget Mel Gibson, whose “Braveheart” was a surprise winner at the Golden Globes.

The probable nominees:

Ang Lee, “Sense and Sensibility.”

Oliver Stone, “Nixon.”

Mike Figgis, “Leaving Las Vegas.”

Tim Robbins, “Dead Man Walking.”

Ron Howard, “Apollo 13.”

Other possibilities: Mel Gibson, “Braveheart”; Rob Reiner, “The American President”; Clint Eastwood, “The Bridges of Madison County”; Michael Radford, “The Postman” (“Il Postino”); Ulu Grossbard, “Georgia”; Michael Mann, “Heat.”

BEST FILM

Though 1995 may have boasted more good films overall than have played in years past, it lacks that one clearly great work.

“Sense and Sensibility” may come the closest, its mood a combination upbeat Masterpiece Theatre and serious-minded soap opera of manners. But “Nixon,” given director Stone’s perpetual penchant for overblown image-messaging, truly is a wonder to watch.

“Leaving Las Vegas,” though not up to the Academy’s standards of mainstream sensibilities, could break through, too. As might the properly dramatic “Dead Man Walking.”

But don’t count out such typical Hollywood fare as “Apollo 13,” “The American President” and the well-made “The Bridges of Madison County.”

The probable nominees: “Sense and Sensibility.”

“Leaving Las Vegas.”

“Nixon.”

“Dead Man Walking.”

“Apollo 13.”

Other possibilities: “The Bridges of Madison County,” “The Usual Suspects,” “The Postman” (“Il Postino”), “Braveheart,” “Georgia.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 4 Color Photos

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: THE NOMINEES The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will announce its Oscar nominations Tuesday.