[Airerûthiel]

The problems with The Two Towers when it came to Oscar nominations were: a) let's face it, Fellowship did flop last year (not dissing it or anything, just saying Uncle Oscar likes to tread carefully); b) it's the second part of a trilogy, so hello the technical awards!; and c) Howard Shore's brilliant score was completely absent from the nominees!!<P>Saying that, though, I believe RotK will be up for at least Best Picture and Best Director next year, with acting nominations for Viggo and/or Elijah (and possibly Miranda Otto if she does more than stand around and look pretty - which, no offence meant, was basically all she did in TTT). It's going to sweep the board next year, because the awards will be for all three films even though it'll come under RotK.<P>One thing that really surprised me about this year's Oscars was Roman Polanski getting Best Director. I mean, the odds seemed stacked against him - it was practically guaranteed that Martin Scorcese would get it for Gangs, and then there's the small issue of him being arrested if he so much as sets foot on US soil...but well done to the guy nonetheless. And by the way, if you're going to give a musical Best Picture, where was Moulin Rouge last year?! Chicago's good, but MR actually managed to drag the genre into the 21st century, and surely deserves better than two technicals for that job.