"Benjamin Button, " "Slumdog" lead Oscar nominees
Jan 23, 2009 at 01:04"Benjamin Button," for which Pitt earned a nod as best actor for playing a man who ages backward, had 13 nominations in all -- one short of the record shared by "All About Eve" (1959) and "Titanic" (1997).
"Slumdog Millionaire," the tale of an impoverished orphan's improbable victory on India's version of the game show "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," followed with 10 nominations.
As expected, Ledger was nominated for his supporting role as the villainous Joker in the hit Batman movie "The Dark Knight," which collected eight nominations to tie with the gay-rights story "Milk."
Ledger is easily the favorite to take the prize at the 81st annual Academy Awards on February 22. The Australian actor died of an accidental overdose of prescription pills exactly a year ago, at the age of 28.
To date, the only performer to win posthumously has been Peter Finch, who was honored for 1976's "Network" about two months after his fatal heart attack.
"Benjamin Button," "Slumdog Millionaire" and "Milk" will vie for best picture alongside a pair of movies that claimed five nominations each -- post-Holocaust love story "The Reader" and the political-media drama "Frost/Nixon." In a rare match-up, all five also got best director nominations.
Clint Eastwood's recent box office champ "Gran Torino" was notably snubbed, with no nominations. Another high-profile omission was Bruce Springsteen, who won a Golden Globe earlier this month for writing the theme song for "The Wrestler."
Other major Oscar contenders include the popular robot love story "WALL-E" with six nominations, including best animated feature, and the Catholic Church conspiracy drama "Doubt" with five nominations, including four for acting.
'SLUMDOG' SHINES
"Benjamin Button," loosely based on a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, has been a commercial and critical success, and will likely combine with "The Dark Knight," the biggest box office smash since "Titanic," to boost the Oscars' TV ratings.
Viewership has fallen in recent years as Oscar voters favored arthouse movies with limited mainstream appeal.
Besides best picture, director and actor, the nomination haul for "Benjamin Button" included best supporting actress for Taraji P. Henson and best adapted screenplay for Eric Roth and Robin Swicord.
Its 13 nominations were rounded out by nods for art direction, cinematography, costume design, film editing, makeup, original score, sound mixing and visual effects.
But the film has had a rough ride so far this awards season, having been ignored by both the Critics Choice Awards and the Golden Globes, two Oscar bellwethers.
It is a co-production between Paramount Pictures, a unit of Viacom Inc, and Warner Bros Pictures, a division of Time Warner Inc.
Some critics believe "Benjamin Button" will be overshadowed at the Oscars by "Slumdog Millionaire," the leading winner at the Golden Globes and Critics Choice Awards.
"I don't think any movie in 2008 worked as hard and rewarded as often as 'Slumdog Millionaire,'" said Robert Wilonsky, film critic at the Dallas Observer. "It has deserved all the accolades it has received and all the awards it will receive."
The acclaim for "Slumdog Millionaire" comes eight months after the then-unreleased film was facing a possible route straight to DVD.
Warner Bros shut down the arthouse arm that had made the movie and was uncertain about its theatrical prospects. But Fox Searchlight Pictures, the specialty label of News Corp's 20th Century Fox, agreed to distribute it in return for a fee, and to share costs and profits with Warner Bros.
Fox Searchlight released the film in theaters two months ago, correctly guessing that critical acclaim and positive word of mouth from moviegoers would sustain it.
The other nomination honors for "Slumdog Millionaire" were for cinematography, film editing, original score, sound editing, sound mixing, adapted screenplay and two for original song.
(Editing by Steve Gorman and John O'Callaghan)