The 76th Annual Academy Awards are scheduled for February 29, 2004, and the nominee list was just released this morning. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King was nominated for a whopping 11 Oscars!
I’m not sure how many nominations the first two LOTR movies got, but the winnings have been pretty sparse. Fellowship took in four academy awards (for cinematography, make-up, best original score, and visual effects) and Two Towers only took in two (for sound editing and visual effects).
So, it looks like Return of the King may be a shoe-in for visual effects (although it’s up against Pirates of the Carribean, so I’m not holding my breath), but will it get best picture? It did get the Golden Globe award last week for best motion picture drama, along with three others (best directing, best original score, and best original song), so I think it’s got a fighting chance. Only time will tell…