Academy Award Nominations

Best Picture "The Fugitive" "In the Name of the Father" "The Piano" "The Remains of the Day" "Schindler's List" Best Actor Daniel Day-Lewis, "In the Name of the Father" Laurence Fishburne, "What's Love Got to Do With It" Tom Hanks, "Philadelphia" Anthony Hopkins, "The Remains of the Day" Liam Neeson, "Schindler's List" Best Actress Angela Bassett, "What's Love Got to Do With It" Stockard Channing, "Six Degrees of Separation" Holly Hunter, "The Piano" Emma Thompson, "The Remains of the Day"

Oscar nominations are a valuable endorsement--a time-proven means of filling the seats. "An Academy Award nomination in any of four categories--best actor, best actress, best director, and most of all best picture--carries weight at the box office," observes Dick Walsh Sr., vice president of West Coast operations for AMC Theaters.

Two years ago, director Barbra Streisand was snubbed in the best director category while her "The Prince of Tides" was nominated for best picture. Penny Marshall found herself in the same boat the year before with "Awakenings." Though Lina Wertmuller's 1976 "Seven Beauties" made her the first woman nominated for best director, her film was not a best picture nominee. The female jinx, however, has been broken.

Nominations for the 63rd Annual Academy Awards, to be presented March 25 during nationally televised ceremonies: * Picture: "Awakenings," "Dances With Wolves," "Ghost," "The Godfather Part III," "GoodFellas." * Actor: Kevin Costner ("Dances With Wolves"), Robert De Niro ("Awakenings"), Gerard Depardieu ("Cyrano de Bergerac"), Richard Harris ("The Field"), Jeremy Irons ("Reversal of Fortune").

Big studios are riding high again; independents are having a lean year after their bravura showing two years ago, and as a body, the membership of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is proving to be ever-so-slightly eclectic and occasionally even audacious. Those are the messages to be found buried among the pages of lists for the 61st annual awards nominations.

If the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences were a person, the caring thing would be to place it under observation for signs of a seriously split personality. For though most of its members either work or have worked for the major Hollywood studios making forgettable commercial pictures, when it comes to voting, academyites tend not to respect their meal ticket.

Ethel Waters The famed blues, jazz and gospel vocalist (1896-1977) made her movie debut in the 1929 musical "On With the Show!" She became the second African American to earn an Oscar nomination, for her supporting role in the 1949 drama "Pinky. " Hattie McDaniel The first African American (1895-1952) to win an Academy Award, for her supporting role as Mammy in 1939's "Gone with the Wind. " When the NAACP complained in the 1940s about her playing servant roles, she said, "I'd rather play a maid and make $700 a week then be one for $7. " Dorothy Dandridge The beautiful singer and actress (1922-65)

While Robert Zemeckis' quirky fable, "Forrest Gump," predictably dominated 1994's Oscar nominations, the awards race was chock-full of surprises Tuesday, particularly in the directing and acting categories. In this 67th year of the awards, the typically mainstream motion picture academy leaned heavily toward original, diverse and even controversial fare.