Nominated for twelve Academy Awards, and winner of seven, Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List received a total of 72 worldwide awards and 22 additional nominations. The Holocaust drama juxtaposes the awakening conscience of German factory owner Oskar Schindler with that of the conscienceless concentration camp commandant Amon Goeth. Both characters are brilliantly played by Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes, both of whom received their first Oscar nominations for their performances. Ben Kingsley as Schindler’s Jewish bookkeeper also turns in an outstanding performance and Embeth Davidz makes her vivid portrayal of a concentration camp victim memorable.

The film’s wins were for Best Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, Editing, Cinematography, Art Direction and Score. It had also been nominated for Costume Design, Makeup and Sound.

Although no film gave Schindler much competition for the top prize, Jane Campion’s The Piano had an impressive worldwide haul of 57 wins and 26 additional nominations of its own. The feminist drama set in 1850s New Zealand won Oscars for Holly Hunter as the strong-willed mute pianist in an arranged marriage, Anna Paquin as her complex daughter and Campion for her Original Screenplay. It had also been nominated for Best Picture, Director, Editing, Cinematography and Costume Design.

Hunter, who had also been nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her comic turn in the Tom Cruise thriller, The Firm, became the first actress to win in lead the same year she was nominated in support.

Matching The Piano’s eight nominations was the Merchant-Ivory production of The Remains of the Day, while In the Name of the Father and The Fugitive rounded out the Best Picture list with seven nods each. Of the three, only The Fugitive would take home an award, that of Best Supporting Actor for Tommy Lee Jones as the intrepid marshal on the trail of falsely convicted murderer Harrison Ford in the big screen adaptation of the classic TV series.

Anthony Hopkins received his second Best Actor nominations as the butler who realizes too late that loyalty to an old British family during World War II has been misplaced. Emma Thompson also received her second Best Actress nod as the head housekeeper who he keeps at an arm’s length distance. The sumptuous production also received nods for Best Director (James Ivory), Adapted Screenplay, Art Direction, Costume Design and Score.

The first film about the Irish troubles to receive a Best Picture nod since John Ford’s The Informer nearly sixty years earlier, Jim Sheridan’s In the Name of the Father featured strong performances from Daniel Day-Lewis as a man coerced into confessing to a bombing he didn’t commit, Pete Postlethwaite as his imprisoned father and Emma Thompson as his British lawyer, all of whom received nominations. The dual nominations of Thompson and Hunter marked the first and only time to date that two actresses were nominated for lead and supporting roles in the same year.

In the Name of the Father was also nominated for Best Director, Adapted Screenplay and Editing.

Although it was a huge box office success, the chances of a Best Picture nod for The Fugitive seemed iffy. Nevertheless its seven nominations is nothing to sneeze at. In addition to Best Picture and Supporting Actor, it was nominated for Best Editing, Cinematography, Sound, Sound Effects and Score. Its director, Andrews Davis, was the odd man out among directors of Best Picture nominees. The legendary Robert Altman took the fifth slot among directors for Short Cuts.

Other films Oscar liked, in addition to Short Cuts and the previously mentioned The Firm,included The Age of Innocence; What’s Love Got to Do With It; Shadowlands; Six Degrees of Separation; Philadelphia; In the Line of Fire; What’s Eating Gilbert Grape; Fearless; Jurassic Park; Sleepless in Seattle; Farewell My Concubine and The Wedding Banquet.

A compendium of Raymond Cleever short stories with an all-star cast which included Andie MacDowell, Bruce Davison, Jack Lemmon, Julianne Moore, Robert Downey, Jr., Tim Robbins and Lily Tomlin, Altman’s directorial nod was the only nomination accorded his film.

Faring somewhat better, Martin Scorsese’s adaptation of Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence received five nominations and one award for Best Costume Design. Supporting Actress Winona Ryder’s portrayal of Daniel Day-Lewis’ ignored wife was the film’s only acting nominee. Michelle Pfeiffer, who won some of the best notices of her career, was overlooked in the Best Actress category.

The Best Actress category, in addition to the previously mentioned Hunter and Thompson, was filled out by Angela Bassett in a bravura turn as Tina Turner in What’s Love Got to Do With It; Debra Winger as poet Joy Gresham in Shadowlands and Stockard Channing, repeating her Broadway triumph as a well meaning, well-to-do New York art dealer in Six Degrees of Separation.

Although Basset’s Tina Turner was widely expected to garner a nomination, Laurence Fishburne’s Best Actor nod for his portrayal of Ike Turner in What’s Love Got to Do With It came as somewhat of a surprise. No surprise, though, was the nomination and win of Tom Hanks as the gay lawyer dying of AIDS in Jonathan Demme’s Philadelphia. Although the film itself met with mixed reviews due mainly to its long, drawn out legal maneuverings, Hanks’ compassionate performance met with universal raves and the former light comedian was now a dramatic force to be reckoned with. The film also won for Best Song, Bruce Springsteen’s “Streets of Philadelphia”.

The Fugitive’s Tommy Lee Jones was a popular winner for Best Supporting Actor, but all of this year’s nominees had their supporters. The nominees, in addition to Jones and the previously mentioned Fiennes and Postlethwaite, included John Malkovich as a would-be presidential assassin in In the Line of Fire and Leonardo DiCaprio in his breakout role as a mentally challenged teen in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape.

The Supporting Actress category, in addition to the previously mentioned Paquin, Hunter, Thompson and Ryder, was rounded out by Rosie Perez as a plane crash survivor in Fearless.

Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks both had more than one pony in this year’s Oscar race. Spielberg also had the box office phenomenon, Jurassic Park, which won all three technical Oscars it was nominated for. Hanks had Sleepless in Seattle, which was nominated for two Oscars.

For the first time, three Asian films competed for the Best Foreign Film Oscar. Hong Kong’s epic Farewell My Concubine won over Vietnam’s romantic The Scent of Green Papaya and Taiwan’s comic The Wedding Banquet. The latter, filmed mainly in New York, was the breakthrough film of future Oscar winner Ang Lee.

All films discussed have been released on DVD in the U.S.

This week’s new DVD releases include Sucker Punch.