Once in a great while I get a warm feeling about a film that either isn’t on anyone’s radar or worse, has been dismissed out of hand before it even opens. Such was the case with Titanic, which had been getting bad press all year long. Its cost overruns doubled its initial million dollar budget. There were reports of in-fighting on set and both cast and crew suffered from food poisoning when someone sprinkled their food with angel dust. It wasn’t until the film opened in mid-December that my feeling that this would prove to be a record-breaking blockbuster and surefire Oscar winner began to take hold. Even then, its Oscar chances were an up-hill battle as critics group after critics group honored L.A. Confidential, my own personal pick, as the year’s best film.

For only the second time in history, the first having been four years earlier when they agreed on Schindler’s List, the National Board of Review, the New York Film Critics, the Los Angeles Film Critics and the National Society of Film Critics all agreed on Confidential as the year’s Best Picture. The fledgling Broadcast Film Critics concurred as well. It wasn’t until mid-January when the Golden Globes selected Titanic that the tide seemed to be turning.

Titanic was nominated for fourteen Oscars, tying All About Eve’s record, or as one scribe put, one nomination for every lifeboat on the sinking ship. It won eleven, tying Ben-Hur’s record. Its wins, in addition to Best Picture, were for Best Direction (James Cameron); Editing; Cinematography; Art Direction; Costume Design; Sound; Sound Effects; Visual Effects; Score and Original Song, “My Heart Will Go On”. Its losses were for Best Actress (Kate Winslet); Supporting Actress (Gloria Stuart) and Makeup.

There were many things that made the film so popular, chief among them the rich girl-poor boy love story as played out by Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio and the authenticity of the production from the carefully researched reproduction of the sets to the correct sinking of the ship which were not captured in previous films about the disaster. The casting of 87 year-old Gloria Stuart as the 101 year-old Rose made the actress more famous than she had ever been even though her screen career dated back to the 1930s and such classics as The Old Dark House and The Invisible Man.

Critics’ favorite L.A. Confidential, which meticulously recreates the grit and grime beneath the Hollywood glamour of the early 1950s, was nominated for nine Oscars and won two for Best Supporting Actress Kim Basinger as an expensive call girl done up to look like Veronica Lake and Best Adapted Screenplay, co-written by Best Director nominee Curtis Hanson. The murder mystery also provided strong roles for emerging Australian stars Guy Pearce and Russell Crowe, as well as Kevin Spacey, Danny DeVito and John Cromwell. It had also been nominated for Best Editing; Cinematography; Art Direction; Sound and Score in addition to Best Picture.

Writer-Director James L. Brooks has had a rocky relationship with the Oscars, winning for Best Picture, Direction and Screenplay for his first outing, 1983’s Terms of Endearment, then being nominated in both the Best Picture and Screenplay categories for both 1987’s Broadcast News and this year’s As Good As It Gets, but failing to be nominated for Best Direction for either despite being nominated by the Directors Guild for both.

The tart comedy, As Good As It Gets, yielded Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt the Best Actor and Actress Oscars. This was Nicholson’s third Oscar and third win in which his female co-star (Louise Fletcher, Shirley MacLaine, Hunt) also won. Hunt became the third TV star to win an Oscar while also appearing on a successful TV show. Goldie Hawn and Cloris Leachman were the others. As Good As It Gets had also been nominated for Best Supporting Actor (Greg Kinnear); Editing and Score.

First time screen writers Matt Damon and Ben Affleck shared the Best Original Screenplay award for Good Will Hunting for which Damon was also nominated for Best Actor for playing a troubled genius. Affleck played his best friend. Robin Williams won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar as Damon’s shrink and Minnie Driver was nominated for Best Supporting Actress as his girlfriend. The film’s nine nominations, in addition to Best Picture, included those for Direction (Gus Van Sant); Editing; Score and Original Song (“Miss Misery”).

The fifth Best Picture nominee was the British sleeper hit comedy, The Full Monty, about a group of unemployed steelworkers who form a male striptease act. It had also been nominated for Best Direction (Peter Cattaneo); Orignal Screenplay and Score, winning for the latter.

Other films Oscar liked included The Sweet Hereafter; Boogie Nights; The Wings of the Dove; Mrs. Brown; Afterglow; Ulee’s Gold; The Apostle; Wag the Dog; Jackie Brown; Contact; Amistad and In & Out.

Taking James L. Brooks’ place in the Best Director lineup was Canadian director Atom Egoyan for The Sweet Hereafter, his critically acclaimed film about the aftermath a school bus accident which killed fourteen children. Egoyan had also been nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Former underwear model Mark Wahlberg became a star plying a 1970s porn star in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Nights which was nominated for Best Supporting Actor (Burt Reynolds); Supporting Actress (Julianne Moore) and Original Screenplay.

Helena Bonham Carter finally gained Oscar notice with a Best Actress nomination for Ian Softley’s exquisite film of Henry James’ The Wings of the Dove. The film, which takes place primarily in Venice, was also nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay; Cinematography and Costume Design.

Oscar also noticed Judi Dench for the first time as the grieving Queen Victoria in Mrs. Brown, for which she received her first nomination for Best Actress. The film had also been nominated for Best Makeup. Former winner Julie Christie was also nominated in the Best Actress category as an aging actress in Afterglow.

Peter Fonda picked up a Best Actor nod playing a reclusive beekeeper in Ulee’s Gold. Robert Duvall added to his haul of nominations as a born again preacher in The Apsotle and Dustin Hoffman was back in the race as a Hollywood producer in Wg the Dog, which was also nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Quentin Tarantino’s sophomore effort, Jackie Brown, failed to earn Pam Grier a Best Actress nomination, but it did yield a Best Supporting Actor nod for veteran actor Robert Forster. The highly regarded science fiction film, Contact, failed to earn Jodie Foster a Best Actrss nomination, but it was nominated for Best Sound. Steven Spielberg’s latest effort, Amistad, about a mutiny aboard a slave ship did not earn the prolific producer-director another Oscar bid, but the film was nominated for four Oscars including one for Best Supporting Actor Anthony Hopkins as John Quincy Adams.

The very funny In & Out, which drew its inspiration form Tom Hanks’ first Oscar acceptance speech, yielded a Best Supporting Actress nod for Joan Cusack.

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

This week’s new DVD releases include the official single Blu-ray releases of Barry Lyndon and Lolita, which were previously available as Amazon exclusives or as part of the Stanley Kubrick Limited Edition Blu-Ray Collection.