Gladiator, Stephen Daldry, Javier Bardem among Oscar nominees

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the nominees for the 73rd annual Academy Awards, which will be presented March 25. Gay first-time director Stephen Daldry received a Best Director nomination for the gay-inclusive sleeper hit Billy Elliot, while veteran Spanish actor Javier Bardem received his first Best Actor nomination for playing gay Cuban poet Reinaldo Arenas in Before Night Falls. (Billy Elliot also picked up nominations for Lee Hall's screenplay and for Julie Walters as Best Supporting Actress.) Lesbian filmmakers Deborah Hoffman and Frances Reid scored a Best Documentary nomination for Long Night's Journey Into Day, an exploration of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Benicio Del Toro, whose Traffic character seduces a gay assassin in order to capture him, is up for Best Supporting Actor. Steve Kloves was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay for his adaptation of Michael Chabon's gay-inclusive novel Wonder Boys. Gladiator, an effects-laden throwback to the quasi-homoerotic sword-and-sandals movies of the 1950s, leads this year's pack with a total of 12 nominations; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which this week became the highest-grossing foreign language film in U.S. history, is in second place with 10 nominations. The complete list of nominees follows:

Best Picture:Chocolat; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; Erin Brockovich; Gladiator; Traffic

Best Director: Stephen Daldry, Billy Elliot; Ang Lee, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; Steven Soderbergh, Erin Brockovich; Ridley Scott, Gladiator; Steven Soderbergh, Traffic

Best Actor: Javier Bardem, Before Night Falls; Russell Crowe, Gladiator; Tom Hanks, Cast Away; Ed Harris, Pollock; Geoffrey Rush, Quills

Best Actress: Joan Allen, The Contender; Juliette Binoche, Chocolat; Ellen Burstyn, Requiem for a Dream; Laura Linney, You Can Count on Me; Julia Roberts, Erin Brockovich

Best Supporting Actor: Jeff Bridges, The Contender; Willem Dafoe, Shadow of the Vampire; Benicio Del Toro, Traffic; Albert Finney, Erin Brockovich; Joaquin Phoenix, Gladiator

Best Supporting Actress: Judi Dench, Chocolat;Marcia Gay Harden, Pollock; Kate Hudson, Almost Famous; Frances McDormand, Almost Famous; Julie Walters, Billy Elliot

Best Original Screenplay: Cameron Crowe, Almost Famous; Lee Hall, Billy Elliot; Susannah Grant, Erin Brockovich; David Franzoni, John Logan, and William Nicholson, Gladiator; Kenneth Lonergan, You Can Count on Me

Best Adapted Screenplay: Robert Nelson Jacobs, Chocolat; Wang Hui Ling, James Schamus, and Tsai Kuo Jung, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, O Brother, Where Art Thou? Stephen Gaghan, Traffic; Steve Kloves, Wonder Boys

Best Foreign-Language Film:Amores Perros (Mexico); Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Taiwan); Divided We Fall (Czech Republic); Everybody Famous! (Belgium); The Taste of Others (France)

Best Art Direction: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas; Gladiator; Quills; Vatel

Best Cinematography:Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; Gladiator; Malena; O Brother, Where Art Thou?; The Patriot

Best Costume Design:Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas; Gladiator; 102 Dalmatians; Quills

Best Documentary Feature:Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport, Legacy, Long Night's Journey Into Day, Scottsboro: An American Tragedy; Sound and Fury

Best Documentary Short Subject:Big Mama, Curtain Call, Dolphins, The Man on Lincoln's Nose, On Tiptoe: Gentle Steps to Freedom

Best Film Editing:Almost Famous; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; Gladiator; Traffic; Wonder Boys

Best Makeup:The Cell, Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Shadow of the Vampire

Best Original Score:Chocolat; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; Gladiator, Malena, The Patriot

Best Original Song: "A Fool in Love" by Randy Newman (Meet the Parents); "I've Seen It All" by Bjork, Lars von Trier, and Sjon Sigurdsson (Dancer in the Dark); "A Love Before Time" by Jorge Calandrelli, Tan Dun, and James Schamus (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon); "My Funny Friend and Me" by Sting and David Hartley (The Emperor's New Groove); "Things Have Changed" by Bob Dylan (Wonder Boys)

Best Animated Short Film:Father and Daughter, The Periwig-Maker, Rejected

Best Live-Action Short Film:By Courier, One Day Crossing, Quiero Ser (I Want to Be...), Seraglio, A Soccer Story (Una Historia de Futebol)

Best Sound:Cast Away, Gladiator, The Patriot, The Perfect Storm, U-571

Best Sound Editing:Space Cowboys, U-571

Best Visual Effects:Gladiator, Hollow Man, The Perfect Storm