New Line Cinema’s The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, the third and final installment in director Peter Jackson‘s fantasy epic trilogy, leads the nominations in the 2003 Online Film Critics Society awards with 11, including best picture, director and supporting actor for Sean Astin and Andy Serkis.
The Return of the King also received noms in the adapted screenplay, cinematography, original score, visual effects, art direction, costume design and sound categories.
Miramax’s Kill Bill: Vol.1 wasn’t far behind. The actioner garnered nods for best original screenplay, director for Quentin Tarantino and lead actress for Uma Thurman.
The other three best picture nominees are Lost in Translation, Mystic River and City of God, Brazil’s foreign language submission for the 2002 Oscars.
Helmers Sofia Coppola (Lost in Translation), Clint Eastwood (Mystic River) and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (21 Grams) were nominated for director along with Jackson and Tarantino.
Johnny Depp (Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl), Ben Kingsley (House of Sand and Fog) Paul Giamatti (American Splendor), Sean Penn (Mystic River) Bill Murray (Lost in Translation), were nominated in the actor competition.
Charlize Theron (Monster), Naomi Watts (21 Grams), Angela Bettis (May) and Scarlett Johansson (Lost in Translation) join Thurman in the actress category.
Alec Baldwin (The Cooler), Peter Sarsgaard (Shattered Glass) and Tim Robbins (Mystic River) join Astin and Serkis in the supporting actor category.
Supporting actress nominees are Renee Zellweger (Cold Mountain), Maria Elana Bello (The Cooler), Patricia Clarkson (Pieces of April), Holly Hunter (Thirteen) and Shohreh Aghdashloo (House of Sand and Fog).
Last year’s OFCS awards gave Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers best picture and Jackson best director.
The Online Film Critics Society is a body of film journalists, scholars and historians whose work appears online. Winners in all 19 categories will be announced Jan. 5.
