Academy Showers ‘Rain Man’ With 8 Oscar Bids : ‘Rabbit,’ ‘Bird,’ Other Critical Favorites Get Lost at Starting Gate

Marry the talents of Walt Disney Studios and Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment and what do you get from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences? Not a lot of respect, that’s for sure.

Despite its history of animated classics, Disney doesn’t often make much of a showing in the academy’s major categories come nomination season. And Spielberg has twice been snubbed in the director category, even while his films garnered multiple nominations.

The marriage of the two produced a hit movie, “Who Framed Roger Rabbit,” and six Oscar nominations for technical achievements, but not a single showing in the more coveted categories of best picture, director or actor (for Bob Hoskins’ widely acclaimed portrayal of the crusty, drunken detective Eddie Valiant).

The omissions on the academy’s nomination list every year can be as telling as the films that were honored. This year, the popular “Roger Rabbit” was joined by critical favorites “Bird,” “The Unbearable Lightness of Being,” and “A World Apart”--among other top contenders--in its exclusion from the academy’s major categories. One of the biggest surprises was the academy’s shut-out of “The Thin Blue Line,” a documentary with dramatic reenactments of a murder that threw into doubt the guilt of a man charged with the crime. The documentary was a critical favorite, and topped last year’s poll of 100 critics’ favorite films.

“Roger Rabbit” was widely considered to be in the running for the top nomination spots. The film appeared on a list of last year’s top 10 critics’ favorites, it received a Golden Globe nomination for best comedy or musical, and director Robert Zemeckis’ peers at the Directors Guild placed him among their five nominees for the guild’s annual award.

(Another Disney hopeful in the academy race, “Beaches,” the Bette Midler-Barbara Hershey tear-jerker touted by some Disney executives as the 1988 “Terms of Endearment,” never even reached consideration level in the Hollywood buzz that inevitably crystallizes the front-runners by the time the nominations are announced.)

One front-runner that did emerge, only to be virtually ignored at Wednesday morning’s nominations announcement, was Clint Eastwood’s “Bird.” The dark biography of jazz great Charlie Parker received just one nomination, for achievement in sound. Because of the success of his “Dirty Harry” movies, Eastwood is one of Warner’s most prized assets, and the studio pushed the film for academy consideration--particularly Eastwood as director and Forest Whitaker as the star--during a major advertising campaign in the Hollywood trade press.

Eastwood has said that he was keeping March open for the promotion of “Bird’s” expansion into other markets. No studio marketing or distribution officials could be reached Wednesday to discuss whether “Bird’s” poor showing in the nominations will alter its release schedule.

Ironically, a release that Warners didn’t do much to promote, “Stand and Deliver,” secured a nomination for Edward James Olmos in the best actor category. Olmos’ backers, including his agent and the films’ investors, launched their own marketing campaign for the actor several weeks ago after concluding that the studio wasn’t doing enough. Olmos, an underdog, clinched a nomination.

One of the biggest marketing campaigns of the season was mounted by Orion and producer Saul Zaentz for “The Unbearable Lightness of Being.” The film received nominations for its cinematography and screenplay, but was otherwise ignored, including in the best director category, where Philip Kaufman was considered a top contender.

Two major actresses were shut out from this year’s nominations: Barbara Hershey and Susan Sarandon. Hershey was considered a contender for best actress in “A World Apart,” a film that was completely ignored by the academy, and for her supporting roles in “The Last Temptation of Christ” and “Beaches.”

Sarandon was overlooked for her performance in the sex-and-baseball comedy “Bull Durham.” That film did surprisingly poorly in the race, garnering only one nomination, for Ron Shelton’s screenplay.

In contrast, two other adult-oriented comedies enjoyed a strong showing in the major categories: “Big” earned nominations for its star, Tom Hanks, and its writers, Gary Ross and Anne Spielberg; and “A Fish Called Wanda” earned nominations for director Charles Crichton, supporting actor Kevin Kline and writer John Cleese (who also starred in the film). A third summer comedy, “Married to the Mob,” earned Dean Stockwell a best supporting actor nomination.

The director’s branch, which votes for the nominees in the director category, had more surprises than its nomination of Martin Scorsese to offer. The directors ignored Stephen Frears, even though his film, “Dangerous Liaisons,” was nominated for seven awards, including best picture and best actress (Glenn Close) and best supporting actress (Michelle Pfeiffer).

Academy Award nominations can breath new life into a current release. Warner can confidently widen the release of “Dangerous Liaisons” now that the film has garnered seven nominations. “Liaisons,” now playing on 119 screens, will be in 347 theaters by the weekend, and another 300 in the coming weeks. Bernie Brillstein, who oversaw production of the film as head of Lorimar (the studio bought by Warner last year), said “Liaisons” was rushed into production last year to beat a competing film version of the same story, as well as for academy consideration.

Thomas Pollock, Universal’s motion picture chairman, said his studio has no plans to broaden the release of “The Last Temptation of Christ” because of Scorsese’ nomination. Both “Temptation” and “Gorillas in the Mist,” a co-production between Warner and Universal, are playing in a handful of theaters around the country.