The final installment of Peter Jackson's fantasy trilogy The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King emerged Tuesday as the leading contender for the 76th Academy Awards with 11 nods.

Meanwhile, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World is a close challenger to the The Return of the King with 10 nominations. Both films were nominated for the best picture and best director awards.

Other best picture Oscar nominees include Clint Eastwood's Mystic River, Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation and the horseracing epic Seabiscuit.

Sean Penn (Mystic River), Johnny Depp (Pirates of the Caribbean: The curse of the Black Pearl), Ben Kingsley (House of Sand and Fog), Bill Murray (Los in Translation) and Jude Law (Cold Mountain) got the best actor nods.

Murray and Penn were the best actors winners at the Golden Globe Award winners on Sunday night -- Murray for his portrayal of a disillusioned actor who goes to Tokyo to make a liquor commercial, and Penn for his role as a grief-stricken father.

For best actress, both Golden Globe winners Charlize Theron (Monster) and Diane Keaton (Something Gotta Give) went on to get their nods. Others included Keisha Castle-Hughes (Whale Rider), Samantha Morton (In America) and Naomi Watts (21 Grams).

The nominees for supporting actor award are: Golden Globe winner Tim Robbins (Mystic River), Alec Baldwin (The Cooler), Benicio Del Toro (21 Grams), Djimon Hounsou (In America) and Ken Watanabe (The Last Samurai).

And the nominees for supporting actress award are: Golden Globe winner Renee Zellweger (Cold Mountain), Shohreh Aghdashloo (House of Sand and Fog), Patricia Clarkson (Pieces of April), Marcia Gay Harden (Mystic River) and Holly Hunter (Thirteen).

Jackson and Eastwood are nominated for best director award, while other nominees include Sofia Coppola for Lost in Translation, Peter Weir for Master and Commander and Fernando Meirelles for City of God.

The best foreign language film nominees are The Barbarian Invasions (Canada), Evil (Sweden), The Twilight Samurai (Japan), Twin Sisters (The Netherlands) and Zelary (Czech Republic).

The best animated feature film nominees are Finding Nemo, Brother Bear and The Triplets of Belleville.

The best original screenplay nominees are Denys Arcand for The Barbarian Invasions, Steven Knight for Dirty Pretty Things, Andrew Stanton, Bob Peterson and David Reynolds for Finding Nemo, Jim Sheridan, Naomi Sheridan and Kirsten Sheridan for In America, and Coppola for Lost in Translation.

Best adapted screenplay nominations went to Robert Pulcini and Shari Springer Berman for American Splendor, Braulio Mantobani for City of God, Jackson, Fran Walsh and Phillippa Boyens for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Brian Helgeland for Mystic River and Gary Ross for Seabiscuit.

The 76th Academy Awards will be handed out Feb. 29 at the Kodak Theater by the US Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

(Xinhua News Agency January 28, 2004)