Chinese films Blind Shaft, House of Flying Daggers and Warriors of Heaven & Earth have all made the initial nominations for this year's Best Picture Oscar.

Hero, Chinese director Zhang Yimou's first martial-arts epic, which has topped the North American box office for two weeks, was not nominated for the 77th-annual Academy Awards

Only five films out of the 267 will make the Best Picture shortlist, which is unveiled on January 25th after a public vote. Studios are desperately battling for Oscar voters' attention with a blitz of television, radio and newspaper advertisements in preparation for the final frenzied phase of Hollywood's awards season.

Oscar pundits say that Martin Scorsese's Howard Hughes biopic The Aviator, Clint Eastwood's boxing flick Million Dollar Baby and Alexander Payne's road movie Sideways look good for best picture nods. 

(CRI.com December 31, 2004)