BY LARRY CARROLL

Christmas morning for the Hollywood community fell on January 25th this year, as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced their 2004 Oscar nominations to an enthusiastic crowd of journalists, publicists and industry insiders early this morning. Anticipation for a field of potential nominees that seemed less predetermined than in recent years fueled the bleary-eyed throngs as they filed through the doors of the Academy building, many arriving as early as 2 a.m. With plenty of instant news stories springing from the eight-minute event, they were not disappointed.

Over four hundred members of the international media milled about the Academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theater, typing, snapping, glad-handing and primping while a voice over the loud speaker counted down the remaining minutes to broadcast. At 5:30 Hollywood time, the eyes of the world turned up from their bowls of cereal and on to AMPAS President Frank Pierson, who walked up to the podium and offered a few touching words for Academy friend Johnny Carson: "Good night and sleep well". He then introduced his co-announcer, Oscar-winning actor Adrien Brody, who played off his infamous acceptance speech by squirting breath spray into his mouth and leaning in towards Pierson for a Halle-Berry-style kiss.

Quickly, the duo launched into the names of those who will be duking it out for this year's little gold men. The surprises sprung right off the bat with the name of Alan Alda in the Best Supporting Actor category. Whereas fellow nominees Thomas Haden Church (Sideways), Jamie Foxx (Collateral), Morgan Freeman (Million Dollar Baby) and Clive Owen (who already won the Golden Globe for his performance in Closer) have been viewed for weeks as the expected names, Alda had been mentioned as a longshot at best. The Academy enjoys recognizing veterans, and usually takes advantage of opportunities to pile nominations onto the Best Picture frontrunners, and Alda's solid turn as the conniving Senator Ralph Owen Brewster in The Aviator gave them the opportunity to do both. Looking over the entire group of nominations, this handicapper would name Freeman as the early favorite to win here simply because he has somehow never taken home a statuette that so clearly belongs on his mantel.

Those nominations had barely begun to sink in as the gray-haired Pierson, donned in a black suit and red tie, leaned in to the microphone for the Best Supporting Actress announcements. The most predictable of the categories being announced this morning, the only major shocks that could have come here would have been if Golden Globe winner Natalie Portman (Closer), Cate Blanchett (The Aviator), Virginia Madsen (Sideways) or Laura Linney (Kinsey) had not heard their names called; they all did. The fifth slot in the category was a bit up in the air, but recent momentum seemed to be pulling it towards Sophie Okonedo, who deserved as much attention as she could get for her touching work in Hotel Rwanda. As much as Okonedo deserves this Oscar, the race appears to boil down to Blanchett and Portman, with Blanchett getting the slight advantage of being with the film that could very well run the table on Oscar night.

Best Actress brought a few gasps from the collected crowd as deserving but slightly unexpected nominees Kate Winslet (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) and Catalina Sandino Moreno (Maria Full of Grace) no doubt woke up this morning with big smiles on their faces. Moreno, whose performance was almost entirely in Spanish, joins a select group of performers who have earned the honor without speaking English (four have won, Sophia Loren for Two Women, Robert DeNiro for Godfather II, Roberto Benigni for Life is Beautiful and Benicio Del Toro for Traffic). Winslet and Moreno will compete against Annette Bening (Being Julia), Imelda Staunton (Vera Drake) and Hilary Swank (Million Dollar Baby), all of whom were practically mandatory nominees. Bening will take home the Oscar, even though the number of people at this morning's announcements probably outnumbered those who've been able to find her movie in a theater.

The biggest snub of this morning was directed towards Sideways' Paul Giamatti, who was ignored by the Academy as if he were a high-school chess-club member that the cool kids wanted to keep out of their prom. Giamatti, who turned in one of the best guest-hosted episodes of recent Saturday Night Live memory just two days ago while poking fun at his own place in the shadows of Jamie Foxx, has now been obscured by four other actors as well. Don Cheadle in Rwanda was expected and very much warranted, as was Leonardo DiCaprio in Aviator. Foxx is the story of the season and would never have been left off this list, and Johnny Depp (Finding Neverland)'s hot hand continues to keep him in the public eye. But it was an old dog by the name of Clint Eastwood who squeezed out Giamatti while pulling off the difficult task of being nominated for both acting and directing with Million Dollar Baby. If you can hear the faint sound of cheering, that's Foxx's handlers popping champagne corks over Giamatti's exclusion, he had been the only legitimate threat to the Oscar hopes of the man who dazzled audiences as Ray Charles.

The surprises really started coming fast and furious as Pierson and Brody moved into the Best Director category. Scorsese and his never-ending quest to finally win an Oscar will continue with The Aviator, and Eastwood's Baby nomination was never in doubt. Slightly on the fence only because Oscar voters are notoriously finicky when it comes to comedies, Sideways helmer Alexander Payne did get the call for an overdue first directing nomination. The big shockers here were Taylor Hackford for Ray and Mike Leigh for Vera Drake, two movies that seemed destined to follow in the "great performance, mediocre movie" assessment that haunted recent films like Monster's Ball, Iris and Monster. Neither would seem to have a legitimate chance to win, but the fact that both are beloved veteran directors would make it hard to completely count them out. Still, look for Scorsese to finally take home an award that he so clearly deserves to have won by now that it is threatening to become a serious blight on the Academy.

The Screenplay announcements brought some predictable names (Aviator, Sunshine) and some pleasant surprises (Before Sunset, The Motorcycle Diaries). Unfortunately, these categories have evolved over the years into a kind of consolation-prize for films that get a lot of Oscar nods but don't win anything, so expect to see Sideways or possibly Million Dollar Baby take home Best Adapted Screenplay as the Aviator stocks up in the other categories. Aviator could load up its total with its own Original Screenplay trophy for writer John Logan, or the Academy could be more sensible and throw a bone to Keir Pearson and Terry George's superior Hotel Rwanda.

The anticipation in the room this morning hit a fevered pitch as Brody and Pierson segued into the Best Picture and the anticipated names of Aviator, Million Dollar Baby and Finding Neverland. Sideways was able to overcome the comedy stigma and hear its name called this morning, but the big shocker was Ray, a film that few viewed as anything more than a showcase for Jamie Foxx. Even many of Ray's biggest fans in the media admitted that it was Foxx's performance propping up a movie that wasn't quite up to his level, but it looks as though history may remember things differently. Nevertheless, the producers of Ray will have to settle for getting to hold Foxx's Oscar as he works the Oscar after-party circuit on February 27th. With a dominating pile of eleven nominations, this is shaping up to be the year that will see The Aviator soar to new heights.