The "Best Picture" category pits box-office hits against lesser-known films and manages to touch on nearly every genre of film. Supernatural thrillers The Green Mile and The Sixth Sense go to head to head against the suspenseful The Insider and the dramas The Cider House Rules and American Beauty, whose originality and top-notch performances have made it the critics' choice to walk away with the statue.

Russell Crowe and Kevin Spacey from The Insider and American Beauty, respectively are the only actors from films nominated for "Best Picture" to be nominated in the "Actor in a Leading Role" category. From outside the "Best Picture" circle enter veteran Richard Farnsworth (The Straight Story), Sean Penn (Sweet and Lowdown) and Denzel Washington (The Hurricane). Currently, bets are being placed on either Washington or Spacey, both of whom already have an Oscar on the mantle for work done in a supporting role. One notable name missing from the actor nods is that of Jim Carrey for his frighteningly convincing, Golden Globe-winning turn as late comic Andy Kaufman in Man on the Moon, an oversight that mirrors last year's exclusion of Carrey for his Golden Globe-winning work on The Truman Show.

Twelve-time nominee Meryl Streep is one of five talents vying for "Best Actress" honors this year thanks to her performance in the Wes Craven flick Music of the Heart. Previous nominees for the "Supporting Actress" award Annette Benning (American Beauty) and Julianne Moore (The End of the Affair) are half of Streep's competition. Hillary Swank from Boys Don't Cry and Janet McTeer from Tumbleweeds, both first-time nominees constitute the other half. Benning is the favorite in this category for her convincing performance as a burnt-out, bitchy career woman/mother in American Beauty.

The other categories of Oscar contention hold their own pleasant surprises. Eleven-year-old Haley Joel Osment from The Sixth Sense, the third youngest Oscar nominee ever, is in the ring of "Supporting Actor," but he faces competition from Hollywood heavyweight Tom Cruise (Magnolia), who is still looking for Academy validation after his Jerry Maguire loss three years ago. All the directors of this year's "Best Picture" category nominees are up for "Best Director" honors save one, Frank Darabont of the The Green Mile, whose name was supplanted on the list by Being John Malkovich's Spike Jones. The winner of this year's "Most Unlikely Nominee" award goes to Trey Parker and Marc Shaiman, whose tune "Blame Canada" from South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut is up for "Best Original Song."