"Life of Pi" director Ang Lee overwhelmed by Oscar nominations

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Ang Lee already has an Oscar for "Brokeback Mountain," but the Taiwanese director said he was overwhelmed by the wealth of nominations accorded his acclaimed fable "Life of Pi" on Thursday.

"I am deeply honored, and frankly a little overwhelmed, by all of the nominations that 'Life of Pi' has received this morning," Lee said in a statement shortly after the fantasy shipwreck film received 11 Oscar nods, including one for best picture.

"So many talented people gave everything they had to this film ... and to see all of them receive this kind of recognition is something I am incredibly grateful for," Lee added.

Across Hollywood, reactions from other nominees poured in after the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' announcement of who would vie for the film world's highest honors, to be handed out on February 24.

Producer Harvey Weinstein, known for his aggressively effective but sometimes controversial Oscar campaigns, scored eight nominations for the all-star "Silver Linings Playbook" and another four for the more controversial "Django Unchained."

"I am blown away!" Weinstein enthused, adding, "I can't say thank you enough to the Academy for their support of our films."

Amy Adams, nominated as best supporting actress for "The Master," said she was honored, and paid tribute to her co-stars, saying, "I'd also like to send congratulations to the other nominees, and to my co-stars Philip (Seymour Hoffman) and Joaquin (Phoenix)."

British singer Adele turned to Twitter after "Skyfall," from the James Bond movie of the same title, received a best original song nomination, posting "Oh my god I feel like Meryl Streep!! Thank you x."

"What can you say? It's so unbelievable," Roman Coppola, nominee for best original screenplay with Wes Anderson for "Moonlight Kingdom," told Reuters.

"I was lucky enough to be in a car with my parents heading to the airport when I got the call and my mom started whooping," said the son of Oscar-winning director Francis Ford Coppola.

The acclaimed independent film "Beasts of the Southern Wild" scored a host of major nominations, including one for best adapted screenplay for co-writer Lucy Alibar.

"I think it's tremendous for the film," Alibar told Reuters. "We were such a small, tiny film, it's huge, especially for a film that really works on word of mouth."

Maverick director Tim Burton said his best animated feature nominee "Frankenweenie" "is a very personal film for me."

Citing the animators, cast members, set builders, and puppet makers who worked on the film, Burton said "I'm so honored that the Academy has recognized this film as one of its nominees."

The director of "A Royal Affair," which was nominated for best foreign language film and is set in the court of a mentally ill 18th-century king whose queen romances the royal physician, noted the global reach of the Oscars.

"It's a big thing in Denmark. It's the biggest thing this year," director Nikolaj Arcel said. "It's the biggest thing that's happened to me in my career," added Arcel. "It probably hasn't sunk in yet."

(Reporting by Chris Michaud and Eric Kelsey; Editing by Paul Simao)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/life-pi-director-ang-lee-overwhelmed-oscar-nominations-173851846.html

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