Oscar Alert:
Oscar nominations: 5
October release
Produced by Simon Channing-Williams.
Director: Mike Leigh
Screenplay (Original: Mike Leigh
Actress: Brenda Blethyn
Supporting Actress: Marianne Jean-Baptiste
Oscar Awards: None
Oscar Context:
The 1996 Oscar‑winning epic, “The English Patient,” is an intelligent adaptation by Anthony Minghella of Michael Ondaatje’s novel about a mysterious man (Ralph Fiennes) who is badly wounded in a World War II plane crash in the African desert.
Sweeping most (nine) of the Oscars in 1996, “The English Patient” easily beating out the other four contenders: “Jerry Maguire,” the only Hollywood movie, and a comedy at that, in competition; the Coen brothers’ American crime indie “Fargo,” Mike Leigh’s British working class drama “Secrets & Lies,” and the Aussie biopic “Shine.”
Frances McDormand won the Best Actress Oscar for “Fargo.”
