1 'Forrest Gump,' the feel-good hit about a simpleton who triumphs in the end, received 13 Academy Award nominations Tuesday, the most for any movie in nearly three decades. Its star, Tom Hanks, got a shot at a second consecutive Oscar for best actor.
2 The 13 nominations are the most for any movie since 1966's 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?' The record is 14 nominations, received by 'All About Eve' in 1950. 'Ben Hur,' which received 12 nominations, won a record 11 Oscars in 1959.
3 Also nominated for best picture were 'Four Weddings and a Funeral,' 'Pulp Fiction,' 'Quiz Show' and 'The Shawshank Redemption.'
4 The winners will be announced March 27 in a ceremony broadcast live from the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. TV talk show host David Letterman will be the emcee.
5 Besides Hanks, the best actor nominees were Morgan Freeman in 'The Shawshank Redemption,' Nigel Hawthorne in 'The Madness of King George,' Paul Newman in 'Nobody's Fool' and John Travolta in 'Pulp Fiction.'
6 In a statement, Hanks said, 'We're very proud of our movie and are pleased to see it nominated amongst such a surprisingly diverse group of films.'
7 While Hanks won the best actor Oscar last year for his role as a lawyer with AIDS in 'Philadelphia,' it's been a long dry spell for Travolta, whose last nomination was for his role as the disco king in 'Saturday Night Fever.'
8 'It's been 17 years since my last nomination,' said Travolta. 'I never dreamed it would take so long to get another one.'
9 Hawthorne, a first-time nominee, said he felt flattered to be going 'up against . the big boys.'
10 The Academy Awards were 'something in a million years I never would have associated myself with, even as a member of the audience let alone as a nominee,' said the veteran British actor, reached at London's Royal National Theater. 'Now, it's all sort of starting to get a reality. I'll have to iron my shirts and all that.'
11 Two-time winner Jodie Foster was nominated for best actress for her starring role in 'Nell.' She will face Jessica Lange in 'Blue Sky,' Miranda Richardson in 'Tom and Viv,' Winona Ryder in 'Little Women' and Susan Sarandon in 'The Client.'
12 '`Little Women' is a project so close to my heart, that means a lot to me,' said Ryder, of the film based on the 19th century classic by Louisa May Alcott.
13 Trailing 'Gump' with seven nominations apiece were 'Bullets Over Broadway,' 'Pulp Fiction' and 'The Shawshank Redemption.'
14 'Pulp Fiction's' Samuel L. Jackson was nominated for best supporting actor, as were Martin Landau in 'Ed Wood,' Chazz Palminteri in 'Bullets Over Broadway,' Paul Scofield in 'Quiz Show' and Gary Sinise in 'Forrest Gump.'
15 Two performers from 'Bullets Over Broadway' -- Jennifer Tilly and Dianne Wiest -- were named for best supporting actress. The other three selections were Rosemary Harris in 'Tom and Viv,' Helen Mirren in 'The Madness of King George' and Uma Thurman in 'Pulp Fiction.'
16 The news of her first Oscar nomination caught Harris by surprise during lunch at London's Royal National Theater, where she is rehearsing the role of Hecuba in Euripides' 'Women of Troy.'
17 'I was eating some cabbage in the canteen and it got quite stuck in my throat,' she said. '. It's rather hard to concentrate at the moment. I'm supposed to be back 2,000 years ago (in the play), and suddenly everything's whirling around.'
18 Woody Allen was nominated for both co-writing and directing 'Bullets Over Broadway.' Also nominated for directing were Robert Zemeckis ('Forrest Gump'), Quentin Tarantino ('Pulp Fiction'), Robert Redford ('Quiz Show') and Poland's Krzysztof Kieslowski ('Red').
19 Kieslowski, contacted at his Warsaw apartment, said he hoped the Oscar nomination would help build an audience in the United States for his films. 'Red,' which followed the release of 'Blue' and 'White,' is the third part in a trilogy named after the colors in the French flag.
20 'The reason to make films is to have people come and see them,' said Kieslowski. 'I am all the more glad for the fact that it is extremely difficult for a non-American film to get a nomination, not to mention the award. . It means the Americans are getting used to a different way of film narration and it makes me happy.'
21 Macedonia's 'Before the Rain' was picked as one of the five top foreign language films. It will compete against Russia's 'Burnt By the Sun,' Taiwan's 'Eat Drink Man Woman,' Belgium's 'Farinelli: Il Castrato' and Cuba's 'Strawberry and Chocolate.' 'Red' was not eligible in the foreign language category because it is a mixed French-Polish-Swiss production.
22 The nominations were the first for both Cuba and Macedonia.
23 More than 600 journalists and scores of producers and studio publicists attended the traditional 5:38 a.m. (1338 GMT) reading of the Oscar nominations.
24 Noteworthy among the nominations were bids earned by 'Red,' 'Tom and Viv,' and 'The Madness of King George,' which have appeared in limited release in art houses.
25 'Blue Sky' sat on the shelf for three years because of Orion Pictures' bankruptcy. It was the last film of the late Tony Richardson, an Oscar winner for 'Tom Jones.'
26 'After the history of this film to get this kind of attention is great,' said 'Blue Sky' star Lange.
27 'Forrest Gump's' sweep, on the other hand, came as no surprise. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association gave it Golden Globe awards for best dramatic movie and dramatic actor. It was also the winner last year at the box office.
28 The 13 nominations for 'Forrest Gump' ties it with 1939's 'Gone With The Wind,' 1953's 'From Here to Eternity,' 1964's 'Mary Poppins' and 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'
29 The film was also nominated for art direction, cinematography, film editing, makeup, original score, sound, sound effects editing, visual effects and adapted screenplay.
30 In the Oscars, approximately 5,000 Academy members vote on the best picture selections. Nominations in other categories are done by specific Academy branches. Special committees nominate the foreign-language, documentary and short films.
31 Two hundred and forty-eight feature-length films from 1994 were eligible for consideration, up from 247 releases in 1993.

" Forrest Gump , " the feel - good hit about a simpleton who triumphs in the end , received 13 Academy Award nominations Tuesday , the most for any movie in nearly three decades . Its star , Tom Hanks , got a shot at a second consecutive Oscar for best actor .
triumphs in the end ,
How did he triumph?