King Kong leads Empire award nods

Peter Jackson's remake of King Kong is leading the nominations for the 2006 Empire magazine film awards.
The film will be up for five prizes - including best film - at the ceremony, to be held at the Hilton London Metropole on 13 March.

Pride & Prejudice, Crash, and Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, have four nominations each.

Comedian Bill Bailey will host the ceremony, which are the only movie awards voted for by the British public.

Our show is designed to recognise movies of all genres, echoing the way ordinary filmgoers talk about movies

Colin Kennedy, Empire editor
King Kong is up against Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith, War Of The Worlds, Crash, and Sin City for the best film honours.

Both King Kong and Revenge Of The Sith are up against Serenity, The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe and Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire for the newly introduced best sci-fi/fantasy award.

Jackson is joined in the best director category by Steven Spielberg (War Of The Worlds), Christopher Nolan (Batman Begins), Joe Wright (Pride & Prejudice), Ron Howard (Cinderella Man) and Nick Park and Steve Box (The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit).


The film is Wallace and Gromit's first feature-length movie

King Kong stars Naomi Watts and Andy Serkis receive nods in the best actress and best actor categories, as do Crash stars Thandie Newton and Matt Dillon.

Nominated alongside Newton and Watts are Keira Knightley (Pride & Prejudice), Renee Zellweger (Cinderella Man) and Hilary Swank (Million Dollar Baby).

Christian Bale (Batman Begins), Viggo Mortensen (A History Of Violence) and Johnny Depp (Charlie And The Chocolate Factory), are up against Dillon and Serkis.