ENTERTAINMENT 2004: 'RINGS' LORDS IT OVER OSCAR RIVALS THIRD IN TRILOGY WINS HISTORY-MAKING 11 AWARDS.

Byline: Valerie Kuklenski Staff Writer

The 76th annual Academy Awards dealt a royal straight flush to ``The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King,'' honoring the film in all 11 categories in which it was nominated, a first in Oscar history.

It tied the total honors of ``Titanic'' and ``Ben-Hur'' and bested the record sweeps of nine each for ``Gigi'' in 1958 and ``The Last Emperor'' in 1987.

The wins for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay sent New Zealander Peter Jackson to the Kodak Theatre stage three times, while Kiwi delegates in the press room made no attempt to conceal their delight.

Jackson's big payoff came on the final installment of his epic trilogy based on the J.R.R. Tolkien books about hobbits, elves and other fantastic creatures. ``Right now, it feels like I could do it all over again,'' the ever-rumpled Jackson said. ``But no. No, no, no, no. It was the hardest thing I'd done in my life.''

The film also was honored for its score, editing, original song (``Into the West''), art direction, costume design, visual effects, sound mixing and makeup. Midway through the ceremony, when the ``LOTR'' trend was clear, host Billy Crystal cracked: ``It's now official. There's nobody left in New Zealand to thank.''

All the acting honors went to first-time winners. Charlize Theron won Best Actress for ``Monster,'' following Halle Berry and Nicole Kidman in an apparent trend of gorgeous women earning Hollywood's respect with decidedly unglamorous roles. Sean Penn picked up the Best Actor award for ``Mystic River,'' besting the popular performance by Bill Murray in ``Lost in Translation.'' Supporting prizes went to Tim Robbins for ``Mystic River'' and Renee Zellweger for ``Cold Mountain.''

Sofia Coppola won the original-screenplay award for ``Lost in Translation,'' placing her family in the Oscar annals as the second with three generations of winners. The Huston winners are actor Walter, director John and actress Anjelica; Sofia Coppola was preceded by her grandfather, composer Carmine Coppola, and father, writer-director Francis Ford Coppola.

Pixar's ``Finding Nemo'' reeled in the Best Animated Feature award, while the foreign-language film honor went to Canada's French feature, ``The Barbarian Invasions.''

After many years of early spring ceremonies, the awards were moved up to Feb. 29, a decision thought to be aimed at shortening the Oscar-campaign season and bringing some prestige back to a ceremony whose thunder has been stolen by entertainment-industry awards multiplying like viruses.

Whether the earlier date or the popularity of ``Return of the King'' was the cause, viewership did rebound from the slump it showed in 2003 just days after the start of the Iraq war. Nielsen reported that 43.5 million viewers tuned in to ABC's 2004 telecast, up 32 percent from the previous year.

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Photo:

Director Peter Jackson, left, holds up one of the 11 Oscars his film, ``The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King,'' won at the 76th annual Academy Awards.

Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer