YOUR GUIDE TO THE NOMINEES.

Byline: Entertainment News Wire

Oscar pool submissions will be due before 6 p.m. today. So, if you haven't made your picks and haven't seen all the films, here's a refresher course in the top six categories.

Best Picture

``Titanic''

James Cameron's disaster epic overcame post-production delays, negative prerelease rumors and a $200 million-plus price tag to lead this year's slate of Best Picture nominees as the film to beat. With a total of 14 nominations, ``Titanic'' ties 1950's ``All About Eve'' as the most-nominated film of all time.

``Good Will Hunting''

The feel-good drama of a young working-class genius overcoming adversity, snobbery and his own worst impulses was co-written by its star, Matt Damon, and received a total of nine Oscar nominations.

``L.A. Confidential''

This homage to classic Hollywood films noir, based on James Ellroy's dark novel of Tinseltown cops, received a total of nine Oscar nods. The movie critics' choice as the best film of 1997, it's been called the best detective movie since 1974's ``Chinatown'' (which was a Best Picture nominee but not a winner).

``As Good as It Gets''

A surprising romantic comedy with the year's most unlikely hero, the bigoted, obsessive-compulsive writer Melvin Udall (Jack Nicholson). The film is in the running for seven Academy awards.

``The Full Monty''

This year's Little Engine That Could nominee. With a budget of about $3 million, it probably cost about as much as the flatware on Cameron's ocean liner. This irreverent yet moving comedy about unemployed British steelworkers who have a go at stripping to earn money and self-esteem is the only non-American film in this category. It's also the only one with no Hollywood stars. ``The Full Monty'' racked up a total of four nominations and has more than $200 million in world-wide grosses so far.

Best Director

James Cameron, ``Titanic''

All bets were off and the nattering nabobs of negativity were in full voice last year as spending plowed toward the $200 million mark and Cameron's shipwreck epic was bumped from a summer to a fall release. But Cameron proved triumphant. Having already won a Golden Globe for Best Drama as well as the Directors Guild of America's top honors, he's the odds-on favorite for the directing Academy Award.

Gus Van Sant, ``Good Will Hunting''

Van Sant has heretofore been known as a maker of low-budget fare chronicling the seedy side of life (hustlers in ``My Own Private Idaho,'' addicts in ``Drugstore Cowboy''). To the surprise of many, ``Good Will Hunting'' was a major change of pace, a tear-jerker with a heart of gold.

Curtis Hanson, ``L.A. Confidential''

Hanson has a knack for mainstream action fare such as ``The Hand That Rocks the Cradle'' and ``The River Wild.'' He certainly turned heads in 1997 with his winning screen adaptation of James Ellroy's dark cop novel ``L.A. Confidential,'' which had been considered unfilmable. Hanson also shares a Best Adapted Screenplay nomination with co-writer Brian Helgeland.

Peter Cattaneo, ``The Full Monty''

The British filmmaker, at 34, is the youngest of this year's director group. Cattaneo guided ``The Full Monty'' from its slapstick male-stripper roots to a transcendent comedy triumph. It's the highest-grossing film in British history.

Atom Egoyan, ``The Sweet Hereafter''

Canadian director Egoyan's ``The Sweet Hereafter,'' a wrenching drama about the impact of a tragic school-bus accident on a small town, was a critics' favorite, but not a commercial success. So, his two Oscar nominations, including Best Adapted Screenplay, qualify as a couple of this year's biggest surprises.

Best Actor

Matt Damon, ``Good Will Hunting''

Damon, 27, received his first Oscar nomination for Best Actor for ``Good Will Hunting,'' the film he co-wrote with actor pal Ben Affleck (who also stars in the film). They labored on the script for years and share an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay.

Jack Nicholson, ``As Good as It Gets''

Hollywood veteran and all-around legend, Nicholson received his seventh Best Actor nomination for his foul-mouthed, foul-spirited obsessive-compulsive in this romantic comedy. It's Nicholson's 11th nomination overall, putting him in second place on the all-time noms list for actors (one behind Katharine Hepburn). Nicholson has won twice - Best Actor for 1975's ``One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'' and Best Supporting Actor for 1983's ``Terms of Endearment.''

Dustin Hoffman, ``Wag the Dog''

Hoffman has two Oscars already. He won Best Actor in 1979 for ``Kramer vs. Kramer'' and again in 1988 for ``Rain Man.'' He's been nominated a total of seven times. His portrait of ``Wag the Dog's'' fast-talking movie producer (which owes something to real-life producer Robert Evans) is one of the 60-year-old's most stylish comic performances.

Robert Duvall, ``The Apostle''

Duvall, a previous Best Actor winner for 1983's ``Tender Mercies,'' also wrote and directed his searing portrait of a fallen evangelical, and paid for the $5 million film out of his own pocket.

Peter Fonda, ``Ulee's Gold''

From counterculture's hippie hero in ``Easy Rider'' to a taciturn, bee-keeping grandpa in ``Ulee's Gold'' - it's been a long, strange trip for this screen veteran, who receives his first Best Actor nomination at age 58. Winning would put former bad-boy Fonda in the company of his late father, Henry, and his sister Jane.

Best Actress

Helen Hunt, ``As Good as It Gets''

Hunt has earned Emmy awards for her role in the NBC sitcom ``Mad About You.'' Now she has a shot at an Oscar for her earthy, comic performance as a struggling waitress and single mom. She landed the part only after director James L. Brooks' original choice, Oscar winner Holly Hunter, was unavailable.

Kate Winslet, ``Titanic''

Winslet may be only 22, but her nomination for her turn as Rose Dewitt Bukater, the heart of ``Titanic,'' is her second Oscar nod. The actress's nom this year helped propel ``Titanic'' to its record-tying total of 14 nominations.

Julie Christie, ``Afterglow''

British actress Christie, a nominee for her role as a long-suffering middle-age woman in ``Afterglow,'' won her first Oscar in this category way back in 1965 for ``Darling.'' She was only 24. No wonder ``Afterglow'' is being called Christie's comeback.

Judi Dench, ``Mrs. Brown''

Dame Judi has been acting for decades, primarily on the British stage. Her role as Queen Victoria in ``Mrs. Brown'' is actually her first lead role in a film. Ironically, Dame Judi, 63, is probably best-known to American audiences for her supporting turns as 007's boss in the last two James Bond flicks - a decidedly Oscar-impoverished action series.

Helena Bonham Carter, ``The Wings of the Dove''

Bonham Carter scored her nomination for a stunning performance as a manipulative rich girl in love with a poor boy in this steamy period piece.

Best Supporting Actor

Burt Reynolds, ``Boogie Nights''

In recent years, this former box-office champ has spent more time on the cover of the National Enquirer than he has on screen. But his fortunes have changed, thanks to a winning performance as '70s porn director Jack Horner, and talk of a comeback is once again in the air.

Robert Forster ``Jackie Brown''

Forster plays an aging but still cool bail bondsman in Quentin Tarantino's latest film. For Forster, who made his debut in John Huston's 1967 ``Reflections in a Golden Eye'' but languished for decades in bad B-movies such as ``Satan's Princess,'' the role was more than a comeback - it was the breath of life.

Greg Kinnear, ``As Good as It Gets''

Talk-show host-turned-actor Kinnear silenced the critics last year with his performance as a gay artist who endures nasty neighbor Nicholson in this hit romantic comedy.

Anthony Hopkins, ``Amistad''

Hopkins has landed another Oscar nomination for his subtle yet powerful turn as former President John Quincy Adams in Steven Spielberg's slavery drama ``Amistad.'' Hopkins now has played two American presidents - with two Oscar nominations to show for it. He won the Best Actor trophy for the distinctly apolitical Hannibal Lecter in ``The Silence of the Lambs.''

Robin Williams, ``Good Will Hunting''

Williams landed a nomination for his performance as unfulfilled psychiatrist Sean Macguire. Previously, the TV comic-turned-movie star has been nominated for Best Actor for ``Good Morning, Vietnam,'' ``The Fisher King'' and ``Dead Poets Society.'' He's still waiting for that first win.

Best Supporting Actress

Kim Basinger, ``L.A. Confidential''

Basinger has spent years enduring the ``blond bombshell'' label, but now she's earned some respect for her role as a sophisticated call girl with a sensitive side. The role already has earned her a Golden Globe award.

Gloria Stuart, ``Titanic''

The veteran actress, age 87, was asked to play older - specifically the 101-year-old version of Rose, played as a young woman by Best Actress nominee Kate Winslet. Stuart is the oldest actor or actress to earn the nod in Hollywood history.

Joan Cusack, ``In & Out''

Kevin Kline may have had the juiciest role in the crowd-pleasing comedy, but Cusack was the audience favorite as the fiancee who learns her man is gay. It's Cusack's second nomination in this category, after her hilarious, big-haired secretary in 1988's ``Working Girl.''

Minnie Driver, ``Good Will Hunting''

This is the first Oscar nod for the 27-year-old British actress, who delivers a sensitive but never maudlin performance as a Harvard girl smitten by a brainy janitor.

Julianne Moore, ``Boogie Nights''

From porn queen to paleontologist to daffy rich girl - it's been a year of wildly different performances by Moore, who won her first Oscar nomination as Amber Waves, the ``mom'' of the sex-film family in ``Boogie Nights.''

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Photo

Photo: ``The Full Monty,'' the British export about six unemployed men who try to make a living by stripping, racked up a total of four nominations, including one for Best Picture.