Elizabeth, the historical drama about a British monarch directed by Bollywood's own Shekhar Kapur, was nominated on Tuesday for seven Academy Awards.

The film has been nominated in categories for Best Picture, Best Actress (Cate Blanchett), Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume Design, Make-Up and Original Dramatic Score.

But Kapur failed to make the cut for Best Director for which the nominees are Steven Spielberg (Saving Private Ryan), Peter Weir (The Truman Show), John Madden (Shakespeare in Love), Roberto Benigni (Life is Beautiful) and Terence Malick (The Thin Red Line).

For Best Film, Elizabeth is up against Saving Private Ryan, Life is Beautiful, The Thin Red Line and Shakespeare in Love. For Best Actress, Cate Blanchett will be up against Gwyneth Paltrow in Shakespeare in Love, among others.

Elizabeth , which has catapulted Kapur to the elite group ofHollywood directors, has been well-received by American critics and has had good runs across the United States after a limited release. The irony of an Indian directing a British historical film has not been lost on critics and movie aficionados.

Kapur's venture comes in a season of strong independent films including Shakespeare in Love, a masterly roman-a-clef of sorts on the great master himself and a hot favourite of the critics.

The film, which has set off a massive Shakespeare revival in the US, bagged 13 Oscar nominations, the highest this year.

Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan and Malick's The Thin Red Line, both grim war movies, are also pushing for best film, with Ryan bagging 10 other nominations. Benigni's heart-tugging Life is Beautiful, is an outside favourite. An Italian movie, it has been nominated Best Picture in both the general category and the foreign films category.

Brazilian film Central Station about a motherless boy's search for his father withthe help of a retired teacher, has also been nominated as best foreign language film.

This category also includes the Iranian film Children of Heaven, The Grandfather from Spain and Tango from Argentina.

The Oscars will be presented on March 21 at the 71st Academy Awards to be hosted this year by Whoopi Goldberg.