Technical triumph for Rings

The films visual effects team celebrate their win

Despite winning four Oscars, the Lord of the Rings is being viewed as one of the losers of the 2002 Academy Awards.

The Peter Jackson movie was nominated in 13 categories, but it missed out on all the major prizes.

A Beautiful Mind beat the fantasy movie to the big awards of best picture and best director.

Sir Ian McKellen, the only Lord of the Rings actor to be nominated for a prize, missed out on the supporting actor prize to fellow British star Jim Broadbent, who won for Iris.

Jim Broadbent beat McKellen to the Oscar

But The Fellowship of the Ring did win a host of technical prizes for best original score, visual effects, cinematography and make-up.

The effects team were responsible for making more than 1,000 suits of armour and 22,000 prosthetic hobbit feet for the film.

The movie is the first of JRR Tolkien's trilogy to be released, the other two films are released late this year and in 2003.

Peter Jackson directed all three movies back-to-back at a cost of £210m.

The movies were made in New Zealand and its prime minister Helen Clark hailed the movie's Oscars haul as "terrific".

She said: "It has been a fantastic year for the New Zealand film industry.

'Outstanding'

"The awards today are further illustration of the expertise and skill of the film industry in New Zealand."

The films co-producer Jamie Selkirk said he was delighted with the awards.

He told Television New Zealand: "Getting the visual effects award, and the make-up award...that was outstanding, that was something we always really wanted."

The two big losers of the night were French romantic-comedy Amelie and drama In The Bedroom.

Both films were nominated for five awards, and failed to win one Oscar.

Murder-mystery Gosford Park fared only slightly better with one Oscar out of seven nominations - for best original screenplay.