By Caroline Westbrook BBC News Online entertainment

The film deals with Inman's (Law) journey back to sweetheart Ada (Kidman)

While The Return Of The King is being tipped to sweep the board at next year's Oscars, it may well face stiff competition from Cold Mountain, the latest film from English Patient director Anthony Minghella.

The film, which had its UK premi�re on Sunday, comes out in the UK on Boxing Day.

It has had mixed reviews in the US but is nonetheless being viewed as a major contender come awards time.

Cold Mountain, based on the novel by Charles Frazier, tells the story of Inman (Jude Law), an American Civil War deserter who is attempting to make the journey home to his sweetheart Ada (Nicole Kidman).

His journey is fraught with danger, not least from the bounty hunters who have been sent out to track down and kill those fleeing the army.

Law and Kidman are both being mentioned in the same breath as Oscar nominations, as is Renee Zellweger.

She almost steals the film as Ruby Thewes, a tough-as-nails country girl who shows up to help Ada in her time of need.

Renee Zellweger plays a feisty woman who comes to help Ada

The film sees Kidman tackling yet another complex character, after her Oscar-winning turn as Virginia Woolf in The Hours.

This time around, she undergoes a transformation from delicate vicar's daughter to self-sufficient farm owner after the war leaves her penniless.

"To me that was one of the most powerful parts of the film," she says, "and that was one of the reasons I wanted to do it.

"Also, I wanted to work with Renee. I thought the two of us up a mountain together would become fun."

It is one of three films that Kidman will be seen in over the next couple of months - she will also be on screen opposite Anthony Hopkins in The Human Stain and as a fugitive hiding out in a small town in Lars Von Trier's Dogville.

"I kind of pick things in threes and this for me was something I needed to do because it was about belief in someone.

"The character has this beautiful innocence to her that she can believe, whereas something like Dogville is a lot different.

The film is set during the American Civil War

"I think each role takes a little from you and then circles around you for the rest of your life, I don't think you abandon any of them."

Although the film takes place in North Carolina, much of it was shot in the small Romanian town of Potigrafu, a decision which Minghella took after it became too expensive to shoot the entire project in the US.

"I was heartbroken we had to leave North Carolina," Minghella admits, "because it's a book whose soul is very much about a particular place.

"I spent six months looking for locations and planning the film, then the budget came in and the plug was pulled."

"I was really distressed we had to find somewhere else but as with all movies there's always a blessing attached to a curse.

"What we found in Romania was something so consummate with the film. Everything about that area made the film beautiful."

The film's journey mimics Homer's The Odyssey

Kidman also enjoyed the experience. "It was a remote mountain town, and there were a lot of wild animals around - Saturday night became the weekly bear-spotting night.

"You'd drive to work and there'd be sheep around you."

However enjoyable the shoot was though, there is no denying that the finished product is pretty grim stuff.

Fortunately, after a year in which Kidman has delivered some of her best - and most serious - work to date, she promises that her next film will be far more lightweight.

"I just finished The Stepford Wives," she says, "which we hope is a comedy. I tell you, comedy is a lot harder. I was exhausted when I finished that."