I saw it and it sent chills up my spine. Really it did. It looks like Mr. Peter Jackson is preparing a movie experinence to remember.
I must agree with Kibernal : I think that the movies shouldn't be seen in the light of the books. They should be seen as an interpretation of the impression in the Jackson "family's" (lord forbid...) mind.

As for the Oscars... I think in this case they are relative. He has made movies that will influence a generation of movie fans. In this moment, if we could join in a room, a japanese, a south african, a russian and a french the question :
"what did you think of the LOTR triology?"
could be a very good ice breaker, ( a lot of persons saw it, and the ones who didn't heard of it....). I just hope that he does'nt make the same mistake George Lucas made in his later Star war movies: I don't advise him to take himself too seriously.

Oh, the link to the trailer:

http://www.theonering.net/index.stat

read down to "News for Sep. 26, 2003" and download the file. The quality isn't the best, but it is worth it.