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First things first - a full list of winners:
And broken down by film:
THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING
11 Wins/11 Nominations
Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, Original Score, Original Song, Sound Mixing, Film Editing, Art Direction, Visual Effects, Makeup, Costume Design
MYSTIC RIVER
2 Wins/6 Nominations
Actor (Sean Penn), Supporting Actor (Tim Robbins)
MASTER AND COMMANDER: THE FAR SIDE OF THE WORLD
2 Wins/10 Nominations
Cinematography, Sound Editing
LOST IN TRANSLATION
1 Win/4 Nominations
Original Screenplay
MONSTER
1 Win/1 Nomination
Actress (Charlize Theron)
COLD MOUNTAIN
1 Win/7 Nominations
Supporting Actress (Renee Zellweger)
THE BARBARIAN INVASIONS
1 Win/2 Nominations
Foreign Language Film
FINDING NEMO
1 Win/4 Nominations
Animated Feature
MY PREDICTION RESULTS: 21 out of 24 - my best year yet by far.
Wrong:
After a lackluster nomination predicting year (67%), I rebounded with my best set of winning predictions yet, getting 88% correct. This is mainly because, apart from my amazing skill, the nominations were very varied and surprising, whereas the wins were somewhat more predictable. Still, thanks to the amazing skill I possess, I correctly predicted Sean Penn from the Penn/Murray horse race, and Fog of War versus the documentary frontrunner Capturing the Friedmans. I also wisely stuck with Renee Zellweger when a lot of people were jumping on the bandwagon of Shohreh Aghdashloo near the end. My one and only big screw up was dismissing Return of the King on the Adapted Screenplay race - I said that most of the Academy wouldn't adequately recognize it for its writing, and now I sit here today eating those words.
Yes, it was the Day of the Ring as the final chapter of the most successful fantasy franchise ever swept the awards, winning eleven out of eleven nominations including Best Picture, Director, and Adapted Screenplay. It became a running joke of the night that everyone living in New Zealand had been thanked, but even with eight wins already in the bank, the LOTR team was visibly stunned when it picked up the screenplay win versus other favorites Mystic River, City of God, Seabiscuit, and American Splendor. When Peter Jackson's name was called for Best Director, he let out a visible sigh of relief - as he should: after everyone in the world was predicting a Jackson victory and after some five years of hard work, anything else would have been an embarrassing letdown. And with ten Oscars in the bank, it was no surprise when Steven Spielberg shouted "a clean sweep!" and announced the Return of the King Best Picture victory.
The rest of the night was relatively - and I hate to say it - boring. There were no Pianist-like surprises, Adrien Brody-ish speeches, or loud rants like Michael Moore's. A few political remarks were made - Sean Penn made a casual aside about there being "no WMDs", and Errol Morris, the Fog of War helmer, stated that he's afraid we're going down the same "rabbit hole" today that we went down for Vietnam. Other than that the speeches were fairly boring. Here's a rundown of the ones worth noting:
Tim Robbins - started off the night well with a nice, simple speech. At the end he announced to victims of abuse that there is no shame in coming forward "to stop the cycle of violence." Considering how he's a well-known anti-Bush, anti-war figure, it was surprisingly void of any political message - perhaps the reception Moore got last year wisely discouraged him. It was pretty classy.
Renee Zellweger - well-her-speech-was-kind-of-re-tar-ded-since-she-kept-tal-king-like-this-to-the-point-of-dri-ving-ev-er-y-one-IN-SANE. Plus, she was the heavy favorite and yet looked like she was in utter shock, which annoyed me.
Sofia Coppola (Best Original Screenplay) - a nice speech; she thanked her dad (surprise surprise), and cousin Nicholas Cage was seen beaming in the audience. Her win makes the Coppolas the second family of three-generation wins (the Houstins being the first). Also, Lost in Translation winning Best Original Screenplay is a good sign for the staying power of the movie; it's traditionally a category that films that don't win Best Picture win, and then go on to become classics. The tradition started with Citizen Kane itself, and other now-classic winners include Fargo, Pulp Fiction, Almost Famous, Thelma and Louise, Witness, Chinatown, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Producers, and more. (Not to mention, like it or not, The Crying Game in '91 - deservedly, in my opinion.)
Original Song - Annie Lennox is extremely scary to look at.
Sean Penn - Penn, who has traditionally been very critical of the Academy, was somewhat persuaded by director Eastwood to come this year (after skipping the three previous times he had been nominated). In his speech, he thanked his wife (actress Robin Wright Penn) for "this roller-coaster ride I'm beginning to enjoy". Does this mean he's toning down the jerk image he's built up ever since he punched a photographer in the face a few years ago? Hmmm...
Most of the other speeches were long lists of thank-yous that weren't much fun to listen to - when will the recipients realize that no one listens to or cares about thirteen million shout-outs that are immediately all forgotten about? Are people really that happy to have their name instantly spoken and then forgotten on national television? Well, it would be pretty cool. But honestly, here was the typical speech of the night:
"Wow, thank you so much. I'd like to thank the Academy, as well as [name], [name], [name], [name], [name], [name], [name], [name], [name], [name], [name]. [commas optional]. Oh, and also [name], [name], and [name]. But especially I'd like to thank [director] for making such a wonderful film and giving me this amazing opportunity. And I love my wife/husband/mom. Thank you."
Luckily, the annoying boringness of the ceremony was broken up a few times with occasional laughs. Billy Crystal was a genuinely funny host this year, his eighth time. Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson had what was probably the first actually funny awards-show banter ever. Adrien Brody winkingly gave himself some mouth spray before announcing Best Actress (Charlize Theron played along, giving him his second completely-undeserving-kiss-with-a-beautiful-person in two years). And most notably, Will Ferrell and Jack Black, the two reigning champions of comedy, had the funniest bit about the song that plays to cut speeches off - they sang the song, entitled "You're Boring", and Ferrell's completely straight, pretend-serious face made the whole thing hilarious.
So overall it was kind of boring - yet deeply, deeply satisfying to see The Lord of the Rings finally get the monumental respect it deserved. Looking at the Adapted Screenplay category though, I realized what a great year it was for movies (don't listen to any critics you might have heard - they ALWAYS say EVERY year that it was an awful year for movies). But seriously - American Splendor, City of God? Lost in Translation? 21 Grams? Some great stuff. Not to mention the best comic-book adaptation yet - X2: X-Men United. Even the Matrix trilogy was sorta-kinda salvaged after the general crappiness that was Reloaded (although Revolutions' ending still didn't make much sense).
All right, that's all I got. Plus, I've waited too long to write this so I better put it up ASAP (that's pronounced "AY-saap", not "AY-ES-AY-PEE", folks). Next article will probably be about my best films of 2003 (it's not coming out until now because I'm still playing catch-up to all the films I needed to see). Catch you all on the flip side.
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