The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences had a few surprises up its sleeve tonight, though for the most part experts predicted the winners accurately.
Gladiator, which many thought was a shoe-in for Best Picture, was. In a more surprising addition, the film’s star, Russell Crowe, beat out Golden Globe winner Tom Hanks for the Best Actor award. Gladiator‘s chief rival for Best Picture, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, had to be content with the prize for Best Foreign Language Film as well as several technical awards.
Steven Soderbergh seemed surprised to find himself the proud owner of a new gold statue when he was awarded the Best Director Oscar for Traffic, one of two movies for which he was nominated. A win for Julia Roberts in Erin Brockovich, the other Soderbergh directing venture, was no surprise in the Best Actress category.
In one of the evening’s biggest shockers, Marcia Gay Harden walked away with the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Pollock, upsetting pundit predictions that newcomer Kate Hudson would take home the statuette. Holding back tears, Harden thanked her co-workers and her family for their support throughout her career.
As expected, Benicio Del Toro took home the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his work in Traffic. The actor thanked the members of the Academy, and dedicated his Oscar to the people of Nogales, AZ and Nogales, Mexico, two of the cities where the film Traffic was filmed.
Screenplay awards fell out much as anticipated, with Traffic‘s Stephen Gaghan winning for Best Adapted Screenplay and Cameron Crowe taking home the award for Best Original Screenplay for Almost Famous.
The Oscar for Best Achievement for Costume Design went to Janty Yates for Gladiator, and Goldie Hawn presented the award for the Best Score to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon composer Tan Dun. Crouching Tiger‘s Peter Pau also won for Best Cinematography. The first Oscar awarded this evening, Best Achievement for Art Direction, went to Tim Yip for his work on Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. “I am really nervous…this is the first time I win an Oscar,” Yip said.
Bob Dylan appeared live from Australia, and later accepted the award for Best Song from there as well. His tune “Things Have Changed” is from Wonder Boys.
Several technical awards went out early in the evening; Jon Johnson won for Sound Editing for U-571, and Best Achievement in Visual Effects went to Gladiator. Nominee Kate Hudson presented the award in the Best Makeup category to Rick Baker, a six-time Oscar winner, and Gail Ryan for Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Bob Beemer, Ken Weston and Scott Milan picked up the statue for Best Sound for Gladiator, and that film’s John Nelson, Neil Corbould, Tim Burke and Rob Harvey won for Best Visual Effects. Stephen Mirrione won the Oscar for Best Editing for Traffic.
The Short Subject Documentary award went to Tracy Seretean for Big Mama, and the Documentary Feature award went to Mark Jonathan Harris and Deborah Oppenheimer for Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kinder Transport.
When Quiero Ser” (I Want To Be …) won the award for Best Short Live Action Film, director Florian Gallenberger greeted his native Mexico and thanked his film school for making his dreams come true.
The Best Animated Short Film nominee category followed with Michael Dudok de Wit’s Father and Daughter taking the prize.
The Academy honored director Jack Cardiff with an honorary Academy Award tonight. “For those of us who are 70 years or younger were born, Jack Cardiff was shooting film…and he’s still shooting,” Dustin Hoffman said. As he accepted his award, Cardiff hugged his statue and said, “This has to be a dream.”
Ernest Lehman, screenwriter for such amazing movies as The Sound of Music and Hello, Dolly, was given the Lifetime Achievement Award, as was Gladiator producer Dino De Laurentiis.
In other news, Bob Raime, President of the Academy for five and a half years, told viewers and attendees that he was resigning from office.
