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"Beautiful Mind" and "Lord of the Rings" lead the pack at 74th Oscars

by Ian Waldron-Mantgani, March 25, 2002

I'm writing this at 7 o'clock in the morning, having stayed up all night watching the Oscarcast with a trio of friends. No real reason for including that titbit, other than to let y'all know how much I'm yawning and how blurred I'm finding my vision. (I'm also making a good deal of spelling mistakes, although hopefully they'll be corrected by the time you read this.)

Somehow I didn't find this year's show very suspenseful, despite the fact that every category was unpredictable. Maybe it's because when things are so hard to predict, there's little to do but sit back and surrender.

I noticed so many traditions broken that after a while I was nonchalantly expecting the unexpected. To wit:

*Ron Howard, the actor turned director who made "Cocoon", "Parenthood" and "Apollo 13", and who has never been Oscared before, finally got his dues. "A Beautiful Mind" scooped four awards, with Howard winning for Best Picture and Best Director.

*Halle Berry, so emotional upon accepting her award that I feared she might be having a seizure, became the first African-American to win an Oscar as a leading actress. Denzel Washington's win for Best Actor also made this the first year in which two black actors took home Academy Awards, and if my knowledge of movie trivia is correct, Washington is now the first black actor to win more than one competitive Oscar.

*Composer Randy Newman, nominated sixteen times before, finally won an Academy Award for his songwriting duties on "Monsters, Inc."

*Woody Allen, who has never attended the Academy Awards, not even when nominated, showed up to present a montage of clips from classic movies shot in New York, one of the night's several subtle tributes to the September 11 terrorist attacks.

*Academy voters showed more thought than I expected in many of the technical categories. Instead of handing awards left and right to "Lord of the Rings", the Oscars for Film Editing and Sound went to "Black Hawk Down", while "Moulin Rouge" won for its costumes and production design. "The Man Who Wasn't There" was expected to win the cinematography prize, but "Rings" did pull off a nice surprise in that race.

*Best Foreign Language Film was not won by popular favourite "Amelie", but by Bosnian war satire "No Man's Land". And in the Supporting Actor category, where pundits were debating whether smart choice Ben Kinglsey or popular choice Ian McKellen would win, Jim Broadbent snuck to glory for his role as John Bayley in "Iris".

*Less a break from tradition than a bizarre twist of fate... Akiva Goldsman -- the guy who scripted "A Time to Kill", "Lost in Space", "Batman Forever", "Batman & Robin" and "Practical Magic" -- got the Best Adapted Screenplay award for "A Beautiful Mind".

And there we have it. "A Beautiful Mind" and "Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" both scooped four Oscars; "Moulin Rouge" and "Black Hawk Down" each won two. Of my predictions, 55% were correct -- which is pretty pathetic, but as I've said, this was an unpredictable year. A full list of winners is below. Now you will excuse me while I go get coffee.

COPYRIGHT© 2002 Ian Waldron-Mantgani

Best Picture: "A Beautiful Mind" - Brian Grazer, Ron Howard (producers)

Directing: "A Beautiful Mind" - Ron Howard

Actor: Denzel Washington, "Training Day"

Actress: Halle Berry, "Monster's Ball"

Supporting Actor: Jim Broadbent, "Iris"

Supporting Actress: Jennifer Connelly, "A Beautiful Mind"

Foreign Language Film: "No Man's Land" - Bosnia-Herzegovina

Animated Feature: "Shrek"

Original Screenplay: "Gosford Park"

Adapted Screenplay: "A Beautiful Mind"

Cinematography: "Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring"

Film Editing: "Black Hawk Down"

Original Song: "If I Didn't Have You", from "Monsters, Inc."

Original Score: "Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring"

Art Direction: "Moulin Rouge"

Costume Design: "Moulin Rouge"

Visual Effects: "Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring"

Makeup: "Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring"

Sound: "Black Hawk Down"

Sound Effects Editing: "Pearl Harbor"

Documentary Feature: "Murder on a Sunday Morning"

Documentary Short Subject: "Thoth"

Live Action Short Film: "The Accountant"

Animated Short: "For the Birds"

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