- 79th Academy Awards
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79th Academy Awards 
Date Sunday, February 25, 2007 Site Kodak Theatre
Los Angeles, CaliforniaPre-show Chris Connelly
Lisa Ling
André Leon Talley
Allyson WatermanHost Ellen DeGeneres Producer Laura Ziskin Director Louis J. Horvitz Highlights Best Picture The Departed Most awards The Departed (4) Most nominations Dreamgirls (8) TV in the United States Network ABC Duration 3 hours, 51 minutes Viewership 39.92 million
23.65 (Nielsen ratings)< 78th Academy Awards 80th > The 79th Academy Awards ceremony (also known as the Oscars), honored the best films of 2006 and took place on February 25, 2007 at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood on ABC. Ellen DeGeneres hosted the ceremony for the first time.[1] The producer was Laura Ziskin.[2] The announcers were Don LaFontaine and Gina Tuttle.
The nominees were announced on January 23 at 5:38 a.m. PST (13:38 UTC) by Academy president Sid Ganis and actress Salma Hayek, at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in the Academy's Beverly Hills headquarters. Bolstered by three nominations for Best Song, the musical Dreamgirls received eight nominations, becoming the first film ever to receive the most nominations in a particular Academy Awards ceremony without being nominated for Best Picture. Babel received the second highest number of nominations with seven.
The Departed was the evening's biggest winner taking home four awards including Best Picture, and a long awaited Best Director award for Martin Scorsese. For Scorsese, this was his first victory after losing five nominations in the Best Director category for Raging Bull, The Last Temptation of Christ, Goodfellas, Gangs of New York, and The Aviator, and losing in screenwriting categories for Goodfellas, and The Age of Innocence.
For the second consecutive year, both acting awards for leading roles went to performers portraying real people.
On February 10, 2007, in a ceremony at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, the Academy Awards for Technical Achievement were presented by host Maggie Gyllenhaal.[3]
Contents
Pre-nominations
Several branches of the Academy vote in rounds and then have a final round that determine the nominees of their branch.
Makeup
- Apocalypto
- Click
- Pan's Labyrinth
- Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Mens Chest
- The Prestige
- The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause
- X-Men The Last Stand
Foreign Language Film
- Algeria: Days of Glory
- Canada: Water
- Denmark: After the Wedding
- France: Avenue Montaigne
- Germany: The Lives of Others
- Mexico: Pan's Labyrinth
- The Netherlands: Black Book
- Spain: Volver
- Switzerland: Vitus
Awards
Winners are listed first and highlighted in boldface.[4]
Special honors
- Academy Honorary Award
- The Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award
- In Memoriam
- Presented by Jodie Foster
- The Academy takes a moment to remember those in the film industry that passed away in the previous year: Glenn Ford, Bruno Kirby, Alida Valli, songwriter Betty Comden, Jane Wyatt, Don Knotts, Red Buttons, director Gillo Pontecorvo, Darren McGavin, director Richard Fleischer, cinematographer Sven Nykvist, producer/cartoonist Joseph Barbera, Tamara Dobson, set designer Gretchen Rau, June Allyson, director Gordon Parks, Philippe Noiret, Maureen Stapleton, Jack Wild, director Vincent Sherman, James Doohan, director Shohei Imamura, producer Carlo Ponti, Peter Boyle, cinematographer James Glennon, screenwriter Sidney Sheldon, Jack Palance, Mako, Jack Warden, composer Basil Poledouris, art director Henry Bumstead, screenwriter Jay Presson Allen, and director Robert Altman.
Multiple nominations and awards
The following nineteen films received multiple nominations:
- Eight: Dreamgirls
- Seven: Babel
- Six: Pan's Labyrinth and The Queen
- Five: Blood Diamond and The Departed
- Four: Letters from Iwo Jima, Little Miss Sunshine, Notes on a Scandal, and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
- Three: Apocalypto, Children of Men, and Little Children
- Two: An Inconvenient Truth, Cars, Flags of Our Fathers, The Devil Wears Prada, The Prestige, and United 93
The following five films received multiple awards:
- Four: The Departed
- Three: Pan's Labyrinth (El laberinto del fauno)
- Two: An Inconvenient Truth, Dreamgirls, and Little Miss Sunshine
Presenters and performers
Presenters (in order of appearance)Presenter(s) Category Daniel Craig
Nicole KidmanBest Art Direction Maggie Gyllenhaal Gordon E. Sawyer Award Will Ferrell
Jack Black
John C. ReillyBest Makeup Abigail Breslin
Jaden SmithBest Animated Short Film
Best Live Action Short FilmSteve Carell
Greg KinnearBest Sound Editing Jessica Biel
James McAvoyBest Sound Mixing Rachel Weisz Best Supporting Actor Al Gore
Leonardo DiCaprioAnnouncement regarding the Academy's plans to help the environment Cameron Diaz Best Animated Feature Ben Affleck Introduced writers film montage Helen Mirren
Tom HanksBest Adapted Screenplay Emily Blunt
Anne HathawayBest Costume Design Tom Cruise The Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award Gwyneth Paltrow Best Cinematogrophy Naomi Watts
Robert Downey, Jr.Best Visual Effects Catherine Deneuve
Ken WatanabeIntroudced past Best Foreign Language Film winners montage Clive Owen
Cate BlanchettBest Foreign Language Film George Clooney Best Supporting Actress Eva Green
Gael García BernalBest Documentary Short Subject Jerry Seinfeld Best Documentary Feature Clint Eastwood Academy Honorary Award to Ennio Morricone Hugh Jackman
Penélope CruzBest Original Score Sid Ganis Spoke during a sequence highlighting the Academy's preservation and educational work Tobey Maguire
Kirsten DunstBest Original Screenplay Jennifer Lopez Introduced the Dreamgirls performances Queen Latifah
John TravoltaBest Original Song Will Smith Introduced a montage of films dealing with American politics Kate Winslet Best Film Editing Jodie Foster In Memoriam Tribute Phillip Seymour Hoffman Best Actress Reese Witherspoon Best Actor Francis Ford Coppola
Steven Spielberg
George LucasBest Director Jack Nicholson
Diane KeatonBest Picture Performers (in order of appearance)William Ross, Harold Wheeler, and Marc Shaiman were musical arrangers. Other performers included:
Performer(s) Song Pilobolus Interpretive depictions of films' titles and logos Will Ferrell
Jack Black
John C. Reilly
Marc Shaiman"Comedian at the Oscars" Sound effects choir
Steve SidwellPerformed voice effects to a montage of classic films James Taylor
Randy Newman"Our Town" Melissa Etheridge "I Need to Wake Up" Celine Dion "I Knew I Loved You" Jennifer Hudson
Beyoncé Knowles
Anika Noni Rose
Keith Robinson"Love You I Do"
"Listen"
"Patience"Voting trends
For the second year in a row, no film received more than eight nominations, with the selections scattered among numerous films. Continuing a trend of the previous two years in the major nominations, Academy voters favored films which had struggled at the U.S. box office, although the Best Picture nominees performed slightly better than those of the previous year due to the presence of one sizable hit. The Departed had the best showing through January 21 with $121.7 million, placing the film 17th among the year's releases. However, the next best showing among the five nominees was that of Little Miss Sunshine, which placed 50th with $59.6 million. The Queen ($35.6 million), Babel ($23.7 million) and Letters from Iwo Jima ($2.4 million) completed the Best Picture field, but did not place among the year's top 80 box office hits.
Among the rest of the top 50 releases of 2006 in U.S. box office through the weekend before the nominations, only The Pursuit of Happyness (12th), Borat (15th), The Devil Wears Prada (16th) and Dreamgirls (28th) received nominations for directing, acting or writing, with only Dreamgirls gaining more than one nomination in those areas. The top sixteen films in box office received a total of only thirteen nominations, with four going to the year's top hit, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, and two others in the category of Animated Feature. Six of the ten nominations for Best Actor and Best Actress went to films which had grossed less than $8 million each.
For the second consecutive year, four of the Best Picture nominees were rated R (under 17 requires accompanying adult). Of the 88 nominations awarded to non-documentary feature films (apart from the Foreign Film category), a majority of 56 went to R-rated films (up from 43 one year earlier), 28 to films rated PG-13, two to PG-rated films (down from 16 the year before, and both for Animated Feature) and two to a G-rated film (the final nominee for Animated Feature). In a precise duplication of the previous year, R-rated films captured 32 of the 40 nominations for Best Picture, directing, screenwriting and acting. Non-R-rated films received exactly half of the nominations (24 of 48) in the remaining categories, primarily those in "below the line" areas (the editing, original score and sound editing categories accounted for 13 of the 24 nominations for R-rated films, while the categories for costume design, song, visual effects and animated feature accounted for 14 of the 24 nominations for non-R-rated films).
Peter O'Toole – who received his first nomination for Best Actor 44 years earlier – set a record for most years between a first and most recent nomination in that category, breaking Henry Fonda's record of 41 years (Katharine Hepburn received Best Actress nominations 48 years apart). Kevin O'Connell increased his number of nominations to 19 in the Best Sound Mixing category. He is still without a win.
For the second year in a row, no film received more than four awards, and the awards for Best Picture and the four acting categories again went to five different films. Forest Whitaker won for his performance as Idi Amin, and Helen Mirren won for her role as Elizabeth II, making it the sixth time – and second consecutive year – that both lead acting awards went to performers playing real people; it was also the sixth time in eight years that the Best Actress award has gone to someone playing a real person. No individual person won more than one award.
Ethnic diversity, Mexican and British presence
With five blacks, two Hispanics and an Asian, it was the most ethnically diverse lineup ever among the 20 acting nominees. After decades in which the Oscars were a virtual whites-only club, with minority actors only occasionally breaking into the field, the awards have featured a much broader mix of nominees in the last few years.
A record number of 10 Mexicans received a total of 12 Academy Award nominations. Cinematographer Guillermo Navarro and production designer Eugenio Caballero ended up winning, for their work in Pan's Labyrinth:
- Guillermo Arriaga – Nominated for Best Original Screenplay for Babel.
- Adriana Barraza – Nominated for Best Supporting Actress for Babel.
- Eugenio Caballero – Won Best Production Design for Pan's Labyrinth.
- Fernando Cámara – Nominated for Best Sound Mixing for Apocalypto.
- Alfonso Cuarón – Nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Film Editing for Children of Men.
- Alejandro González Iñárritu – Nominated for Best Picture and Best Director for Babel.
- Emmanuel Lubezki – Nominated for Best Cinematography for Children of Men.
- Guillermo Navarro – Won Best Cinematography for Pan's Labyrinth.
- Alex Rodríguez – Nominated for Best Film Editing for Children of Men.
- Guillermo del Toro – Nominated for Best Original Screenplay for Pan's Labyrinth.
- Pan's Labyrinth – Nominated for Best Foreign Language Film.
Numerous nominees were British; however, only one (Helen Mirren) ended up winning.
- Sacha Baron Cohen – Nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay for Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
- Peter Baynham – Nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay for Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
- Judi Dench – Nominated for Best Actress for Notes on a Scandal
- Stephen Frears – Nominated for Best Director for The Queen
- Paul Greengrass – Nominated for Best Director for United 93
- Andy Harries – Nominated for Best Picture for The Queen
- Anthony Hines – Nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay for Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
- Gil Kenan – Nominated for Best Animated Feature for Monster House
- Christine Langan – Nominated for Best Picture for The Queen
- Patrick Marber – Nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay for Notes on a Scandal
- Paul Massey – Nominated for Achievement in Sound Mixing for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
- Dan Mazer – Nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay for Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
- Helen Mirren – Won Best Actress for The Queen
- Peter Morgan – Nominated for Best Original Screenplay for The Queen
- Lee Orloff – Nominated for Achievement in Sound Mixing for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
- Dick Pope – Nominated for Achievement in Cinematography for The Illusionist
- Tracey Seaward – Nominated for Best Picture for The Queen
- Ivan Sharrock – Nominated for Achievement in Sound Mixing for Blood Diamond
- Kate Winslet – Nominated for Best Actress for Little Children
Notable events
- About one-third of the way through the ceremonies, former U.S. Vice President Al Gore (An Inconvenient Truth) appeared with Best Actor nominee Leonardo DiCaprio (Blood Diamond) to congratulate the organizers for using environmentally friendly practices in producing the show. DiCaprio asked Gore (whose potential candidacy for the presidency had drawn wide speculation) if there was anything he wanted to announce.
“ I guess with a billion people watching, it's as good a time as any. So my fellow Americans, I'm going to take this opportunity right here and now to formally announce my intentions ..., ” - Gore announced, his voice then trailing away as the orchestra cut him off. After accepting Best Documentary along with Davis Guggenheim, he finished his earlier "incomplete" speech that global warming is a moral issue.[5]
- Sacha Baron Cohen was set to present an Academy Award. However, after learning that he could not present the award as his journalist character Borat Sagdiyev, Baron Cohen opted out.[6] This may explain Jerry Seinfeld's surprise appearance. However, Baron Cohen did attend the ceremony as himself, opting only to take the stage if he and his team of writers won the Oscar for Adapted Screenplay (lost to William Monahan for The Departed).
- Jack Black and Will Ferrell opened with a musical number (written by Marc Shaiman, Judd Apatow and Adam McKay) where both actors sing about the lack of Oscar recognition for comedians and improvise by roasting on nominated actors:
- Black to Leonardo DiCaprio: "HEY, LEO! You think you can date supermodels and win awards? I'm gonna elbow you in the larynx!"
- Ferrell to Ryan Gosling: "Ryan Gosling... you're all hip and now. Well, I'm gonna break your hip... RIGHT NOW!"
- Black to Peter O'Toole: "Hey Peter O'Toole... you're all legendary and English. I don't care; I'm gonna beat you to down with my Nickelodeon Award!"
- Ferrell to Mark Wahlberg: "MARK WAHLBERG! WHERE ARE YOU? I won't mess with you. You're actually kinda badass. Once again, I hope we're cool. You are very talented."
- Black to Helen Mirren: "And Helen Mirren? You are just hot. What party are you going to?"
Eventually, John C. Reilly rose from his seat and told the two that instead of fighting, they should star in both comedic and dramatic roles, much like he did ("I chose to be in both Boogie and Talladega Nights"). Black and Ferrell realized that if they took Reilly's advice, an "Helen Mirren and an Oscar will be coming home with me". When Reilly appeared, Ferrell nearly called him "Jack Black", stopping just before he finished the name.
- Intro by Errol Morris, in which nominees and other prominent Hollywood figures poke fun at themselves. Morris produced a similar montage at the 74th Academy Awards (also produced by Laura Ziskin) with the subject being the importance of film.
- The group Pilobolus formed a number of shapes in silhouette behind a white screen. First they formed the shape of an Oscar statuette, then logos for films such as Happy Feet, The Devil Wears Prada, Little Miss Sunshine, and Snakes On a Plane, where the "snakes" played around with DeGeneres. She stated that the members of the group backstage were naked, which may have been true as that is one of the trademarks of the dance group. The one time they appeared in front of the screen to be introduced, they were wearing loose wraps.
- Ellen was talking to audience members in between award presentations. She first talked with Martin Scorsese who was offered a faux script by Ellen that was a cross between Scorsese's Goodfellas and Big Momma's House (one of Ellen's favorite comedies) called Goodmommas and Scorsese joked along saying he was interested. She then spoke with Clint Eastwood who joked that he was jealous that she gave her faux script to Scorsese and not to him. Ellen then asked if he would be in a picture with her for her MySpace page (which can actually be seen there). She first gave her camera to Dina Ruiz, Eastwood's wife who was sitting next to him, but then saw Steven Spielberg and instead wanted him to take the picture. After Spielberg took the first picture, Ellen asked him to take another because it wasn't centered.
- During the foreign language films montage, two different sequences (from No Man's Land and Tsotsi) featuring characters doing a rude finger gesture were censored in the telecast.
- After five previous nominations, with no wins, Martin Scorsese finally won the Academy Award for Best Director. He jokingly retorted, "Could you double-check the envelope, please?"[7]
- Scorsese's win was preceded by a short interlude by his fellow directors and friends Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas. Spielberg and Coppola, having won Oscars for Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan (Spielberg) and The Godfather Part II (Coppola), remarked it is better to receive Oscars than to present them. A stunned Lucas, in a humorous protest, complained "Hey guys, I've never won an Academy Award!" Both Coppola and Spielberg stared in silence for a few moments, until Spielberg jokingly asked, "So why are you here?" Lucas pointed out that he was nominated for Star Wars and American Graffiti, and stated that it's just as great to even get nominated, to which Coppola and Spielberg both said in unison "No, it's not!".
- Jennifer Hudson's win was for her debut film performance. Many industry veterans said it triggered memories of Barbra Streisand winning an Oscar for her debut film, also a musical.
- For the first time since the 30s the majority of the best actor nominations were the only nomination. Only Blood Diamond was nominated for anything else.
- This also marked the first time since the first Oscars that none of the best actor nominations were nominated for best picture.
Ratings
The ceremony attracted 39.92 million viewers with 23.65% of households watching, slightly higher than the last year's ceremony. Among the key audience of adults aged 18 to 49, the Oscars notched a 14.0 rating, essentially flat with the previous year.[8]
Advertisers
At least two advertisers produced special commercials for the Oscar show
- JCPenney's advertisement featured models in attire from their store enacting various scenes from movies including: Singin' in the Rain, Midnight Cowboy, Titanic, Say Anything, Mary Poppins., and "The Birds"
- Apple's first ad for the iPhone, which was released in Apple stores throughout the US on June 29, 2007, featured clips from various films from several decades in which characters answered the phone and said "Hello" including: Lucille Ball in I Love Lucy; Jackie Gleason as Ralph Kramden in The Honeymooners; Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon; Marlon Brando as Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire; Marilyn Monroe as Sugar Kane Kowalczyk in Some Like It Hot; Richard Dreyfuss as Curt Henderson in American Graffiti; Betty Rubble in The Flintstones; Robert Redford as Bob Woodward in All the President's Men; Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly in Back to the Future; Harrison Ford as Jack Ryan in Patriot Games; John Cusack as Rob Gordon in High Fidelity; Audrey Tautou as Amélie Poulain in Amélie; Kevin Spacey as Jack Vincennes in L.A. Confidential; Dustin Hoffman as Bernie Focker in Meet the Fockers; William H. Macy as Jerry Lundegard in Fargo; Will Ferrell as Ron Burgundy in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy; Jeff Bridges playing "The Dude" in The Big Lebowski; Billy Crystal as Harry Burns in When Harry Met Sally...; Cameron Diaz as Natalie Cook in Charlie's Angels; Samuel L. Jackson as John Shaft in Shaft; John Travolta as Castor Troy in Face/Off; Ben Stiller as Derek Zoolander in Zoolander; Michael Douglas as Andrew Shepherd in The American President; and Mr. Incredible in The Incredibles.
- American Express featured Wes Anderson in a lengthy commercial depicting him at work.
- Target Corporation aired a one-minute long TV spot that featured The Beatles's song "Hello, Goodbye". It depicted different products and models displaying items from Target with the words "Hello" and "Goodbuy" periodically flashed on the screen. Shorter versions of the ad appeared prior to the ceremony, particularly at the Golden Globes, but the full one-minute version was not aired until this particular event.
- A controversial advertisement for General Motors (previously shown during Super Bowl XLI on February 4) which had featured an laid off assembly line robot contemplating suicide was shown again during the telecast. As a result of criticism from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention [9] this version had the suicide scene replaced with a scene of the robot watching a car being crushed at a junkyard.
See also
- Submissions for the 79th Academy Award for Best Foreign Film
- 79th Academy Awards nominees and winners
- 2006 Golden Raspberry Awards
References
- ^ "Ellen DeGeneres to Host 79th Academy Awards Presentation". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. 2006-09-07. Archived from the original on 2007-01-11. http://web.archive.org/web/20070111225705/http://www.oscars.org/press/pressreleases/2006/06.09.07.html. Retrieved 2007-01-12.
- ^ "Laura Ziskin Returns As Telecast Producer for 79th Academy Awards". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. 2006-07-21. Archived from the original on 2006-09-29. http://web.archive.org/web/20060929140646/http://www.oscars.org/press/pressreleases/2006/06.07.21.html. Retrieved 2007-01-12.
- ^ "2006 Scientific and Technical Awards". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. 2007-02-12. http://old.oscars.org/scitech/2006/index.html. Retrieved 2009-07-28.
- ^ "The 79th Academy Awards (2007) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. http://www.oscars.org/awards/academyawards/legacy/ceremony/79th-winners.html. Retrieved 2011-11-20.
- ^ Yahoo.com. Violent thriller "Departed" blows away Oscars competition (Yahoo! News with Reuters). Accessed February 26, 2007.
- ^ IMDb.com, IMDb's News archives., accessed February 26, 2007.
- ^ Oscar.com [1], accessed December 17, 2007.
- ^ The Envelope: Oscar telecast ratings
- ^ AFSP.org (2007-02-06). "AFSP Issues Statement to General Motors Regarding Super Bowl Ad". http://www.afsp.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.viewpage&page_id=93CA6FF0-7E90-9BD4-C1D8809C1CBC8069. Retrieved 2007-02-09.
External links
- Official websites
- Academy 2007 press releases (includes all official presenter & performer announcements)
- List of eligible films
- The Oscars at YouTube (run by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences)
- News resources
- ABC News - 79th Academy Awards coverage
- CNN Awards Spotlight: Academy Awards
- Yahoo! Movies - 80th Academy Awards
- The Envelope.com with contributions by Paul Sheehan
- Analysis
- Other resources
Categories:- Academy Awards ceremonies
- 2006 film awards
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