75th Academy Awards

Infobox Academy Awards | name = 75th


date = Sunday, March 23, 2003
site=Kodak Theatre
Hollywood, Los Angeles, California
host = Steve Martin
producer = Gil Cates
director = Louis J. Horvitz
preshow = Jann Carl
Chris Connelly
Shaun Robinson
network = ABC
duration = 3 hours, 30 minutes
ratings = 33.04 million
20.58 (Nielsen ratings)
last = 74th
next = 76th

The 75th Academy Awards, honoring the best in film for 2002, were held on March 23 2003, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, California. It was produced by Gil Cates and hosted by Steve Martin, who also hosted the 73rd Academy Awards.

The nominees were announced on February 11, 2003 by Academy president Frank Pierson and actress Marisa Tomei, at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in the Academy's Beverly Hills headquarters. "Chicago" led the nominations with 13 nominations. The film went on to win six Oscars including Best Picture, the first musical to win this category since "Oliver!" in 1968.

Winners & Nominees

Best Picture

"Chicago"
*"Gangs of New York"
*"The Hours"
*""
*"The Pianist"

Best Actor in a Leading Role

"The Pianist - Adrian Brody"
*"About Schmidt - Jack Nicholson"
*"Adaptation. - Nicolas Cage"
*"Gangs of New York - Daniel Day-Lewis"
*"The Quiet American - Michael Caine"

Best Actress in a Leading Role

"The Hours - Nicole Kidman"
*"Chicago - Renee Zellweger"
*"Far from Heaven - Julianne Moore"
*"Frida - Salma Hayek"
*"Unfaithful - Diane Lane"

Best Actor in a Supporting Role

"Adaptation. - Chris Cooper"
*"Catch Me If You Can - Christopher Walken"
*"Chicago - John C. Reilly"
*"The Hours - Ed Harris"
*"Road to Perdition - Paul Newman"

Best Actress in a Supporting Role

"Chicago - Catherine Zeta-Jones"
*"About Schmidt - Kathy Bates"
*"Adaptation. - Meryl Streep"
*"Chicago - Queen Latifah"
*"The Hours - Julianne Moore"

Best Director

"The Pianist - Roman Polanski"
*"Chicago - Rob Marshall"
*"Gangs of New York - Martin Scorsese"
*"The Hours - Stephen Daldry"
*"Talk to Her - Pedro Almodovar"

Best Original Screenplay

"Talk to Her - Pedro Almodovar"
*"Far from Heaven - Todd Haynes"
*"Gangs of New York - Jay Cocks , Steve Zaillian and Kenneth Lonergan"
*"My Big Fat Greek Wedding - Nia Vardalos"
*"Y Tu Mamá También - Carlos Cuaron and Alfonso Cuaron"'

Best Adapted Screenplay

"The Pianist - Ronald Harwood"
*"About a Boy - Peter Hedges , Chris Weitz and Paul Weitz"
*"Adaptation. - Charlie Kaufman and Donald Kaufman"
*"Chicago - Bill Condon"
*"The Hours - David Hare"

Best Cinematography

"Road to Perdition - Conrad L. Hall"

Best Art Direction-Set Decoration

"Chicago - John Mhyre and Gordon Sim"

Best Costume Design

"Chicago - Colleen Atwood"

Best Sound

"Chicago - Michael Minkler , David Lee and Dominick Tavella"

Best Editing

"Chicago - Martin Walsh"

Best Sound Editing

" - Mike Hopkins and Ethan Van der Ryn"

Best Visual Effects

" - Jim Rygiel , Randall William Cook , Alex Funke and Joe Letteri"

Best Makeup

"Frida - John E. Jackson and Beatrice De Alba"

Best Music, Original Song

"8 Mile - Marshall Mathers , Jeff Bass and Luis Resto for the song Lose Yourself"

Best Music, Original Score

"Frida - Elliot Goldenthal"

Best Short Film, Animated

"The Chubbchubbs!"

Best Short Film, Live Action

"This Charming Man"

Best Documentary, Short Subjects

"Twin Towers"

Best Documentary, Features

"Bowling for Columbine"

Best Foreign Language Film

"Nowhere in Africa - Germany"

Best Animated Feature

"Spirited Away"

pecial Honors

Multiple Nominations

The following eight films received multiple nominations.

* 13 nominations
** "Chicago"

* 10 nominations
** "Gangs of New York"

* 9 nominations
** "The Hours"

* 7 nominations
** "The Pianist"

* 6 nominations
** "Frida"
**""

*5 nominations
**"Road to Perdition"

*4 nominations
**"Adaptation."

*2 nominations
**"Talk to Her"

Multiple Awards

The following four films each multiple awards.

*6 awards
**"Chicago"

*3 awards
**"The Pianist"

*2 awards
**"Frida"
**""

Presenters and Performers

Presenters

*Ben Affleck- Best Original Screenplay
*Julie Andrews
*Gael García Bernal- Introduced the Performance of "Burn it Blue".
*Halle Berry- Best Actor
*Jennifer Connelly- Best Supporting Actor
*Sean Connery- Best Supporting Actress
*Geena Davis
*Olivia de Havilland
*Cameron Diaz- Best Animated Feature
*Kirk Douglas- Co-Presented Best Motion Picture.
*Michael Douglas- Co-Presented Best Motion Picture.
*Colin Farrell
*Harrison Ford- Best Director
*Brendan Fraser
*Jennifer Garner
*Richard Gere
*Salma Hayek- Best Foreign Language Film
*Dustin Hoffman
*Kate Hudson (Sci-tech Awards)
*Diane Lane- Best Documentary Feature
*Jennifer Lopez
*Matthew McConaughey
*Julianne Moore
*Keanu Reeves
*Julia Roberts
*Meg Ryan
*Susan Sarandon- In Memorium Tribute
*Meryl Streep- Honorary Award
*Barbra Streisand- Best Original Song
*John Travolta
*Jack Valenti
*Nia Vardalos
*Denzel Washington- Best Actress
*Renée Zellweger- Best Original Score

Performers

*Queen Latifah and Catherine Zeta-Jones-performed "I Move On" from "Chicago"
*Paul Simon-performed -"Father and Daughter" from "The Wild Thornberrys Movie"
*Lila Downs and Caetano Veloso- performed "Burn It Blue" from "Frida"
*U2-performed"The Hands That Built America" from "Gangs of New York"

News and recap

The ceremony was originally intended to be an especially festive celebration of the ceremony's 75th anniversary. However, it was muted five days before the show by the onset of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, which coincided almost exactly with the ceremony. As a result, the hype and tone of the show were scaled back, and some Award winners (notably Adrien Brody and Michael Moore) took the opportunity to voice their opposition to the invasion.

The ceremony was watched by 33.04 million people with 20.58% of households watching according to Nielsen ratings. [ [http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2003-03-25-oscar-ratings_x.htm USATODAY.com - War coverage steals some of Academy Awards' thunder ] ] For the second time in the telecast's history, it fell second place to a different program ("American Idol") for the week. It remained the least watched and lowest rated telecast (until 2008) since ratings were recorded beginning in 1967 and audience size was measured since 1974.

The kiss

Halle Berry was presenting the Oscar for Best Actor which went to Adrien Brody. As he got on stage he shocked everyone (especially Halle Berry) by passionately kissing her. When the kiss was done Adrien turned back to Halle Berry, quipping "Bet you didn't know that was in the gift bag."

The kiss was subsequently parodied in other awards ceremonies. One such reenactment occurred between Adrien Brody and Queen Latifah when they were presenting the Best Kiss at the 2003 MTV Movie Awards. Additionally, at the 76th Academy Awards, Brody freshened up with a spritz of breath spray before presenting the Best Actress award to Charlize Theron.

Michael Moore controversy

When Michael Moore received the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature for "Bowling for Columbine", he took the opportunity to voice his opinions on the "fictitious war" in Iraq and our "fictitious President", with a mixture of applause and boos ensuing from the audience.

After he left the stage, host Steve Martin broke the tension in the room by joking, "It's so sweet backstage. The Teamsters are helping Michael Moore into the trunk of his limo." The audience erupted in laughter and applause.

pecial events

This year, the actors nominated for an Oscar did not have a clip shown of their performance as their names were announced, as had been done in years past. Instead, the Academy showed clips from every single actor or actress that ever won an Oscar for Best Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor or Actress in the past 75 years.

As a celebration of 75 years of the Academy, the Academy invited a large portion of actors and actresses that were past Oscar winners, although this year there were 59 past winners as opposed to the 70 that attended the 70th Academy Awards. [ [http://www.whatever-dude.com/posts/328.shtml Whatever-Dude :: The 75th Academy Awards Review ] ]

In memoriam

Presented by Susan Sarandon, a montage honoring those in the film industry that died in the last year. Among those featured included: executive Lew Wasserman, art director Richard Sylbert, Eddie Bracken, director George Sidney, Katy Jurado, producer Jack Brodsky, Dudley Moore, director John Frankenheimer, Rod Steiger, writer Norman Panama, Horst Buchholz, director J. Lee Thompson, Leo McKern, Milton Berle, animator Ward Kimball, Richard Crenna, documentary filmmaker Charles Guggenheim, Rosemary Clooney, writer Daniel Taradash, Signe Hasso, composer Walter Scharf, Kim Hunter, lyricist Adolph Green, Alberto Sordi, cinematographer Conrad Hall, director George Roy Hill, Richard Harris, James Coburn and director Billy Wilder.

Memorable quotes

*"We live in fictitious times. We live in the time where we have fictitious election results that elect a fictitious president. We live in a time where we have a man sending us to war for fictitious reasons. Whether it's the fiction of duct tape or fiction of orange alerts, we are against this war, Mr. Bush. Shame on you, Mr. Bush, shame on you. And any time you got the Pope and the Dixie Chicks against you, your time is up." - Michael Moore, as he received his Oscar for Best Documentary "Bowling for Columbine."

*"It was so sweet backstage, you should have seen it. The Teamsters were helping Michael Moore into the trunk of his limo." – host Steve Martin, after Michael Moore's acceptance speech

*"In "About Schmidt", Jack Nicholson plays a retired insurance executive who climbs into a hot tub with Kathy Bates...But hey, who hasn't?" - host Steve Martin.

*"Every time an Academy Award is handed out, another agent gets his wings." - Kathy Bates.

References

External links

* [http://www3.oscars.org/press/pressreleases/2003/ Academy 2003 Press Releases]
* [http://web.archive.org/web/20041013225006/www.eonline.com/Features/Awards/Oscars2003/ E! Online - Academy Awards 2003 via Web Archive]
* [http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2003/oscars/ CNN Awards Spotlight - Academy Awards]