70th Academy Awards

Infobox Academy Awards | name = 70th


date = Monday, March 23, 1998
site = Shrine Auditorium
Los Angeles, California
host = Billy Crystal
producer = Gil Cates
director = Louis J. Horvitz
duration = 3 hours, 45 minutes
network = ABC
ratings = 57.25 million
35.32 (Nielsen ratings)
last = 69th
next = 71stThe 70th Academy Awards were noted for their high ratings and the 11 wins racked up by the Best Picture, "Titanic". Billy Crystal hosted the ceremony for the sixth time, and received an Emmy award for his performance.

Although the evening was dominated by "Titanic", the picture notably did not receive any awards for its actors' performances. Other pictures picked up the acting awards; "Good Will Hunting", which was nominated for 9 awards and won 2; "L.A. Confidential", which was nominated for 9 awards and won 2; and "As Good As It Gets", which was nominated for 7 awards and won 2.

Due to the popularity of "Titanic", which was still the #1 movie at the box office at the time, the show earned its highest ratings ever in history based on audience size (57.25 million), though the highest rated show based on percentage of households watching was in 1970.

Notable quotes

* "I'm the king of the world!" - "Titanic" director James Cameron, on winning the Best Director Oscar.
* "My friend James Cameron and I made three films together: "True Lies", "Terminator", and "". Of course, that was during his early low-budget art-house period." - Arnold Schwarzenegger, presenting an Award.
* "I just soiled myself." - actor Mike Myers, on retrieving an envelope from animal actor Bart the Bear, who was brought on stage
* "Comic Relief is going to be rough this year." - host Billy Crystal, immediately following the Oscar win of his friend and Comic Relief co-creator Robin Williams.
* "I know Gil Cates is startin' to sweat back there." - Jack Nicholson, on producer Cates' reaction to his Best Actor acceptance speech running long.
* "Matt Damon must feel like he's on the Seniors' Tour." - Billy Crystal, regarding Matt Damon competing for Best Actor against four veteran actors - Jack Nicholson, Peter Fonda, Robert Duvall, and Dustin Hoffman.
* "This may be the first time I'm speechless." - Robin Williams' first words upon receiving the Best Supporting Actor award
* "Oh, what a shocker." - Madonna on opening the envelope revealing the winner of Best Song was the Celine Dion performed "My Heart Will Go On"
* "I hope we can begin to embrace every race. Diversity is the ingenue, she's the true American star, and she's ready for her close-up." – Chris Tashima accepting the Live Action Short Film Award, for "Visas and Virtue"

Winners & Nominees

Best Picture

"Titanic"
*"As Good as It Gets"
*"The Full Monty"
*"Good Will Hunting"
*"L.A. Confidential"

Best Actor in a Leading Role

"As Good as It Gets - Jack Nicholson"
*"Good Will Hunting - Matt Damon"
*"Wag The Dog - Dustin Hoffman"
*"The Apostle - Robert Duvall"
*"Ulee's Gold - Peter Fonda"

Best Actress in a Leading Role

"As Good as It Gets - Helen Hunt"
*"Titanic - Kate Winslet"
*"Afterglow - Julie Christie"
*"The Wings of the Dove - Helena Bonham Carter"
*"Mrs. Brown - Judi Dench"

Best Actor in a Supporting Role

"Good Will Hunting - Robin Williams"
*"As Good as It Gets - Greg Kinnear"
*"Jackie Brown - Robert Forster"
*"Boogie Nights - Burt Reynolds"
*"Amistad - Anthony Hopkins"

Best Actress in a Supporting Role

"L.A. Confidential - Kim Basinger"
*"Titanic - Gloria Stuart"
*"In & Out - Joan Cusack"
*"Boogie Nights - Julianne Moore"
*"Good Will Hunting - Minnie Driver"

Best Director

"Titanic - James Cameron"
*"Good Will Hunting - Gus Van Sant"
*"L.A. Confidential - Curtis Hanson"
*"The Sweet Hereafter - Atom Egoyan"
*"The Full Monty - Peter Cattaneo"

Best Original Screenplay

"Good Will Hunting - Matt Damon and Ben Affleck"
*"Deconstructing Harry - Woody Allen"
*"The Full Monty - Simon Beaufoy"
*"As Good as It Gets - Mark Andrus and James L. Brooks"
*"Boogie Nights - Paul Thomas Anderson"

Best Adapted Screenplay

"L.A. Confidential - Brian Helgeland and Curtis Hanson"
*"Donnie Brasco - Paul Attanasio"
*"The Sweet Hereafter - Atom Egoyan"
*"Wag the Dog - David Mamet and Hilary Henkin"
*"The Wings of the Dove - Hossein Amini"

Best Cinematography

"Titanic - Russell Carpenter"

Best Art Direction-Set Decoration

"Titanic - Peter Lamont and Michael Ford"

Best Costume Design

"Titanic - Deborah Lynn Scott"

Best Sound

"Titanic - Gary Rydstrom , Tom Johnson, Gary Summers and Mark Ulano"

Best Film Editing

"Titanic - Conrad Buff IV , James Cameron and Richard A. Harris"

Best Effects, Sound Effects Editing

"Titanic - Tom Bellfort and Christopher Boyes"

Best Effects, Visual Effects

"Titanic - Robert Legato , Mark A. Lasoff , Thomas L. Fisher and Michael Kanfer"

Best Makeup

"Men in Black - Rick Baker and David LeRoy Anderson"

Best Music, Original Song

"Titanic - James Horner and Will Jennings for the song My Heart Will Go On"

Best Music, Original Dramatic Score

"Titanic - James Horner"

Best Music, Original Musical or Comedy Score

"The Full Monty - Anne Dudley"

Best Short Film, Animated

"Geri's Game"
*"Famous Fred"
*"Redux Riding Hood"
*"Rusalka"
*"La Vieille dame et les pigeons"

Best Short Film, Live Action

"Visas and Virtue - Chris Tashima and Chris Donahue"
*"Dance Lexie Dance - Tim Loane"
*"It's Good to Talk"
*"Skal vi være kærester? (Sweethearts?)"
*"Wolfgang - Anders Thomas Jensen and Kim Magnusson"

Best Documentary, Short Subjects

"A Story of Healing"
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*"Amazon"
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Best Documentary, Features

"The Long Way Home"
*"4 Little Girls"
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*"Colors Straight Up"
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Best Foreign Language Film

"Karakter - The Netherlands"
*"Jenseits der Stille" (Germany)
*"O Que É Isso, Companheiro?" (Brazil)
*"Secretos del corazón" (Spain)
*"Vor" (Russia)

Honorary Oscars

Stanley Donen received an honorary Oscar for his years as a director on such musicals including "Singin' in the Rain".

Special events

* As a celebration of 70 years of Oscar, the Academy showed clips of all the films that won Best Picture in the past 70 years. The Academy also invited 70 Oscar winning actors and the camera went face to face announcing the actor or actress and the film they won the Oscar for and the year as well.

* Mike Myers introduced a montage of film clips featuring animal actors. The final clip of the montage was a growling shot of Bart the Bear (a large kodiak bear) from the film "The Edge". A curtain then rose to reveal Bart on stage, wearing a bow tie and holding a wooden "envelope", which Myers was to retrieve from the bear before presenting the next award. Returning to the microphone, Myers quipped "I just soiled myself."

* Fay Wray made a special guest appearance. Billy Crystal introduced a small film of her work in RKO's King Kong (1933) and then he climbed off the stage, standing next to Miss Wray, and announced her presence. He described her as the "Beauty who charmed the Beast" and the "Legendary Fay Wray". A surprised Miss Wray rose from her seat to instantaneous rapturous applause and waved to the whole surprised and thrilled audience. Interestingly, she happened to be sitting right near James Cameron, and he can be seen just behind Fay Wray in most of the shots of her.

In memoriam

Presented by Whoopi Goldberg. The Academy takes a special moment to remember those involved with motion pictures that died in the previous year. Those that were featured: Lloyd Bridges, Richard Jaeckel, composer Saul Chaplin, cinematographer Stanley Cortez, William Hickey, screenwriter Paul Jarrico, screenwriter Dorothy Kingsley, hairstylist Sydney Guilaroff, editor William H. Reynolds, Billie Dove, oceanographic filmmaker Jacques Cousteau, Stubby Kaye, Red Skelton, producer Dawn Steel, Toshiro Mifune, Brian Keith, Chris Farley, executive Leo Jaffe, director Samuel Fuller, Burgess Meredith, J.T. Walsh, Robert Mitchum and James Stewart.