74th Academy Awards

Infobox Academy Awards | name = 74th


date = Sunday, March 24, 2002
site=Kodak Theatre
Hollywood, Los Angeles, California
host = Whoopi Goldberg
producer = Laura Ziskin
director = Louis J. Horvitz
duration = 4 hours, 23 minutes
network = ABC
ratings = 40.54 million
24.22% Nielsen ratings
last = 73rd
next = 75th

The 74th Academy Awards, honoring the best in film for 2001, were held on March 24 2002, for the first time at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, California. They were hosted by Whoopi Goldberg. The ceremony was historically notable for honoring two African American actors for their Leading Roles. Laura Ziskin ("Spider-Man" producer) was executive producer for the first time making her the first woman to solo produce the telecast. She also produced the 2007 telecast. The telecast, which was shown in the United States on ABC, is currently the longest to date.

Winners & Nominees

Best Picture

"A Beautiful Mind"
*"Gosford Park"
*"In the Bedroom"
*""
*"Moulin Rouge!"

Best Actor in a Leading Role

"Training Day - Denzel Washington"
*"A Beautiful Mind - Russell Crowe"
*"Ali - Will Smith"
*"I Am Sam - Sean Penn"
*"In the Bedroom - Tom Wilkinson"

Best Actress in a Leading Role

"Monster's Ball - Halle Berry"
*"Bridget Jones's Diary - Renee Zellweger"
*"In the Bedroom - Sissy Spacek"
*"Iris - Judi Dench"
*"Moulin Rouge! - Nicole Kidman"

Best Actor in a Supporting Role

"Iris - Jim Broadbent"
*"Ali - Jon Voight"
*" - Ian McKellen"
*"Sexy Beast - Ben Kingsley"
*"Training Day - Ethan Hawke"

Best Actress in a Supporting Role

"A Beautiful Mind - Jennifer Connelly"
*"Gosford Park - Helen Mirren"
*"Gosford Park - Maggie Smith"
*"In the Bedroom - Marisa Tomei"
*"Iris - Kate Winslet"

Best Director

"A Beautiful Mind - Ron Howard"
*"Black Hawk Down - Ridley Scott"
*"Gosford Park - Robert Altman"
*" - Peter Jackson"
*"Mulholland Dr. - David Lynch"

Best Original Screenplay

"Gosford Park - Julian Fellowes"
*"Amelie - Guillaume Laurant and Jean-Pierre Jeunet"
*"Memento - Christopher Nolan and Jonathan Nolan"
*"Monster's Ball - Milo Addica and Will Rokos"
*"The Royal Tenenbaums - Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson"

Best Adapted Screenplay

"A Beautiful Mind - Akiva Goldsman"
*"Ghost World - Daniel Clowes and Terry Zwigoff"
*"In the Bedroom - Todd Field and Robert Festinger"
*" - Peter Jackson , Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens"
*"Shrek - Ted Elliot , Terry Rossio , Joe Stillman and Roger S. H. Schulman"

Best Cinematography

" - Andrew Lesnie"

Best Art Direction-Set Decoration

"Moulin Rouge! - Catherine Martin and Brigitte Broch"

Best Costume Design

"Moulin Rouge! - Catherine Martin and Angus Strathie"

Best Sound

"Black Hawk Down - Michael Minkler , Myron Nettinga and Chris Munro"

Best Editing

"Black Hawk Down - Pietro Scalia"

Best Sound Editing

"Pearl Harbor - Christopher Boyes and George Watters II"

Best Effects, Visual Effects

" - Jim Rygiel , Randall William Cook , Richard Taylor and Mark Stetson"

Best Makeup

" - Peter Owen and Richard Taylor"

Best Music, Original Song

"Monsters, Inc. - Randy Newman for the song If I Didn't Have You"

Best Music, Original Score

" - Howard Shore"

Best Short Film, Animated

"For the Birds"

Best Short Film, Live Action

"The Accountant"

Best Documentary, Short Subjects

"Thoth"

Best Documentary, Features

"Murder on a Sunday Morning"

Best Foreign Language Film

"No Man's Land - Bosnia"

Best Animated Feature

"Shrek"

Overview

The 74th Academy Awards ceremony was significant for a number of reasons. It saw the return of the Academy Awards celebrations to Hollywood, after more than forty years away, taking place at the brand new Kodak Theatre. As a result of the new facility, the ceremony was the first to be telecasted to domestic audience on ABC in High Definition due the vast capacity for HDTV equipment that the Kodak Theatre could utilize. Instead of a typical scenery, HD screens were used throughout the ceremony much similar to the technologically ambitious design at the 72nd Academy Awards (that was the first time an HD set was used). The visual graphics and idents were designed by Imaginary Forces (who designed graphics for several TV shows such as Ally McBeal and movies such as Mission Impossible) using a 1080i "gold circles" motif consisting of gold circles that panned through the screen or rotated rapidly. The "gold circles" motif was designed in order for viewers at home to able to watch the ceremony in High Definition.

The Oscar ceremony had several young up and coming actors and actresses to present a few of the awards. Among them included Ryan Phillippe, Reese Witherspoon, Josh Hartnett, Kirsten Dunst and Tobey Maguire.

The ceremony drew its lowest ratings since 1996 with an estimated 40.54 million watching and 24.87 households watching.

Furthermore the tone of this show was quieted by the recent occurrence of the attacks on September 11. Just as the 53rd Primetime Emmy Awards were postponed in 2001, many wondered if the Oscars would be postponed as well. Frank Pierson, then president of the Academy stated that the Oscars would proceed as scheduled, and to postpone would mean that "the terrorists have won". However, the red carpet festivities prior to the awards, though not canceled, were severely curtailed as now the availabity of the bleacher seats were determined by a lottery rather than the first come, first serve basis. Also, there were 26 references to the attacks during the telecast. [Giovanni, Joseph: "9/11 by the Numbers", "New York Magazine", 16 September 2002, page 54.]

pecial Events

Woody Allen made his first ever appearance at this year's Oscar ceremony to present a tribute to films shot in New York City, in the wake of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center.

There was a tribute to the popular scores for motion pictures in the past 74 years.

Documentary filmmaker Errol Morris, who would later win Best Documentary at the 76th Academy Awards, made a [http://www.errolmorris.com/content/shortfilms/oscarmovie.html short film] that was shown during the ceremony. The film shows almost 100 people discussing movies. Those featured range from Laura Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev to Iggy Pop and Lou Reed to Kenneth Arrow (1972 Nobel Laureate in Economics) to Morris' son Hamilton. Morris would again make a short film similar to this one except the subject being the 177 nominees of the 79th Academy Awards five years later (also produced by Zinskin).

Entertainment during one segment of the ceremony was provided by Cirque du Soleil. This was the first time a big lavish production was used since the 61st Academy Awards (infamous for its Rob Lowe/Snow White blunder).

Before the start of every commercial break (except the one after the "In Memoriam" tribute), famous people ranging from famous actors to athletes to politicians discussed their favorite movie moments.

Winners

The ceremony also saw both the Best Actor and Best Actress Oscars awarded to African-American actors for the first time in Academy Award history; this, in addition to Sidney Poitier winning the Lifetime Achievement award, led some to dub the ceremony The Bloscars and the Blackademy Awards. However,some controversy was sparked after Denzel Washington's win. Russell Crowe was the front runner for the award, but the BAFTA controversy, turned the Academy voters against him.

Randy Newman, who at the time had the distinction of most nominations without winning, would finally break his curse and win the Oscar for Best Song for Monsters Inc.'s "If I Didn't Have You". After receiving an enthusiastic standing ovation, a bemused but emotional Newman began [http://www.anecdotage.com/index.php?aid=16554 his acceptance speech] with "I don't want your pity!"

The 74th Academy Awards would be the first year that the award for Best Animated Feature was presented. According to the rules, at least three animated features have to be widely released in a particular year for the award to appear on the ballot.

Notable Quotations

*"Forty years I've been chasing Sidney, they finally give it to me. What do they do? They give it to him the same night." - Denzel Washington upon accepting his Best Actor award, commenting on Sidney Poitier's Oscars.
*"For those of you keeping track, the score is Brilliant Mathematicians -2, Hobbits-4." - Whoopi Goldberg, mid-way through the evening, commenting on the race between the two Oscar front-runners that night, "A Beautiful Mind" and "". Both would end up splitting the number of wins.
*"I love my life." - Julia Roberts, upon opening the Best Actor envelope and seeing the winner was friend Denzel Washington. Roberts was widely criticized for the comment, which was perceived as self-centered and an effort to make the moment "about her" rather than the winner. But this also be noted as Julia being "in the moment" due to the circumstances.

Partial list of Presenters and Performers

Presenters

*Tom Cruise- Introduced Errol Morris' Short Film.
*Denzel Washington- Presented the 1st Honorary Award
*Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst- Best Visual Effects
*Kevin Spacey- In Memorium Tribute
*Barbra Streisand- Presented the 2nd Honorary Award
*Russell Crowe- Best Actress
*Julia Roberts- Best Actor

Performers

*John Williams served as the awards musical conductor, and in addition, conducted a tribute to the past musical scores from motion pictures.
*Randy Newman and John Goodman performed "If I Didn't Have You" from Monsters Inc..
*Cirque du Soleil gave a guest performance.

In Memoriam

Presented by Kevin Spacey. The Academy first takes a moment of silence to remember those Americans lost in the September 11th terrorist attacks. The audience takes its moment of silence and with that it is then to take a look at those Hollywood icons that died in the previous year: Jack Lemmon, Nigel Hawthorne, Beatrice Straight, Eileen Heckart, Jason Miller, Ann Sothern, Harold Russell, Kim Stanley, director Michael Ritchie, director Ted Demme, director Budd Boetticher, director Hiroshi Teshigihara, director Herbert Ross, producer Julia Phillips, composer Jay Livingston, producer William Hanna, animator Chuck Jones, producer Samuel Z. Arkoff,costume designer Danilo Donati, cinematographer Sacha Vierny, cinematographer John A. Alonzo,
Carroll O'Connor, Aaliyah, George Harrison and Anthony Quinn.

Breakdown

4/13
4/8 A Beautiful Mind
2/8 Moulin Rouge!
2/4 Black Hawk Down
1/7 Gosford Park
1/4 Monsters, Inc.
1/4 Pearl Harbor
1/3 Iris
1/2 Monster's Ball
1/2 Shrek
1/2 Training Day
1/1 For the Birds
1/1 Murder on a Sunday Morning
1/1 No Man's Land
1/1 The Accountant
1/1 Thoth

Notes