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Crash Beats Out Brokeback Mountain
For Best Picture
By Rich Drees
March 6, 2006-
In what some are calling a surprising upset, the ensemble drama
Crash beat out front-runner Brokeback Mountain for the
coveted Best Picture award last night at the 78th Annual
Academy Awards. Brokeback still earned an Oscar for director
Ang Lee.
Unlike several other years, there was no one film that dominated the
ceremony. Four films – Brokeback Mountain, Crash,
King Kong and Memoirs Of A Geisha – all won three awards
each. The Academy Awards were held in Los Angeles at the Academy’s
Kodak Theatre.
Both Brokeback Mountain and Crash received notice for
their controversial storylines. Crash dealt with several
intersecting storylines that paint a portrait of racial tensions in
Los Angeles, while Brokeback Mountain had already won several
awards for its story of two gay ranchers conflicted by their love.
Accepting the Best Picture Oscar was Crash’s two producers
Cathy Schulman and Robert Moresco. “Thank you for embracing our film
about love, tolerance and truth,” stated Schulman. "You
have made this year one of the most breathtaking and stunning
maverick years in American cinema. We are humbled by the other
nominees in this category"
In addition to its Best Picture nod, Crash also won Oscars
for Best Original Screenplay and Best Editing.
Out of its eight nominations, Brokeback Mountain also
garnered awards for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Original Score.
Accepting his Best Director statue, Lee thanked the lead characters
of the film as, “They taught us about the greatness of love itself.”
Peter Jackson’s blockbuster remake King Kong took home three
of the four awards it was nominated for- Visual Effects, Sound
Mixing and Sound Editing – loosing the Art Direction award to
Memoirs Of A Geisha. Geisha also won the Best Costumes
and Cinematography awards.
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Workers ready the
Kodak Theatre for the 78th Annual Academy Awards earlier
last week.
Photo credit: Jeff
Fowler. |
As host, comic Jon Stewart brought his snarky East Coast attitude to
the awards, never letting the proceedings to take themselves, or
himself, too seriously. On being chosen to host, Stewart commented,
“Tonight is the night we celebrate excellence in film, with me, the fourth male lead in Death To Smoochy,” referring to
the failure of the 2002 comedy he appeared in. Also bringing laughs
were presenters Ben Stiller dressed in a special effects leotard
while handing out the Best Visual Effects trophy and an overly
rouged and powdered Will Farrell and Steve Corell presenting the
Best Makeup award.
George Clooney took home the first award of the evening for Best
Supporting Actor for his portrayal of a CIA agency in the drama
Syriana. In his acceptance speech, Clooney noted that the
Academy had often embraced progressive causes noting, “This Academy
gave an award to Hattie McDaniel when black people had to sit in the
back of the theatre. I am proud to be part of that tradition.”
Clooney had also been nominated for writing and producing the drama
Good Night, And Good Luck.
Accepting his award for Best Actor, Capote’s Philip Seymour
Hoffman thanked his mother for taking him to his first play. Reese
Witherspoon won the Oscar for Best Actress for portraying and doing
her own singing as June Carter Cash in the Johnny Cash bio Walk
The Line. The Best Supporting Actress Academy Award went to
Rachel Weisz for her role in the political thriller The Constant
Gardner.
Taking the Oscar for best animated feature was director Nick Park
for his stop-motion comedy Wallace & Gromit: The Curse Of The
Were-Rabbit. Previously, Park has won 3 Academy Awards in the
Best Animated Short - two for short films featuring the Wallace &
Gromit characters (The Wrong Trousers (1993) and A Close
Shave (1995)) and a third for the short Creature Comforts
(1989).
Winning the award for Best Documentary Feature, March Of The
Penguins director Luc Jacquet and several of the film's crew took
to the stage with stuffed penguins to accept their award. "Looking
at all the tuxedos tonight, its like seeing the movie all over
again," quipped producer Christophe Lioude.
This year’s Honorary Oscar went to director Robert Altman. Though
nominated five times for directing, he had never won an Oscar
statue.
“I always thought that this kind of award meant that your career is
over,” Altman said, accepting the award from actresses Lilly Tomlin
and Meryl Streep. “I’m here under false pretenses. Ten years ago I
had a total heart transplant. I got the heart of a 30-year old woman
I think, so by my calculations you gave me this award about forty
years too early.”
You can read the complete list of Academy Award winners
here.
You can discuss the Academy Awards at the FilmBuffOnLine Bulletin
Board
here.
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