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The Departed Wins Scorsese Oscar Gold
By Rich Drees
February 26, 2007- After being passed over for an Academy Award
Oscar statue seven previously times, nomination number eight proved
to be lucky for director Martin Scorsese, who won a Best Directing
Academy Award last night for his film The Departed. It was
one of four Oscars the film took home, including Best Picture.
“Could you double check the envelope?” Scorsese self-deprecatingly
quipped as he took the stage to accept the award from directors
Francis Ford Coppolla, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. Scorsese
had been previously nominated five other times for Best Director and
twice for Best Adapted Screenplay.
It was an award many felt a long time overdue.
“To be standing here where Martin Scorsese just won his Oscar is
such a joy,” stated The Departed’s producer Graham King
moments later when he took to the stage to accept the statue for
Best Picture. The epic film about cops, mobsters and corruption also
earned Oscars for Scorsese’s long-time collaborator editor Thelma
Schoonmaker and William Monahan for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Although the popular musical Dreamgirls lead the pack with
the eight Oscar nominations, the film was virtually shut out at the
awards, winning only two Oscars- one for Best Supporting Actress for
newcomer Jennifer Hudson and one for Sound Mixing. An emotional
Hudson thanked her grandmother for being an inspiration. The
actress, who got her start singing in the church choir as a child,
told the audience “Look what God can do!”
Director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu‘s Babel fared even
worse. Nominated for seven Academy Awards including Best Picture,
Director, Screenplay, it won only for Best Score. Inarritu‘s fellow
Mexican director, Guillermo del Toro, fared a little better with his
film Pan’s Labyrinth. Nominated for six Academy Awards, it
won the first two awards of the evening for art direction and makeup
but lost Best Foreign Language film to the German film The Lives
Of Others and Best Original Screenplay to Michael Arndt for
Little Miss Sunshine.
The Best Actor and Actress awards went to performances of world
leaders. Forrest Whitaker won for his portrayal of brutal dictator
Idi Amin in The Last King Of Scotland while Helen Mirren won
for her role as Queen Elizabeth in The Queen. "My sister told
me that all kids like gold stars and this is the biggest gold star
there is," enthused Mirren while brandishing her Oscar over her
head. Alan Arkin took the Best Supporting Actor award for his work
in the quirky comedy Little Miss Sunshine.
The popular, though polarizing, global warming documentary An
Inconvenient Truth captured Academy Awards for both Best
Documentary and Best Original Song. Director Davis Guggenheim
thanked his film’s star, former presidential candidate Al Gore for
being the inspiration to make the film.
The awards ceremony was not without hitches. Despite host Ellen DeGeneres noting the international flavor of many of the nominees,
she still referred to Penelope Cruz as Mexican instead of Spanish.
Also, the telecast’s voiceover stated that William Monahan’s script
for The Departed was based on a Japanese script when it was
based on the Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs.
You can view a complete list of the winners
here. |
