winners in red
Best Picture
Chocolat
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Erin Brockovich
Gladiator
Traffic
Gladiator was not the best motion picture of the year. Simple as that. It was good, but not the best. But again the academy rarely embraces new and original movies (Traffic, Crouching Tiger) and loves textbook, classic movies (Gladiator, Brockovich, Chocolat). O well. Maybe next year it will be better.
Best Actor
Javier Bardem,
Before Night Falls
Russell Crowe, Gladiator
Tom
Hanks, Cast Away
Ed Harris, Pollock
Geoffrey Rush, Quills
Tom Hanks was great, Russell Crowe was good but Harris was fantastic. At least he was nominated. And where is Mark Ruffulo and Michael Douglas?
Best Supporting
Actor
Jeff Bridges, The Contender
Willem Dafoe, Shadow of the
Vampire
Benicio Del Toro, Traffic
Albert Finney, Erin
Brockovich
Joaquin Phoenix, Gladiator
Some good choices as very as nominations goes. All except for Finney were Oscar worthy. Good follow through on picking Del Toro.
Best Actress
Joan Allen, The Contender
Juliette
Binoche, Chocolat
Ellen Burstyn, Requiem for a Dream
Laura Linney, You
Can Count On Me
Julia Roberts, Erin
Brockovich
Again, the classic item wins. People felt sorry for Julia not having an Oscar and over looked every else. They could have done better.
Best
Supporting Actress
Judi Dench, Chocolat
Marcia Gay
Harden, Pollock
Kate Hudson, Almost Famous
Frances McDormand,
Almost Famous
Julie Walters, Billy Elliot
Judi Dench again? At least she didn't win. Harden was great. I think this is a good, solid choice.
Best
DirectorStephen Daldry, Billy Elliot
Ang Lee, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Steven Soderbergh, Erin Brockovich
Ridley Scott, Gladiator
Steven Soderbergh, Traffic
It's a good thing they decided to spread the wealth, but they left out Ang Lee. Scott didn't deserve to win and they did at least pick Soderbergh’s better half.
Adapted Screenplay
Chocolat (Robert
Nelson Jacobs)
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Wang Hui Ling, James Schamus
and Tsai Kuo Jung)
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (Ethan Coen and Joel Coen)
Traffic (Stephen Gaghan)
Wonder Boys (Steve Kloves)
Traffic was a good script but the script wasn't the best part of the movie. Again, they ignore the most original (O Brother), but that's not to say that Traffic was an "old fashion" movie.
Original Screenplay
Almost Famous
(Cameron Crowe)
Billy Elliot (Lee Hall)
Erin Brockovich (Susannah
Grant)
Gladiator (David Franzoni, John Logan and William Nicholson, story by
David Franzoni)
You Can Count On Me (Kenneth Lonergan)
Good pick. Either that or You Can Count on Me. They made up for the absence of Almost Famous and all the other categories in this one. And trust me, that's exactly what they were thinking.
Foreign-Language Film Amores Perros (Mexico)
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Taiwan)
Divided We Fall
(Czech Republic)
Everybody Famous (Belgium)
The Taste of Others (France)
Not a bad choice.
Art Direction
Crouching Tiger,
Hidden Dragon
Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas
Gladiator
Quills
Vatel
Crouching Tiger's beauty deservedly beat out Gladiator. But I thought that the Grinch was very imaginative.
Cinematography
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Gladiator
Malena
O
Brother, Where Art Thou?
The Patriot
Again Crouching Tiger's beauty prevails.
Costume Design
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Dr.
Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas
Gladiator
102
Dalmatians
Quills
Gladiator deserved to win here by a healthy margin.
Documentary Feature
Into the Arms of
Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport
Legacy
Long Night's Journey
Into Day
Scottsboro: An American Tragedy
Sound and Fury
Documentary Short Subject
Big Mama
Curtain Call
Dolphins
The Man on Lincoln's Nose
On Tiptoe:
Gentle Steps to Freedom
Film Editing
Almost Famous
Crouching
Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Gladiator
Traffic
Wonder
Boys
Great choice. The editor for Traffic did a great job mixing the different stories.
Makeup
The Cell
Dr. Seuss' How the
Grinch Stole Christmas
Shadow of the Vampire
Original
Score
Chocolat
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Gladiator
Malena
The Patriot
Crouching Tiger again deserved to win. Gladiator's score was also very good.
Original Song
"A Fool In
Love" (Meet the Parents) by Randy Newman
"I've Seen It All" (Dancer in the Dark),
music by Bjork, lyrics by Lars von Trier and Sjon Sigurdsson
"A Love Before Time"
(Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, music by Jorge Calandrelli and Tan Dun lyrics by
James Schamus
"My Funny Friend and Me" (The Emperor's New Groove, music by
Sting and David Hartley, lyrics by Sting
"Things Have Changed"
(Wonder Boys) by Bob Dylan
Is it just me or did all of these songs besides Dylan's suck? Consider Bjork's monotonous screech of a song.
Animated Short
Film
Father and Daughter
The Periwig-Maker
Rejected
Live-Action Short Film
By Courier
One Day
Crossing
Quiero Ser (I Want To Be...)
Seraglio
A
Soccer Story (Una Historia de Futebol)
Sound
Cast Away
Gladiator
The Patriot
The Perfect Storm
U-571
Sound Editing
Space Cowboys
U-571
Visual Effects
Gladiator
Hollow
Man
The Perfect Storm
Hollow Man's effects were truly amazing.
