70th Academy Awards
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| 70th Academy Awards | |
|---|---|
| Date | Monday, March 23, 1998 |
| Site | Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California |
| Host | Billy Crystal |
| Producer | Gil Cates |
| Director | Louis J. Horvitz |
| Duration | 3 hours, 45 minutes |
The 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, the show earned its highest ratings ever in history based on audience size (57.55 million), though the highest rated show based on percentage of households watching was in 1970.
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[edit] Notable quotes
- "I'm the king of the world!", Titanic director James Cameron, on winning the Best Picture Oscar.
- "My friend James Cameron and I made three films together: True Lies, Terminator, and Terminator 2: Judgment Day. 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
[edit] The awards
For a complete list of nominees and winners, see: 70th Academy Awards nominees and winners
[edit] Feature films
[edit] Acting
- Performance by an actor in a leading role: Jack Nicholson in As Good as It Gets
- Performance by an actress in a leading role: Helen Hunt in As Good as It Gets
- Performance by an actor in a supporting role: Robin Williams in Good Will Hunting
- Performance by an actress in a supporting role: Kim Basinger in L.A. Confidential
[edit] Honorary Oscars
Stanley Donen received an honorary Oscar for his years as a director on such musicals including Singin' in the Rain.
[edit] Writing
- Best Screenplay Original: Matt Damon and Ben Affleck for Good Will Hunting
- Best Adapted Screenplay: Brian Helgeland and Curtis Hanson for L.A. Confidential
[edit] Direction
- Best Director: James Cameron for Titanic
[edit] Technical awards
- Cinematography: Titanic
- Art Direction: Titanic
- Costume Design: Titanic
- Makeup: Men in Black
- Sound Mixing: Titanic
- Film Editing: Titanic
- Sound Editing: Titanic
- Visual Effects: Titanic
[edit] 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."
[edit] 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.
