74th Academy Awards

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

74th Academy Awards
Date Sunday, March 24, 2002
Site Kodak Theatre
Hollywood, Los Angeles, California
Host Whoopi Goldberg
Producer Laura Ziskin
Director Louis J. Horvitz
TV in the United States
Network ABC
Duration 4 hours, 23 minutes
Ratings 40.54 million
24.22% Nielsen ratings

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.

Contents

[edit] The Awards

This is a breakdown of only major winners. For a complete list of nominees and winners, see: 74th Academy Awards nominees and winners.

[edit] Feature Films

Category Winner Producers/Country
Best motion picture A Beautiful Mind Brian Grazer and Ron Howard
Best foreign language film No Man's Land Flag of Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina
Best documentary feature Murder on a Sunday Morning Jean-Xavier de Lestrade, and Denis Poncet
Best animated feature Shrek Aron Warner

[edit] Directing

Category Winner Movie
Achievement in directing Ron Howard A Beautiful Mind

[edit] Acting

Category Winner Movie
Best actor in a leading role Flag of the United States Denzel Washington Training Day
Best actress in a leading role Flag of the United States Halle Berry Monster's Ball
Best actor in a supporting role Flag of the United Kingdom Jim Broadbent Iris
Best actress in a supporting role Flag of the United States Jennifer Connelly A Beautiful Mind

[edit] Writing

Category Winner Movie
Original screenplay Written by Julian Fellowes Gosford Park
Adapted screenplay Screenplay by Akiva Goldsman A Beautiful Mind

[edit] 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, and the Oscar nominations were supposed to come out just two months after the attacks, 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.[1]

[edit] Special 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 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.

[edit] 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 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.

[edit] 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 The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. 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.

[edit] Partial list of Presenters and Performers

[edit] Presenters

[edit] Performers

  • John Williams severd 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..
  • Cique du Soleil gave a guest performance.

[edit] 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.

[edit] Breakdown

Academy Award Portal

4/13 The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
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

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Giovanni, Joseph: "9/11 by the Numbers", New York Magazine, 16 September 2002, page 54.