74th Annual Academy Awards

The 74th Annual Academy Awards show had a few good surprises, for instance it was nice to see for the first time an African American actress, the lovely and talented Halle Berry take home the Best Actress Oscar for Monster's Ball. Her speech was very emotional to me, and it was nice that an African American actress finally won that award. Denzel Washington, became the second African American actor to win the Best Actor Oscar for Training Day. Earlier before his win, he presented the Honorary Award to his idol, actor Sidney Piotier. Another Honorary Award was given to actor and producer Robert Redford, for his achievements over his career. Veteran director Arthur Hiller took the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award for his charitable and generous contributions to others. Whoopi Goldberg, I must add, was a hilarious host, she may not have been good as Billy Crystal or Steve Martin, but she did say a few funny sarcastic remarks. The Best Supporting Actor and Actress Oscars were also surprises, for me anyway. Jennifer Connelly gave an outstanding performance in A Beautiful Mind, but I was almost sure that either Marisa Tomei or Helen Mirran would win for their roles in In The Bedroom and Gosford Park. British actor Jim Broadbent won for Iris, and I was hoping that Ian McKellen was going to win for The Lord of the Rings or Ethan Hawke for Training Day. The show also had some good appearances as well, Woody Allen introduced a clip on the films made in New York over the past 74 years of Oscar, in a time after the shadow of the September 11th terrorism attacks, also Tom Cruise presented a clip at the beginning of the show and continued throughout the show of American people sharing their favorite films. The Memorial presentation done by Kevin Spacey was not as good as past shows, and a few deceased actors in the past year were "mysteriously" left out of being remembered, but those that did catch my eye included the great Jack Lemmon, British actor Nigel Hawthorne, Eileen Heckhart, Beatrice Straight, "Exorcist" actor Jason Miller, Ann Sothern, handicapped actor Harold Russell, directors Mike Ritchie and Ted Demme, animators Chuck Jones and William Hanna, Emmy winner Carroll O'Connor, singers Aaliyah and George Harrison and Anthony Quinn, among others. Lots of young presenters at this years award show as well including Ryan Phillippe, Reese Witherspoon, Josh Hartnett, Kirsten Dunst, Tobey McGuire and Cameron Diaz, whom all gave good presentations. A Beautiful Mind walked away with the top prize as Best Picture.

The events of the 11th of September 2001 cast its shadow on this Oscar award ceremony with a one minute silence before the in memoriam montage and there was little in the way of the all singing all dancing comedy extravaganza that we`d come to expect of this award show but this was by no means a bad thing . Entertainment was more or less curtailed to a LOTR send up with Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson and that was it . The rest of the show was taken up with clips from the nominations and I have to admit this was actually more enjoyable than the overblown song and dance numbers we`ve seen over the years and Whoopi Goldberg was by no means a bad presenter unlike the very esoteric David Letterman from a few years ago and the one minute silence for the victims of 9/11 was haunting and dignified

As for the awards New Zealand was absolutely robbed . FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING went home with four minor awards while A BEAUTIFUL MIND undeservingly picked up most of the major prizes except for best actor which should have gone to a tough guy New Zealander but went to an An all American nice guy instead . The only Oscar awards I agreed with apart from the ones presented to FELLOWSHIP were the awards for best supporting actress and best supporting actor , both correct calls .

Is it that time of year already? I watched this ceremony recorded – one of the first times when my `maturity' and `love of my job' that stopped me doing an all-nighter, watch a movie till 2 then watch the ceremony then go to work! So taping it gave me the luxury of fast forwarding all the breaks etc (and there are tonnes) and get though it quicker. The first weakness for me was Goldberg doing the compere. I like her in some movies but she can't compare to Crystal's (or even Martin's) quick wit. Many of her jokes were poor and her flamboyant entrances etc were simply weak. I didn't laugh at all at her which is a real downer as I always count the compere as the backbone of the show.

The ceremony after 11/9 had the potential to be sombre and reflective and in a way it was, but not to the detriment – it was more a celebration of New York than a sad time. Woody Allen's appearance was quite moving and witty considering his loathing for the ceremony and the New York compilations were good. Chan and Wilson were funny together too but too brief!

The actual awards were memorable as they were historic if nothing else. Halle Berry became the first Afro-American woman to win Best Actress and went all to pieces. Washington won for Best Actor for the slightly unworthy film Training Day – but it was a strong role I guess. Rounding up the `Hollywood makes amends' feel was an honorary award for Sidney Poitier without whom neither of the previous two would have as easily got where they are. Best picture for Beautiful Mind was a bit of a surprise as was best director but ah well.

Overall not a great show because of Goldberg's weak routines. The shadow of terrorism was over the whole thing and the awards were unsurprisingly despite being a little disappointing. It's a shame so much was made of the fact that three `black Oscars' (not my words!) were given out in one night – it may it feel like it was the Academy being PC rather than the actors deserving them.

So many mistakes! Whoopi was OK, no Steve Martin, but not David Letterman. Anyway, my opinion on the awards given:

Best Picture: MOULIN ROUGE SHOULD HAVE WON! This is the most incredible movie I've ever seen, and it should have swept. But, if the academy wasn't ready for that, Gosford Park is the runner up. Witty, amazingly acted, and wonderfully original. Next is In The Bedroom, another underrated movie--it was great. LOTR is overrated, but it was better than A Beautiful Mind, which is severely overrated.

Best Actor: What can I say? It should be Ewan McGregor--he was the best part of that movie in every respect. However, with the options available, Tom W. should have won for In The Bedroom...anyone but Russel Crowe, really. He shouldn't have won either years.

Best Actress: Yep, Nicole Kidman. Unbelievable in every way. The next would be Sissy Spacek, with a flawlessly acted role. Again, anyone but Halle Berry.

Best Supporting Actress: Maggie Smith or Helen Mirren for Gosford Park. Next would easily be Marissa Tomei for In The Bedroom. Again, I found nothing special in Jennifer Connely's performance...she and that whole movie were totally and completely bland.

Although the 74th Awards was the longest in history, literally, it was the best of them all. I found Whoopi Goldberg a great host, mainly because I didn't like Steve Martin and I was sick of Billy Crystal. I found the winners debatable, especially for Best Actor. I was rooting for Russell Crowe, even though he won the previous year for Gladiator. The highpoint of the evening was the surprise performance by Cirque du Soleil. What an incredible segment! Overall, I enjoyed the show a lot.