The 70th Annual Academy Awards

This has always been my favorite Academy Awards show, the 70th show, and 70 years of Oscars. Hosted by Billy Crystal, James Cameron won the Best Director for the multi billion dollar motion picture Titanic which also won 10 additional Oscars, Kim Basinger won the Best Supporting Actress for her seductive role in LA Confeditial and Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt won the leading Best Actor and Best Actress awards for As Good as it Gets. Robin Williams also gave a wonderful performance and won the Best Supporting Actor award for Good Will Hunting. Newcomers Ben Affleck and Matt Damon won their Best Screenplay for Good Will Hunting, while Celin Dion sang her heart out for Titanic's song "My Heart Will Go On". Veteran director Stanley Donen took the Honary Award and then there was a sad memorial for the great actors who died in 1997 and 1998 among them included Robert Mitchum, Lloyd Bridges, Burgess Meredith, Toshiro Mifune, Brian Keith, William Hickey, Richard Jaeckel, J.T. Walsh, Will Hare, Billie Dove and James Stewart. A great show.

Why is this one of people's favorite Academy Awards? Was it because "Titanic" had 14 nominations, or that this was Oscar's 70th birthday, or that almost all the surviving actors & actresses who have ever won an academy award were there? Or was it all of the above? These were just a few of the reasons why I enjoyed this particular Oscar presentation. There were so many good acceptance speeches this year. You had Kim Basinger, Matt Damon & Ben Affleck, but the two most memorable acceptance speeches were from Robin Williams when he received the Best Supporting Actor Award, and Stanley Donen singing and tap dancing when he accepted his Honorary Award! This was one of Billy Crystal's best work as an Oscar host! His opening film was extremely funny with Leonardo DiCaprio drawing him and Kevin Costner making a cameo for his film (The Postman). When Billy Crystal was singing about the movie (As Good as it Gets), it was great to see Billy Crystal sitting on Jack Nicholson's lap. Some of Billy Crystal's best quotes to Jack Nicholson were "You charm us like we're Laker girls," "Forget about Mars Attacks!" & "I'm a Clippers fan. We don't get to go to the same games." Another memorable moment was when Billy Crystal honored the late & legendary Fay Wray! It was also a sad moment to see the beautiful late Aaliyah sing the song "Journey to the Past." When the Oscars presented almost all of the living actors & actresses who have all received an Academy Award, it was almost heart-breaking to see how many of them are no longer with us. The actor that stands out the most was Gregory Peck. And of course, the Memoriam is always a tear-jerker, with James Stewart as the most popular actor to have pasted away that year.

Last but not least, my favorite moment in this 70th Academy Award presentation, was the film that showed a clip from all 69 movies that have won the Best Picture Oscar. It went so well with the great score by Randy Edelman from the movie (Dragonheart). Too bad the show ended on a sour note with James Cameron's last two acceptance speeches. If you read through my whole post, these are just some of the many memorable moments that occurred on Oscar's longest running televised presentation ever! Hence, why this is one of my favorite Academy Awards show.

I think that this academy award was one of the best academy awards i have ever seen.The biggest director of all time James Cameron won 3 academy awards for his 11 academy awards winner movie TITANIC and his I'm the king of the world was one of the best memories of the academy awards.god i love that director and all of his movies especially TITANIC.The rest were really good Jack Nichlson.Robin.mat.just great.well i'm sorry LA CONFIDENTAL and GOOD WILL HUNTING for loosing but come on it's TITANIC you were nominated with i don't think you had a chance.congratulations James Horner for receiving the Oscar for best original score and for My Heart Will Go On you are really a great composer you have a great score and my Heart Will Go On was really really really amazing.any way this academy award was really amazing and i think she deserves the nominations and the awards she got

It would never have occurred to me to nominate "Titanic" for Best Picture; I say that "In & Out" was the best movie of 1997 (it certainly made Kevin Kline my favorite actor). Even ignoring that, "LA Confidential" and "Good Will Hunting" were better than "Titanic" (and they completely snubbed "Amistad"). What I really liked about "The 70th Annual Academy Awards" was how Billy Crystal related everything to the Monica Lewinsky scandal (although there was no reason for him to rag on "Mars Attacks!").

But probably the best single line was Robin Williams's acceptance speech: "Thank you Ben and Matt. I still wanna see some ID."; only Robin Williams could think of that! The low point was James Cameron's overblown "I'm the king of the world" comment. But either way, it's just neat seeing Jack Nicholson's various faces when he attends. And I noticed that each of the Best Picture nominees - including "The Full Monty" - took home at least one Oscar. As for the collection of surviving winners, it affirmed that Faye Dunaway is still really hot! All in all, a pretty good night.