Hollywood awarded The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the Kinga record-tying 11 Oscars at the awards ceremony last night, while Sean Penn and Charlize Theron nabbed prizes for killer performances.
Sean Penn
In addition, The Academy Awards awarded Sofia Coppola the Oscar for best original screenplay for Lost in Translation, a sign that she has not only entered the family business but might take it over some day.
The three-and-a-half-hour-plus show televised around the world held no surprises and seem to sag whenever host Billy Crystal wandered off stage so that the Academy could hand out awards to what seemed to an endless army of people from New Zealand or who worked for people from New Zealand.
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, the conclusion to the fantasy trilogy based on the books by J.R.R. Tolkien and directed by New Zealander Peter Jackson, won all 11 awards for which it was nominated.
That tally tied the record for most Oscars for a single movie shared by two other epics, 1959's Ben Hurand 1997's Titanic, not bad for a film that almost did not get made when Disney's Miramax films wanted to fire Jackson or have another studio take over the project.
Time Warner's New Line Cinema stepped in and saved the day for Jackson on their way to taking in nearly $3 billion at the global box office.
"It's now official. There is nobody left in New Zealand to thank," Crystal joked after Ringswon its fifth statuette of the night.
It was the first time in Oscar history that a fantasy film had won the top prize and that distinction was not lost on Jackson.
"I'm so honoured, touched and relieved that the . . . members of the academy supported us and have seen past the trolls and the wizards and hobbits and are recognizing fantasy this year. Fantasy is an an f-word that hopefully the five-second delay won't do anything with," he said, referring to a tape delay imposed on the show for the first time.
ABC imposed the delay as a safeguard against unscripted obscenity in reaction Janet Jackson's breast-baring Super Bowl performance.
Penn won for the first time in four nominations and Theron won on her first try. An actor known for his explosive power, Penn was rewarded for his portrayal of a hoodlum out for revenge after his daughter is killed in Clint Eastwood's tragedy
Mystic River.
Also winning for the first time were Tim Robbins, who was named best supporting actor for
Mystic River, and Renee Zellweger, who received best supporting actress Oscar for
Cold Mountain.
Theron won for her performance as a serial killer prostitute in Monster. The South African-born former model said she took the risky role, in part, to force Hollywood to take her seriously as an actress.
One of the most unscripted moments of the night came when famed documentary maker Errol Morris won for The Fog of Warand bluntly said, "I'd like to thank the Academy for finally recognising my films."
Then drawing a parallel with between the Vietnam War and the current conflict in Iraq, he said, "I fear we're going down a rabbit hole once again." Said Crystal on hearing that, "I can't wait for his tax audit - scary times."
Penn, who was widely criticised for going to Iraq before the war, was understated in his acceptance speech but did manage to get one line about the Iraq war: "If there's one thing that actors know - other than there weren't any WMDs [weapons of mass destruction] - it's that there there's no such thing as best in acting."
One film of Irish-interest, Chernobyl Heart, also won the Oscar for best short documentary and features the work of Adi Roche's Cork-based Chernobyl Children's Project.
The film, directed by Ms Maryann DeLeo, depicted of the health impacts on children living in the area of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor, site of a 1986 disaster. "I feel you are also honouring the people of Chernobyl who are suffering the effects of radiation still, 18 years later," she said.