24/03/2003 - Germany's Caroline Link wins best foreign film for Nowhere in Africa, Hollywood pardons Polanski with the best director crown & Almodovar gets best original screenplay

THE WINNERS

The winds of war blew away the red carpet and most of the post-Oscar parties at this year's landmark 75th anniversary Oscar, but in the very best showbiz tradition "the show went on". Despite a number of defections that included Jim Carrey, Will Smith and Cate Blanchett, the Kodak Theatre was packed with film industry VIPS.
The atmosphere was understandably more sombre than usual and the event unrolled much faster that in past editions. Academy president, Frank Pierson, had announced that each winner and presenter would be free to say what they really felt (as long as they did not exceed 1 minute) and Michael Moore, winner of the Best Documentary, did just that: "We live in a time where we have a man sending us to war for fictitious reasons. Whether it is the fiction of duct tape or the fiction of orange alerts, we are against this war, Mr. Bush. Shame on you, Mr. Bush!".
Hollywood finally pardoned the absent Roman Polanski by bestowing the Best Director statuette on him for The Pianist [+see also:
trailer
film profile]. It was collected on his behalf. The star of The Pianist, Adrien Brody surprised the field by winning the Best Actor trophy.
But this year’s big winner was first-time director Rob Marshall’s musical Chicago, with six Oscars including Best Film, Best Supporting Actress for Welsh-born Catherine Zeta-Jones, Best Art Direction, Editing, Sound and Costumes.
European cinema also did well this year with the Best Foreign Language Film going to Germany’s Nowhere in Africa [+see also:
trailer
film profile] directed by Caroline Link and produced by Peter Hermann. It outperformed Aki Kaurismaki’s The Man Without A Past [+see also:
trailer
film profile]. Spain’s Pedro Almodovar won the Best Original Screenplay award for Talk To Her while Polanski’The Pianist won the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar.
Catherine Zeta-Jones took home a well-deserved Best Supporting Actress nod, outperforming some of the stiffest competition of recent years in the form of Julianne Moore, Kathy Bates and Meryl Streep. As widely predicted, the magnificent Nicole Kidman won the Best Actress Oscar for The Hours, the lone victory of the night for its British director Stephen Daldry’s. This year’s other big loser was Martin Scorsese whose 10 nominations for Gangs of New York failed to transform themselves into even one Oscar. New Zealand’s Peter Jackson had to make do with two technical awards: best sound editing and best special effects for his Lord of the Rings II.

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THE WINNERS (The Europeans are in red)

Best Film
Chicago

Best Director
Roman Polanski (The Pianist [+see also:
trailer
film profile])

Best Actress
Nicole Kidman (The Hours)

Best Adapted Screenplay
The Pianist [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (Ronald Harwood)

Best Original Screenplay
Talk To Her [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (Pedro Almodóvar)