The 75th Annual Academy Awards ceremony, presented at L.A.'s Kodak Theatre last night, was full of surprises. The Best Picture award went to the flashy musical Chicago, but most of the other major awards were given to the Holocaust drama The Pianist.
It was highly expected that Chicago would not only receive Best Picture, but many others including Best Actress and Adapted Screenplay. However, the only other major award given to this adaptation of the famed Broadway show was to Catherine Zeta-Jones for Best Supporting Actress.
Also expected were messages to the servicemen and women overseas fighting in the war with Iraq. The most inflammatory comments were made by Michael Moore, whose film Bowling for Columbine won the award for Best Documentary.
He said to President Bush, "We are against this war, Mr. Bush. Shame on you." The comment elicited boos from the audience.
The big surprises of the night came courtesy of The Pianist. Adrien Brody, thought to be the dark horse of the Best Actor race, came away with the golden statuette.
Brody was quite shocked, but was able to make a pithy comment about his presenter, Halle Berry: "That [kiss] was better than the gift bag." He went on to wish a peaceful end to the war overseas.
Two of the major awards The Pianist snagged were Best Director (Roman Polanski) and Best Adapted Screenplay (Ronald Harwood). Harwood dedicated his accolade to Polanski, who is a fugitive from the United States for raping a teenage girl 25 years ago. Still, the shock came when presenter Harrison Ford, looking bewildered, announced that Polanski was given the Oscar.
The other highlights of the evening came from host Steve Martin. He commented on everything from Moore's speech with "Right now, the Teamsters are helping Mr. Moore back into his limo," to ladies' fashion with "The fashion designers say that cleavage is in."
Also remarkable was the lengthy tribute to the many Oscar acting recipients, including Kathy Bates, Jack Nicholson, Meryl Streep and Michael Caine (who all came up short this year in their categories).
The other notable winners were Nicole Kidman as Best Actress for her performance in The Hours. The highly acclaimed drama came away with this Oscar as its only major award.
Also winning was Chris Cooper as Best Supporting Actor for his role in the comedy Adaptation. A notable absence was rapper Eminem, who was awarded with the Best Song Oscar for "Lose Yourself" from 8 Mile.
The Best Original Screenplay award went to Pedro Almodovar for the Spanish dramedy Talk to Her.
Josh Spiegel is an entertainment reporter for the Web Devil. Reach him at joshua.spiegel@asu.edu.
