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78th Annual Oscars Award Show
6-Mar-2006
Written by: Erika Ellis
Once again three hours of my life have gone to Hollywood and its movies.
Well, March 5th, 2006 marked the 78th annual Oscars Awards show. It aired on ABC, which has rights to cover the Oscars for the next decade. And it got off without a hitch at the now famous Kodak Theater which after years of bouncing the Oscars around to several theater houses, was built just for the show and its many famous and prestigious guests. The Oscars aired live from Hollywood and offered a delay to avoid any antics that might cause delays and otherwise ruin the timing of the show. But years of streaking and tom foolery have made the Oscars and left its patrons expecting the worse at times.
This year Jon Stewart the clever and witty Daily Show host was the MC of events. His performance was a little dry and not as funny or as critical as others had wished. He did warm up to the crowd as the three hours went by. I guess he was somewhat afraid of offending such persons as Tom Hanks and others. But he did make one frank comment about Russell Crowe not needing any makeup to look as if he was in a brawl, when nominees and the winner for Make-up were announced. This year was pretty calm minus what we did not see behind the camera.
Jennifer Garner almost landed on her caboose as her heels gave way twice under her ballroom gown. She was elegant and recovered very nicely, and years of boasting how much of a klutz she is finally came to fruition. Needless to say she did not fall, and acknowledge her slip up publicly and took it like the top CIA agent kick butt femme we all come to love. Dolly Parton gave her performance alone and without any movie magic. She stood up there with her tiny waist, big hair, décolletage and sung her heart out with her rendition of ''Travelin' Thru'' (from Transamerica). Well that was not the case for Kathleen ''Bird'' York performing her nominated ''In the Deep'' (from Crash) backed by astonishing dancers and a flame-engulfed automobile.
George Clooney did start the night off with speeches that rendered applause and sighs of awls and oohs. He won for The Best Supporting Actor (for his role in Syriana) and gave the night's funniest speech — imagining his obituary starting with ''Oscar winner George Clooney, sexiest man alive 1997, Batman, died today in a freak accident.'' But he ended his stage presence with a poignant message saying he was proud to be counted among the ''out of touch'' Hollywood community, which had led the way in tackling such taboo subjects as racism and AIDS. Best Actor winner Philip Seymour Hoffman gave a tribute to his mother, Marilyn as his acceptance for his Oscar and said ''She brought up four kids alone, and she deserves a congratulations for that,'' stating that she took him on boyhood trips to the theater and shared his obsession with college basketball. ''Her passions became my passions,'' said a tearful Hoffman.
Reese Witherspoon gave accolades to her parents as well as she took home the Oscar for Best Actress. But the most memorable acceptance speech goes to Juicy J, Crunchy Black, and D.J. Paul, the members of rap act Three 6 Mafia as they fumbled to find the podium, then offhandedly ended each other's sentences. Nonetheless they thoroughly stayed in character, especially since they did not come dressed for the black tie occasion.
The most comedic moments of the night were of Will Farrell and Steve Carrell as they presented with their faces messed up with too much foundation, blush, and over extended lashes for the Make-up category. Ben Stiller as he handed out the Best Visual Effects prize, dressed in a green suit and pretended that green-screen technology would make him invisible to TV audiences. ''For the first time in Oscar history, an Academy Award will be presented by no one,'' he riffed, and then added, ''Envelope, through the power of movie magic, open yourself!''. Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin, presenting an honorary award to Director Robert Altman, delivered their dialogue in the overlapping, conversational style favored by the director (who cast the duo in his upcoming A Prairie Home Companion).
The most memorable of all was the Oscar take home for the evening which had drag queens all over clutching their purses as Best Picture went not to Broke Back Mountain, but to the racially charged CRASH. Overall the Oscars this year were pleasant to watch and it is simply amazing how Hollywood, actors, directors, producers, and all who make movie magic, are known for making poignant to nonsensical movies has this one night a year where they get dolled up and act as serious as Nobel Peace Prize recipients.
Simply Amazing!
The categories and winners of each were:
Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role: George Clooney
SYRIANA
Achievement in Visual Effects: KING KONG
Joe Letteri, Brian Van't Hul, Christian Rivers and Richard Taylor
Best Animated Feature Film of the Year: WALLACE & GROMIT IN THE CURSE OF THE WERE-RABBIT
Nick Park and Steve Box
Best Live Action Short Film: SIX SHOOTER
Martin McDonagh
Best Animated Short Film: THE MOON AND THE SON: AN IMAGINED CONVERSATION
John Canemaker and Peggy Stern
Achievement in Costume Design: MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA
Colleen Atwood
Achievement in Makeup: THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE
Howard Berger and Tami Lane
Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role: Rachel Weisz
THE CONSTANT GARDENER
Best Documentary Short Subject: A NOTE OF TRIUMPH: THE GOLDEN AGE OF NORMAN CORWIN
Corinne Marrinan and Eric Simonson
Best Documentary Feature: MARCH OF THE PENGUINS
Luc Jacquet and Yves Darondeau
Achievement in Art Direction: MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA
John Myhre (Art Direction); Gretchen Rau (Set Decoration)
Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score): BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN
Gustavo Santaolalla
Achievement in Sound Mixing: KING KONG
Christopher Boyes, Michael Semanick, Michael Hedges and Hammond Peek
Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Song):"IT'S HARD OUT HERE FOR A PIMP" FROM HUSTLE & FLOW
Music and Lyric by Jordan Houston, Cedric Coleman and Paul Beauregard
Achievement in Sound Editing: KING KONG
Mike Hopkins and Ethan Van der Ryn
Best Foreign Language Film of the Year: TSOTSI
South Africa
Editing: CRASH
Hughes Winborne
Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role: Philip Seymour Hoffman
CAPOTE
Achievement in Cinematography: MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA
Dion Beebe
Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role: Reese Witherspoon
WALK THE LINE
Adapted Screenplay: BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN
Screenplay by Larry McMurtry & Diana Ossana
Original Screenplay: CRASH
Screenplay by Paul Haggis & Bobby Moresco; Story by Paul Haggis
Achievement in Directing: BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN
Ang Lee
Best Motion Picture of the Year: CRASH
Paul Haggis and Cathy Schulman
Honorary Academy Award: Robert Altman
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