73rd Academy Awards Totally Explained

Everything about 73rd Academy Awards totally explained

The 73rd Academy Awards ceremony was the last to take place at the Los Angeles Shrine Auditorium. It was hosted by first-time host Steve Martin, who was nominated for an Emmy Award for his presentation.
   Notable films receiving Academy Awards at the ceremony included Gladiator, which received 12 nominations and 5 awards, and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which received 10 nominations and 4 awards.
   After a three-year streak of high ratings, the annual ceremony received very low ratings for the first time in four years. This is partially due to the popularity of CBS's Survivor which was number one on the Nielsen Weekly Ratings. The awards show dropped to second place for the first time in broadcasting history (42.93 million viewers; with 21.1% of households watching). The second time the ceremony placed below the top happened in 2003 when it was surpassed by American Idol.
   The Icelandic pop singer Björk arrived in a gown with a fake swan draped across her. It caused an audience reaction that led to several comments by those participating in the Awards Ceremony (see Björk main page). She later used that dress on the cover of her 2001 record album Vespertine.

Notable Quotations

"If you can't beat 'me, join 'you" - host Steve Martin commenting on never having received an Academy Award

"You know, when you grow up in the suburbs of Sydney, or Auckland, or Newcastle, like Ridley or Jamie Bell, or the suburbs of anywhere, you know a dream like this seems kind of vaguely ludicrous and completely unattainable. But this moment is directly connected to those childhood imaginings. And for anybody who's on the downside of advantage and relying purely on courage: It's possible." - Russell Crowe on accepting his Best Actor award.

"I have seen the film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, but I asked myself: 'Why aren't there any Tigers or Dragons?' And then I realized why: They're crouching and hidden." - host Steve Martin.

"To me, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon sounds like a game that Siegfried & Roy might play on a dull Saturday night." - host Steve Martin.

"I wanted to wear my swan tonight. But to me, they're so 'last year'." - host Steve Martin on Bjork's swan dress.

"To me, hosting the Academy Awards is like making love to a beautiful woman. I only get to do it when Billy Crystal is out of town." - host Steve Martin.

The Awards

This is a breakdown of only major winners. For a complete list of nominees and winners, see: 73rd Academy Awards nominees and winners.

Feature Films

Category	Winner	Producers/Country
Best motion picture of the year	*Gladiator*	Douglas Wick, David Franzoni, and Branko Lustig
Best foreign language film	*Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon*	Li-Kong Hsu, William Kong, and Ang Lee
Best documentary feature		Mark Jonathan Harris & Deborah Oppenheimer

Direction

Academy Award for Directing	Steven Soderbergh	Traffic

Acting

Category	Winner	Movie
Best actor in a leading role	Russell Crowe	Gladiator
Best actress in a leading role	Julia Roberts	Erin Brockovich
Best actor in a supporting role	Benicio del Toro	Traffic
Best actress in a supporting role	Marcia Gay Harden	Pollock

Writing

Category	Winner	Movie
Original screenplay	Cameron Crowe	Almost Famous
Adapted screenplay	Stephen Gaghan	Traffic

In Memoriam

John Travolta presented a list of those involved in films who had passed on in the previous year. Those featured included:
Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Marie Windsor, Beah Richards, Edward Anhalt, Billy Barty, Julius Epstein, George Montgomery, Ring Lardner Jr., Steve Reeves, Jean Peters, Vittorio Gassman, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Dale Evans, Gwen Verdon, Stanley Kramer, Jack Nitzsche, Harold Nicholas, Howard Koch, Loretta Young, Richard Farnsworth, John Gielgud, Jason Robards, Claire Trevor, Alec Guinness, and Walter Matthau.

Partial list of Presenters and Performers

Presenters

Angelina Jolie- Best Supporting Actress

Nicholas Cage- Best Supporting Actor

Winona Ryder- Performance of "I've Seen It All"

Hilary Swank- Best Leading Actor

Kevin Spacey- Best Leading Actress

Tom Cruise- Best Director

Michael Douglas- Best Motion Picture

Performers

Bjork Performed "I've Seen It All" from Dancer in the Dark.

Bob Dylan Performed "Things Have Changed" from Wonder Boys.

Randy Newman Performed "A Fool in Love" from Meet the Parents. Further Information

Get more info on '73rd Academy Awards'.

External Link Exchanges

Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:

<a href="http://73rd_academy_awards.totallyexplained.com">73rd Academy Awards Totally Explained</a>

Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned.