Cinema’s Holy Grail event was being held for the first time in its new home in Hollywood amid unprecedented security amid fears of terrorism and amid glamour befitting Tinseltown.
Connelly took the first Oscar of her career for her role as the wife of schizophrenic maths genius John Nash in A Beautiful Mind, while Broadbent won for his dazzling performance as writer Iris Murdoch’s husband in Iris.
“I believe in love, that there is nothing more important and Alicia Nash is a true champion of love, so thank you to her for her example,” Connelly said in her acceptance speech.
“Making Iris was the most wonderful experience,” Broadbent said accepting his award for his role as John Bayley, the doting husband of the author who watches her slip into the darkness of Alzheimer’s disease.
But it was Middle Earth fantasy The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring that stole an early march on its competitors, winning four of the 13 Oscars for which it was nominated.
The film, directed by New Zealander Peter Jackson, took the golden statuettes for best makeup, best cinematography for Andrew Lesnie, as well as for best visual effects for Mark Stetson, Michael Taylor and Jim Rygiel.
It also received the best musical score for Canadian Howard Shore for the film’s monumental musical arrangement.
After receiving the award, Lesnie recognised the enormous workload he had taken on for the film which is the first of three makeup and set extravaganzas. “I never recommend anyone take on a trilogy,” he said.
Exuberant musical Moulin Rouge and combat drama Black Hawk Down tied in second place about half way through the three-hour ceremony — with the main awards still to come — with two Oscars apiece.
Paris-based Moulin Rouge, directed by Australian Baz Luhrmann — who was not nominated for a best director honour — won Oscars for costume design and best art direction for Catherine Martin, Luhrmann’s real-life companion.
Black Hawk Down, the story of the 1993 US military foray into Somalia, is nominated for four Oscars and won Oscars for best sound and best film editing.
Other awards went to World War II flick Pearl Harbour for sound editing and to Thoth for best documentary short subject.
The show was hosted by comedian Whoopi Goldberg, who sent up all the films nominated for best picture and made a nod to the September 11 terror attacks on the United States.
“We have even more reason to love New York these days,” she said before a video tribute to the terror-targeted city. “She’s been battered, she’s grieving.”
“America has suffered a great national tragedy but we have recovered,” said Goldberg, joking that the proof was that troubled singer Mariah Carey had made a new film.
Goldberg, arrived on stage on a Moulin Rouge -like swing and silver sequined leotard costume, proclaiming: “Good evening darlings I am the original sexy beast,” poking fun ay the Ben Kingsley film Sexy Beast.
After one of the most bitterly contested and nastiest Oscars campaigns in years, the suspense gave way to laughter — and tears of joy — as Hollywood’s biggest night roared to life at Hollywood’s new Kodak Theatre.
The area was ringed by an iron wall of security to ward off any potential terrorist threat following the September 11 strikes on US targets, with helicopters hovering above the area which was closed off to traffic.
The Oscars stakes are high for actors and their studios, with the 3 300 guests here and around a billion television viewers around the world asking the same questions.
Will a black star walk off with a best actor statuette for the first time in 38 years? Will Russell Crowe’s legendary temper cost him an award and have voters plumped for a fantasy film over an exuberant musical or over a psychodrama tarnished by an alleged smear campaign by a rival studio?
The final stretch of Hollywood’s awards season has been a nail-biting affair, with the favourite films jockeying for position amid alleged smear campaigns against Mind and the issue of race playing a major role. – AFP