Hail, Maximus!
So says the Academy

by R. Scott Bolton

    I love Oscar nights like this one! A night during which all that pre-show buzz and those pundit predictions are thrown out the window and we get a few surprises. 

    But let's go to your votes first. 48% of Video Verdicts visitors correctly predicted that "Gladiator" would win best picture. The other votes were broken up as follows:
22% predicted "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"
17% predicted "Traffic"
9% predicted "Erin Brockovich"
4% predicted "Chocolat"

"Gladiator" walked away with five awards, including the Best Actor Award for Russell Crowe. Which brings us to my predictions:

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
I predicted that Kate Hudson would win the award for her performance in "Almost Famous." Many agreed with me, thinking that her mother/daughter relationship to Goldie Hawn, who also won for her first major film, would give her a sentimental edge. Others thought that Judge Dench would pull it off for "Chocolat." In the biggest surprise of the evening, Marcia Gay Harden won the award for "Pollack." One down.

SUPPORTING ACTOR
Benicio Del Toro took home the award for Supporting Actor in a year when his talent truly began to shine. I predicted that Del Toro would win and he did. One and one.

ACTRESS
This one was almost too easy. Julia Roberts was the favorite in almost every case this year for her fabulous turn as Erin Brockovich. There was some last minute buzz that the Academy would turn their back on her but I couldn't imagine that happening. Sure enough, Julia won the Oscar and I was at 66%.

ACTOR
I truly like Russell Crowe's work. He's another actor who has seemed to come out of nowhere and then made a big splash, both at the box office and critically. However, I didn't think that his performance in "Gladiator" was Oscar-worthy. I predicted Tom Hanks would win, based on the fact that Hanks' performance in "Castaway" was pretty much a one man show. I was wrong. The Academy gave the Award to Crowe and suddenly I found myself at the 50/50 mark.

DIRECTOR
Like almost everyone else out there making predictions, I thought that Steven Soderbergh would cancel himself out with his two nominations for "Erin Brockovich" and "Traffic." I predicted that the Academy would award Ang Lee the Oscar for the style, grace and substance that he gave "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." Surprise! Soderbergh pulled it off, winning for "Traffic." He knocked my Oscar prediction rating from 50/50 to 40% but I was pleased to see him win. With both "Traffic" and "Erin Brockovich" under his belt in one year, Soderbergh truly was the director of the year.

PICTURE
As I predicted, the Academy went with the epic grandeur of "Gladiator" for best picture. That brought me back up to 50%, the same exact rating I had last year. Truthfully, I was pulling for "Traffic" and thought it actually had a chance when Soderbergh won for director. Alas, it wasn't to be. Don't get me wrong, I liked "Gladiator" a lot, but didn't they make that same movie about fifty years ago without CGI? That's the only difference I can see.

Anyway, that's how I did. What about you? What did you think about this year's Academy Award show? Let me know by writing me at rsb@videoverdicts.com. 

The complete list of Oscar Winners:

ART DIRECTION
CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON
Tim Yip

ACTRESS -- SUPPORTING 
Marcia Gay Harden
POLLOCK

FILM EDITING
TRAFFIC
Stephen Mirrione

SHORT -- LIVE ACTION 
QUIERO SER 
(I WANT TO BE...)
Florian Gallenberger

SHORT -- ANIMATED
FATHER AND DAUGHTER
Michael Dudok de Wit

COSTUME DESIGN
GLADIATOR
Janty Yates

ACTOR -- SUPPORTING
Benicio Del Toro
TRAFFIC

SOUND
GLADIATOR
Scott Millan
Bob Beemer
Ken Weston

SOUND EDITING
U-571
Jon Johnson

CINEMATOGRAPHY
CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON
Peter Pau

MAKEUP
DR. SEUSS' HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS
Rick Baker
Gail Ryan

DOCUMENTARY SHORT
BIG MAMA
Tracy Seretean DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
INTO THE ARMS OF STRANGERS: STORIES OF THE KINDERTRANSPORT
Mark Jonathan Harris
Deborah Oppenheimer

VISUAL EFFECTS
GLADIATOR
John Nelson
Neil Corbould
Tim Burke
Rob Harvey

MUSIC (SCORE)
CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON
Tan Dun

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON
Ang Lee

MUSIC (SONG)
WONDER BOYS
"Things Have Changed"
Bob Dylan

ACTOR -- LEADING
Russell Crowe
GLADIATOR

ACTRESS -- LEADING
Julia Roberts
ERIN BROCKOVICH

WRITING (ADAPTED)
TRAFFIC
Stephen Gaghan

WRITING (ORIGINAL)
ALMOST FAMOUS
Cameron Crowe

DIRECTING
TRAFFIC
Steven Soderbergh

BEST PICTURE
GLADIATOR
Douglas Wick
David Franzoni
Branko Lustig