Zellweger wins supporting-actress Oscar
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-03-01 10:20

Zellweger wins supporting-actress Oscar 

Renee Zellweger won the supporting-actress honor at Sunday's Academy Awards for her performance as a hardy Confederate handywoman in "Cold Mountain."

Tim Robbins won best supporting actor for playing as an emotionally crippled murder suspect in "Mystic River." Robbins won with his first-ever acting nomination, though he had been nominated as best director for 1995's "Dead Man Walking."

"In this movie, I play a victim of abuse and violence," Robbins said. "If you are a person who has had that tragedy befall you, there is no shame in seeking help and counseling."

The $340 million blockbuster "Finding Nemo," the story of a clownfish on a mission to rescue his wayward son from a dentist's aquarium, earned the Oscar for animated feature.

"I'm going to be forever grateful to the cast and crew of `Finding Nemo' for giving their incomparable talents to this little fish story I had," said Andrew Stanton, director of "Finding Nemo," the latest film from the makers of "Monsters, Inc." and the "Toy Story" flicks.

Best-picture favorite "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King," which led the field with 11 nominations, won the art-direction Oscar, the film's first category of the night.

Billy Crystal (news), returning as host for the first time in four years, opened with his usual montage of nominees, having himself inserted into spoofs of key Oscar contenders, including Diane Keaton (news)'s screeching nude scene in "Something's Gotta Give."

"Gentlemen, start your egos," Crystal quipped. He joked that for the first time, the show was being simulcast in Aramaic, a poke at "The Passion of the Christ," Mel Gibson 's divisive religious film that took in $117.5 million in its first five days. The movie was done in Aramaic and Latin, with English subtitles.

Crystal said that the first time he hosted the Oscars 13 years ago, things were different than today: "Bush was president, the economy was tanking and we'd just finished a war with Iraq."

The Oscars returned to full-glamour mode after two years in which Hollywood's prom night was muted by world events — the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks in 2002 and the Iraq war in 2003.

Celebrities strutted the red carpet again after Oscar organizers scrapped its glitzy arrivals area last year in deference to the U.S.-led war effort in Iraq. With the passage of time, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences figured it was safe to make merry again for the 76th annual Oscars.

"Hollywood was hiding for a couple of years," said Owen Wilson (news), who was strolling the red carpet with Ben Stiller (news), his co-star in the big-screen version of "Starsky & Hutch," opening Friday. "Hollywood's back. I think that's the story."

"Return of the King" was viewed as a near-certain best-picture winner. The closing chapter of Peter Jackson's epic adapted from J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth saga, "Return of the King" has dominated earlier Hollywood awards.

"It's not a good place to be, because every Oscars, there are surprises," Jackson said of the front-runner status before the show. "I'm as curious as anybody else about what's going to happen."

A best-picture win would be the first ever for the fantasy genre, generally overlooked by Oscar voters who favor heavy drama over otherworldly stories. Only a handful of fantasy or science-fiction tales have earned best-picture nominations, among them "The Wizard of Oz," "Star Wars," "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" and the first two "Lord of the Rings" installments, "The Fellowship of the Ring" and "The Two Towers."

Also competing for best picture: "Lost in Translation," a comic drama of oddball friendship between Americans in Tokyo; "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World," a rousing Napoleonic naval adventure; "Mystic River," a brooding thriller about three childhood friends reunited as adults by a murder investigation; and "Seabiscuit," the uplifting story of the underdog Depression-era racehorse.

Front-runners in other acting categories were Charlize Theron for best actress as serial killer Aileen Wuornos in "Monster" and Renee Zellweger for supporting actress as a hardy Confederate woman in the Civil War saga "Cold Mountain."

Sean Penn, long viewed as the best-actor favorite for his role as a vengeful father in "Mystic River," faced fresh competition from Johnny Depp as a punch-drunk buccaneer in "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl." Depp won last weekend's Screen Actors Guild Award over Penn, while Bill Murray as a washed-up actor in "Lost in Translation" also was a strong competitor for best actor.

The Oscars came three weeks earlier than the traditional late-March date. The move was intended to boost sagging television ratings for the Oscar broadcast, with academy executives figuring the earlier ceremony would make the show a fresher draw for audiences worn out by Hollywood's prolonged awards season.

ABC's broadcast of the ceremony incorporated a five-second tape delay so censors could edit out anything objectionable. The delay was implemented after the Super Bowl halftime incident, in which Justin Timberlake tore off part of Janet Jackson's bustier and exposed her breast.

Tim Robbins wins supporting actor Oscar

Tim Robbins won the Oscar for best supporting actor on Sunday for his performance as the suspected killer of his friend's daughter in the drama "Mystic River."

Robbins, star of such films as "The Shawshank Redemption," "The Player" and "Bull Durham," won the Oscar for his work as "Mystic River's" Dave Boyle, a tormented, beaten-down man in working class Boston who is suspected of killing the daughter of his friend, played by Sean Penn.

But Robbins, a lanky California native, has also won acclaim for his work as a director and writer in Hollywood, most notably for directing "Dead Man Walking," for which his companion Susan Sarandon won a best actress Oscar. Robbins was nominated for an Oscar as well.

Robbins and Sarandon met on the set of "Bull Durham" and have been together ever since. They have two children .

And they have been among Hollywood's most outspoken advocates of liberal causes, once drawing criticism for using their on-air time at the Oscars to plead for the rights of Haitians being held at Guantanamo Bay.

Just last year Robbins again found himself at the center of another controversy when the Baseball Hall of Fame disinvited him to a special screening of "Bull Durham" because of his outspoken opposition to the war in Iraq.

And he has often been guided by his outlook in choosing film projects, as was the case with the political comedy "Bob Roberts," "Cradle Will Rock" about government suppression of a theater group and the conspiracy thriller "Arlington Road."

But Oscar voters showed themselves undaunted by the frequent criticism of Robbins and Sarandon, often by conservative radio hosts and commentators who say the couples' views are out of touch with those of average Americans, and awarded Robbins Hollywood's highest honor.

'Finding Nemo' Finds Oscar

"Finding Nemo" found its way to the Oscar podium Sunday night, winning the Academy Award for best animated feature.

The child of divorcing corporate parents Walt Disney Co. and Pixar Animation Studios, Nemo was one of the smash hits of 2003, taking in $340 million in ticket sales. The lushly animated film tells the story of a father fish looking for his little son, who struggles to make his way back home to the ocean.

But amid the film's success, the family behind it was fragmenting, with Pixar chief Steve Jobs breaking off negotiations with Michael Eisner-led Disney. Eisner, in turn, has been under attack for his management of the company he has led for 20 years, which recently was the target of a takeover bid by cable giant Comcast.

The winning moment at Kodak Theatre could have been awkward, but director Andrew Stanton simply credited the "extraordinary filmmaking environment at Pixar" as well as Dick Cook, the chairman of Walt Disney Studios.

Presenter Robin Williams alluded to the Disney-Pixar breakup before the award was announced, saying that with Eisner losing Pixar, "all you're going to have left is basically a Muppet and a waterslide."

"Finding Nemo," which was up against Disney's "Brother Bear" and Sony Pictures Classics' "The Triplets of Belleville," was in the lineage of such hits as "Toy Story," "A Bug's Life" and "Monsters, Inc."

The filmmakers populated their animated water world with a school of clever characters — the clown fish Marlin (voiced by Albert Brooks), the blue tang fish Dory (Ellen DeGeneres), a trio of sharks and a surfing turtle, among them.

Two more Pixar-Disney features are upcoming under the current contract: "The Incredibles," due out later this year, and "Cars," slated for release next year.

Oscar Award List

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Tim Robbins
MYSTIC RIVER

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Renée Zellweger
COLD MOUNTAIN

ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
FINDING NEMO
Andrew Stanton

ART DIRECTION
THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING
Grant Major (Art Direction); Dan Hennah and Alan Lee (Set Decoration)

COSTUME DESIGN
THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING
Ngila Dickson and Richard Taylor

HONORARY AWARD
HONORARY AWARD
Blake Edwards

MAKEUP
THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING
Richard Taylor
Peter King

SHORT FILM (ANIMATED)
HARVIE KRUMPET
Adam Elliot

SHORT FILM (LIVE ACTION)
TWO SOLDIERS
Aaron Schneider and Andrew J. Sacks

SOUND
THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING
Christopher Boyes, Michael Semanick, Michael Hedges and Hammond Peek

SOUND EDITING
MASTER AND COMMANDER: THE FAR SIDE OF THE WORLD
Richard King

VISUAL EFFECTS
THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING
Jim Rygiel, Joe Letteri, Randall William Cook and Alex Funke