UD Home | UDaily | UDaily-Alumni | UDaily-Parents


HIGHLIGHTS
UD called 'epicenter' of 2008 presidential race

Refreshed look for 'UDaily'

Fire safety training held for Residence Life staff

New Enrollment Services Building open for business

UD Outdoor Pool encourages kids to do summer reading

UD in the News

UD alumnus Biden selected as vice presidential candidate

Top Obama and McCain strategists are UD alums

Campanella named alumni relations director

Alum trains elephants at Busch Gardens

Police investigate robbery of student

UD delegation promotes basketball in India

Students showcase summer service-learning projects

First UD McNair Ph.D. delivers keynote address

Research symposium spotlights undergraduates

Steiner named associate provost for interdisciplinary research initiatives

More news on UDaily

Subscribe to UDaily's email services


UDaily is produced by the Office of Public Relations
150 South College Ave.
Newark, DE 19716-2701
(302) 831-2791

And the winners are?

1:04 p.m., Feb. 26, 2004--Tom Leitch, professor of English, has been director of UD’s film studies program since 1983. The program teaches critical film analysis, major trends in film history and influential theoretical and critical writing in film. He has written two books on film, “Find the Director and Other Hitchcock Games” and “Crime Films” and reviewed films for “Coming Attractions” which ran on several radio stations in Delaware and the region. Here, he answers some questions about this year's Academy Awards that will be presented on Sunday, Feb. 29.

Q: Which of the five films nominated for best picture—"Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King," "Lost in Translation," "Master and Commander," "Mystic River" or "Seabiscuit"—do you think has the best chance of taking the Oscar? And, why?

A: “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World” and “Seabiscuit” are perfectly fine movies but past their depth in this competition. At first I was worried that “Mystic River” might win, but now I'm more confident that “Lord of the Rings” will go all the way, and I'm very pleased. It's about time Hollywood took a year off from awarding its biggest prize to some conventionally downbeat or uplifting movie about a man who's suffering from some sort of pitiable disability. “Lord of the Rings” marks a return to old-fashioned Hollywood virtues--big moments, big effects, an epic scale that doesn't preclude considerable moral complexity--and is moreover unlikely to provoke too many imprudent imitations. It would be a great choice. So for that matter would its opposite number, the tiny, intimate, virtually action-free “Lost in Translation,” but that's got to be a long-shot for this award.

Q: Who are your picks in the acting categories?

A: I'd love to see Bill Murray win best actor because his performance is such a wonderfully movie-star kind of feat; he does practically nothing he hasn't done many times before, but this time the richness of the story and our knowledge of all those previous roles make the character irresistible. Even so, I think he'll lose to Sean Penn, who gave two amazingly volcanic performances in “Mystic River” and “21 Grams” this year, and who should pick up the sympathy vote for not winning eight years ago for “Dead Man Walking.”

Everybody I've talked to agrees that Charlize Theron has a lock on the best actress award, and I have to agree. I'm sorry Diane Keaton will get passed over, because her subtle, winning performance made a very ordinary movie, ”Something's Gotta Give,” something special. But underneath all the prosthetics and makeup, Theron is a revelation.

I don't have such strong feelings about the supporting categories. Benicio Del Toro, like Keaton, was too accomplished for his character in “21 Grams,” but I think Tim Robbins will win anyway for “Mystic River,” a film so full of fine performances it would be cheated if it took home only two Oscars.

I'd like to see Shohreh Aghdashloo or Patricia Clarkson win best supporting actress, but it's hard to imagine Rene Zellweger not winning.

Q: This year, Sofia Coppola was nominated as best director for "Lost in Translation." In the 76-year history of the Academy Awards, has an American woman been nominated as best director before this? Do you think she'll win?

A: Coppola is the first American woman director to be nominated. In addition to the director’s nomination being long overdue for an American woman—a fact that Barbra Streisand and her fans recognized over 10 years ago—this nomination is particularly appropriate for Coppola, who is Francis Ford Coppola’s daughter and well-connected in the industry, and who managed to make an extraordinary movie whose tone—measured, wise, mature—seems far beyond her years.

I'd be rooting my heart out for Coppola if it weren't for Peter Jackson's nomination for “Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King,” a movie that caps the most consistently achieved trilogy in Hollywood history, and one Jackson was born to make. In taking command of every aspect of a mind-bogglingly complicated series of filmmaking chores, he's proved himself a general without parallel in contemporary cinema and an obvious choice for best director. I solace myself with the hope that this will be only the first of many nominations for Coppola. I hope she won't have long to wait for her own statuette.

Q: Are there any categories in which "the best of the year" wasn't nominated?

A: The two categories everybody always complains about are best documentary feature and best foreign film. As for the foreign film nominees, it’s interesting to note that “City of God,” which captured three nominations that rarely go to foreign films—best cinematography, best adapted screenplay, and best direction—still didn't manage to get nominated as best foreign film. You have to wonder.

As for best documentary, the standard insider response to fans who complain that their favorite documentaries were beaten out for nominations by unknown films is that the unknown films the fans haven't seen are better than the known films they have. This year, however, I managed, along with thousands of other lucky filmgoers, to see three of the five nominees—“Capturing the Friedmans,” “The Fog of War,” and “My Architect”—and fine as they all are, one of last year’s nominees, “Spellbound,” which made more out of less, is even finer.

Q: Were there any obvious omissions, snubs or missteps this year?

A: We could go on till long after the lights had gone dark on the ceremony, which seems to get longer every year. Let me just mention Scarlett Johansson, who was quite wonderful in “Lost in Translation” and “Girl with a Pearl Earring” but did not receive an Oscar nomination. I hope that, like Sofia Coppola, Johansson will be accepting an Oscar in due time.

Article by Barbara Garrison

  E-mail this article

To learn how to subscribe to UDaily, click here.