Oscars Playback: Revisiting the 2004 ceremony when ‘The Lord of the Rings’ swept after a shortened season
Welcome back to Oscars Playback, in which Gold Derby editors and Experts Christopher Rosen and Joyce Eng revisit Oscar ceremonies and winners of yesteryear. This week, we cover the 76th Academy Awards in 2004, honoring the films of 2003.
There was not much suspense this year — and not just because the Oscar ceremony moved up to the end of February, shortening the season by a month. “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” swept the night, going for 11 for 11 for the biggest perfect sweep and tying “Ben-Hur” (1959) and “Titanic” (1997) as the most awarded films ever. But what were some nominations the Peter Jackson epic left on the table?
If you believe Harvey Weinstein, the truncated calendar was to blame for his top dog “Cold Mountain” being excluded from the Best Picture lineup, ending Miramax’s 11-year streak of Best Picture nominees. The Civil War drama, which won Best Supporting Actress for Renee Zellweger, came out on Christmas Day 2003 and missed out on a spot to “Seabiscuit,” which was released July 25 and became the rootable underdog of the season that these days we’ve seen actually win Best Picture.
Elsewhere, we discuss the tight Best Actor race between Sean Penn (“Mystic River”) and Bill Murray (“Lost in Translation”) and DreamWorks’ ad faux pas for Shohreh Aghdashloo (“House of Sand and Fog”) that was invoked this past season during the Andrea Riseborough (“To Leslie”) debacle.
Timestamps:
Intro and the shortened season (0:00)
Our favorite 2003 films (11:10)
Ceremony thoughts (30:35)
Best Picture (37:00)
Best Director (48:15)
Best Actor (51:19)
Best Actress (1:01:22)
Best Supporting Actor (1:07:42)
Best Supporting Actress (1:11:19)
Screenplay awards (1:19:48)
“The Lord of the Rings'” 11 wins (1:22:48)
Other categories (1:28:08)
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