2001 will always be remembered as the year the first black actress won in the lead category. It wasn’t just that, though. Both Halle Berry and Denzel Washington won that night. Here we are, an unbelievable twelve years later and no black actress has come close, save Viola Davis – whose part just wasn’t big enough, whose wasn’t naked enough, and who wasn’t Meryl Streep. I’m all for giving Meryl Streep all of the Oscars. I think she’s the best actor, male or female, currently working in Hollywood or maybe ever. I am dazzled by her work in August: Osage County — and it’s hard to believe that woman is the same one who was in The Devil Wears Prada and Julie and Julia. That she’d only won two Oscars was shameful, considering. And yet…readers grouse about my bringing this up – well, you should have been around in 2001, when Halle Berry and Denzel Washington were in the Oscar race. You think it’s bad now, my friends.
I will say this – the complaints usually start with “it should be about the work.” And that’s partly true. But you have you have remove yourself from the small picture and look at the big picture. The work is about opportunity, subject matter, and public interest. What drives those things determines who gets to try their hand at the great parts. We’re not quite at the place where Hollywood feels free to cast actors in a way that ignores race. Black actors still have to play black parts in films that tell black stories. Those films, as it turns out, almost always have to carry the burden of being both politically correct, not insulting to the black community and not insulting to the white community, plus appealing to the, let’s face it, almost exclusively white community of critics. Those stories have to be universal enough to appeal across the board. It just doesn’t happen, my friends. I always get the angry resistance to affirmative action having a place in a film awards race. Nobody should win “because they are black.” I’ll go along with that as long as we can also agree that people don’t get all of the great roles because they are white.
The status quo is way too easy to sink into, particularly when many of my friends on Twitter howl with fury when I dare bring up race — don’t harsh my mellow, or don’t make this a race issue, or we like what we like – none of that matters because it continues to perpetuate a pattern that has been set in Hollywood since it’s beginning: black characters must be kept in their place – white character rule the day.
That Halle Berry was and remains the first and only black actress ever to win in lead is simply unacceptable. I shouldn’t be the only one writing about the Oscars who brings this up. It is glaringly obvious, as is the collective irritation by critics, and Oscar voters. If discomfort and irritation is the only price they pay, I say, that’s nothing by comparison.
On to Best Picture, there were three films vying for the big prize. A Beautiful Mind, Fellowship of the Ring and Moulin Rouge. A few Oscar pundits lost their minds that year and predicted Moulin Rouge to win Best Picture. But the first thirty minutes of that film made winning impossible. I learned my first hard lesson about how the Oscars work versus how the public thinks they work when I was sitting around a table at a meeting for something entirely unrelated to the Oscars. Everyone at the table was convinced Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring was going to win. No, I told them. It will be A Beautiful Mind, and I laid out the reasons why. The same thing happened in 2009 when it was Avatar versus The Hurt Locker. Everyone thought Avatar was going to win. What people “out there” don’t understand about the Oscar voters is that they are resisting, with every bone in their bodies, the evolving film industry towards big budget effects films. They want it to be how it’s been for the past 80 years — nuts and bolts filmmaking with real actors, real scripts, stories about regular people. Any whiff of fantasy and they reject it out of hand. Gravity will test that theory this year.
Russell Crowe had an incident at the BAFTAS where he had a kind of drunken hissy fit backstage. The story went public and it cost Crowe the Oscar, which went to Denzel Washington instead. Berry’s main competition that year was mainly Sissy Spacek for In the Bedroom. Or maybe Nicole Kidman for Moulin Rouge, both are wonderful performances. But Berry not only gave a great performance but also made history. The next time you hear someone say “it should be about the work” remember that it isn’t about that at all; it’s about opportunity. Winning Oscars means opportunity, even if they sometimes don’t really promise a career like Meryl Streep’s. Why do you suppose there are so many great Best Actor performances this year? Because that is really what it’s all about right now. The opportunities are infinite where white male actors are concerned in 2013. Opportunities for women, black or white or hispanic or asian are fewer and fewer.
I remember 2001 very well. So many great movies from that year – Mulholland Drive (which might have really been the best film of the year0, Memento, which launched Christopher Nolan, AI and No Man’s Land. We’ll be talking about this year some time this weekend. Questions or comments welcome.
Apologies for all of the delays with the podcast – in the busy season it’s difficult to get our schedules squared away.
My Personal Favourites from the Nominees
Picture – “A Beautiful Mind”
Director – David Lynch “Mulholland Drive”
Leading Actor – Russel Crowe “A Beautiful Mind”
Leading Actress – Nicole Kidman “Moulin Rouge”
Supporting Actor – Ben Kingsley “Sexy Beast”
Supporting Actress – Jennifer Connelly “A Beautiful Mind”
Original Screenplay – “Memento”
Adapted Screenplay – “A Beautiful Mind”
My Personal Heroes in that year
Motion Picture
“Memento”
“Mulholland Drive”
“A Beautiful Mind”
“8 Femmes”
“The Others”
“The Lord of the Rings – The Felloship of the Ring”
“Donnie Darko”
“In the Mood for Love”
“In the Bedroom”
“Hundstage”
Achievement in Directing
Alejandro Amenebar “The Others”
Christopher Nolan „Memento“
Ron Howard “A Beautiful Mind”
Ulrich Seidl „Hundstage“
David Lynch “Mulholland Drive”
Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
Russel Crowe “A Beautiful Mind”
Guy Pearce “Memento”
John Cameron Mitchell “Hedwig and the Angry Inch”
Billy Bob Thornton “Monster’s Ball”
Tony Leung “In the Mood for Love”
Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
Nicole Kidman “The Others”
Naomi Watts “Mulholland Drive”
Tilda Swinton “The Deep End”
Maggie Cheung “In the Mood for Love”
Isabelle Huppert „8 Femmes“
Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role
Ben Kingsley “Sexy Beast”
Ian McKellen “The Lord of the Rings – The Felloship of the Ring”
Heath Ledger „Monster’s Ball“
Jim Broadbent „Moulin Rouge“
Steve Buscemi „Ghost World“
Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role
Cameron Diaz “Vanilla Sky”
Jennifer Connelly “A Beautiful Mind”
Marisa Tomei “In the Bedrooom”
Maria Hofstätter „Hundstage“
Carrie Anne Moss “Memento”
And I agree with the person who said that Sissy Spacek’s performance was dull. But, it was real. It didn’t require a ton of hysterical screams. It was a performance that smoldered until it blew, and even then, never once did it seem as if she was playing a part. It was real in the most scary of ways and it takes someone that good to make it that real. And it should have been her 2nd Oscar.
Picture: LOTR-FOTR
Dir: Peter Jackson-LOTR-FOTR
Actor: Tom Wilkinson-IN The Bedroom
Actress: Sissy Spacek-In The Bedroom
Supp.Actor: Ian McKellen-LOTR-FOTR
Supp. Acrress: Kate Winslet-Iris
Oh yeah… I was hoping that Wilson the volley ball would come on stage and present the broken plate from In the Bedroom with the Oscar for Best Performance by an Inanimate Object (Wilson having won the year before, of course).
This Oscar year was my first since finding OscarWatch.com so it will always be special 🙂
And my fave is Nicole Kidman, so watching her ascend (in such a vividly, fantastically, artistically, FUN movie) was great.
A quick note on the race issue: since Halle’s win, there have been more nominees of color than prior, right? Didn’t her win demonstrate that a black actress can anchor an acclaimed film – not just a “Tyler Perry” type of genre flick? Look at Precious, Dreamgirls, The Help… all films that were greenlit in part because black women were seen as viably commercial YET critically lauded components. For as aggravating as the Oscars can be, the impact on mainstream film is still huge, and Halle’s win (regardless of if she should have won over another actress) had a positive effect. And that’s what I choose to celebrate.
*for the record my vote would have gone to Kidman. “She sings, she dances, she dies” as the FYC ads said.
Is no one going to mention that Crowe won the year before, so that’s the main reason he didn’t win again? I remember well that year, that the conversation was “are we gonna put him up there with Tom Hanks, back to back winning?”
Personally, I hate when someone is overlooked because someone else is “due” the Oscar.
Imagine… If Kidman won, then she wouldn’t have beat Moore a few years later. Julianne Moore would have her Oscar. If Russell Crowe won for The Insider, then he wouldn’t have won for Gladiator (perhaps Ed Harris would have his deserved Best Actor Oscar), and he might have won again for A Beautiful Mind. Or *raises hands to the Heavens* Tom Wilkinson could have won for In the Bedroom. Look at his amazing career now – imagine if he had the Oscar under his belt.
See the domino effect it causes? If Redford beats Ejiofor this year, because he’s due, then what? Will Ejiofor be relegated to the hall of “how the fuck did he not win the Oscar” performers?
*my soap box suddenly appeared, my bad*
But you get my point. This year for Oscar was great, IMO, but it also highlighted what happens when “due” winners win versus the technically better performer.
Oh, this was also the first year I managed to see all five BP nominees in theaters before the nominations (would have been he year prior but Chocolat had about 1% appeal).
No Man’s Land all the way
Followed by
Y Tu Mama También
Gosford Park
The reason I left a few other consensus favorite movies off my list is for these reasons:
Haven’t seen in a really long time, and need to see again:
Black Hawk Down
Ali
The Royal Tenenbaums
Gosford Park
Vanilla Sky
Moulin Rouge!
Saw once, and didn’t like the first time:
Mulholland Drive
In the Bedroom
Seen enough times, and now have just lost interest:
Memento
Donnie Darko
I just watched A Beautiful Mind again last night. It had been at least 5 – 8 years since I had last seen it. It wasn’t as good as I remember it. I suppose that partly due to the fact that I know someone who has Schizophrenia. He isn’t a sweetheart like John Nash. He’s a bit scary actually. I have literally had fears of him killing his parents and then coming after the rest of us. (I know, I shouldn’t worry so much). Right now he’s living in a mental facility. So that makes me feel better.
I would have liked to see A Beautiful Mind end where we see Alicia ask John if he can do something extraordinary. That scene after he admits that the girl he sees never ages. They could have had a follow up / wrap up scene of him learning to live with his illness.
As for the rest of the movies of 2001, my favorites have overall been:
1. Ocean’s Eleven
2. Training Day
3. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
4. The Fast and the Furious
5. A Beautiful Mind
Memento – 2001 film
Y Tu Mama Tambien – 2002 film
It irks me that people are all over the map with these. This is an Oscar site that specifically discusses films as they relate to winning Oscars, so let’s standardize by categorizing films as they are released in the U.S. and Oscar-eligible.
/rant over.
Say what you want about black actors / actresses, the reward of opportunity and the timeliness of certain performances, I believe the best actress oscar belonged that year to Kidman – that role was beyond star making it was icon making – in my mind her loss to Halle Berry (whose performance was superb by the way) was like Judy Garland’s loss to Grace Kelly (whose performance was arguably of a lesser caliber than Berry’s) – but regardless, what remains after so many years, what is remembered, what is considered iconic and has entered the public consciousness is Judy’s performance in A Star is Born and Nicole’s performance in Moulin Rouge – and I believe both should have been rewarded
Now you could argue that Nicole’s snub was later rewarded with her oscar for The Hours (in an arguably supporting performance when Julianne potentially deserved it more for Far From Heaven) – I would say that the right way to do it would have indeed been to reward Nicole for Moulin Rouge and Julianne for Far From Heaven – Both for their performances and for their filmography in general, both actresses deserve more an oscar than Halle Berry – it’s puzzling that Julianne still doesn’t have an oscar – even yes I also believe Nicole should have been up for a best supporting actress oscar for The Hours (not a leading one) and that that race with Catherine Zeta Jones (amazing in Chicago) would have been one of the tightest and strongest ever in oscar history
Gene Hackman should have been nominated and won for The Royal Tenenbaums, its the best comedic performance of the decade.
I am struggling to believe Mulholland Drive wasn’t even nominated for BP that year. I am curious to know what were they smoking!! One of the biggest snubs in the whole Oscar history.
This was generally not a very good year in my opinion…
Fictional only:
PICTURE: A.I. – Artificial Intelligence
DIRECTOR: Jean-Pierre Jeunet – Amélie
ACTOR: Tom Wilkinson – In the Bedroom
ACTRESS: Naomi Watts – Mulholland Drive
SUPPORTING ACTOR: Hayden Christensen – Life As a House
SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Marisa Tomei – In the Bedroom
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Mulholland Drive
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: A.I. – Artificial Intelligence
FILM EDITING: Moulin Rouge
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Amélie
ORIGINAL SCORE: A.I. – Artificial Intelligence
ORIGINAL SONG: LOTR: The Fellowship of the Ring
PRODUCTION DESIGN: Moulin Rouge
SOUND MIXING: Moulin Rouge
SOUND EDITING: LOTR: The Fellowship of the Ring
VISUAL EFFECTS: LOTR: The Fellowship of the Ring
COSTUME DESIGN: Moulin Rouge
MAKEUP: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
ANIMATED FEATURE: Spirited Away
FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM: Amélie
This is one of the Best Picture choices I can’t get behind at all. Russell Crowe was brilliant in this, and Jennifer Connelly was also good (though I couldn’t help thinking she had won to make up for not being nominated for her performance in REQUIEM FOR A DREAM, which was a superior performance to this one and demanded more of her as an actress), but it reminded me of Denzel Washington’s recurring line in PHILADELPHIA – “Explain it to me like I’m a six-year-old”. The method of illustrating Nash’s madness was admittedly clever, but other than that, I found the film simpleminded.
I didn’t have any problem with Washington and Berry winning, but I do think Wilkinson and Spacek deserved to win more, as they were both outstanding (I can understand not liking her, but Spacek’s performance “dull”? What about the scene where Marisa Tomei – who was also excellent – goes to apologize to her, and Spacek slaps her without a second thought? That’s hardly the mark of a “dull” performance), and I also think Ben Kingsley and Maggie Smith should have won (though, admittedly, Smith playing a variation on this character in many other works since has dulled the edge off a bit).
My top 10 for the year:
1. In the Bedroom
2. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
3. Memento
4. Lantana
5. (tie) Amelie, The Royal Tenenbaums
6. Ali
7. The Man who Wasn’t There
8. Mulholland Drive
9. A.I. Artificial Intelligence
10. Ghost World
The year that will always be remembered, for me at least, as the year the Oscars went to undeserving people. Washington over Crowe? For that slop fest, one-trick pony nonsense? Laughable. And Berry over ANY of those other women??!! Zoikes!!!!!! It was an embarrassing year for the Oscars …
Actually no I remembered that wrong. He fell in to the pool while clinging to him because of his self defense mechanism.
He’s a saint? Didn’t he try to drown the real son?
He’s supposed to be a real boy, and yet he is an absolute saint. This is too convenient for Spielberg as it allows him to easily manipulate our emotions.
What the actual fuck
“He’s supposed to be a real boy, and yet he is an absolute saint.”
Actually, to me, he is the way he’s supposed to be.
That is, an AI who is programmed to love and behave virtually like a human being but not exactly like one – and so it causes him to make an effort to be like one ultimately, to be accepted by “mother”, thus his journey, etc.
Another criminally underrated film that year.
I don’t understand the love for AI: Artificial Intelligence. It’s a solid movie, and Haley Joel Osmet gives a wonderful performance, but it is very flawed. He’s supposed to be a real boy, and yet he is an absolute saint. This is too convenient for Spielberg as it allows him to easily manipulate our emotions. Disney’s Pinocchio actually managed to show its character misbehaving (like a real kid). 2001 is way too strong of a year to include AI in the top ten.
Mulholland Drive, Memento, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Fellowship of the Ring, and In the Bedroom would have been a worthy line-up.
The Academy ultimately did LotR right. No complaints, but it is a joke that ABM beat FotR for BP. Godfor Park would have been cool, but the other nominees would have been worthy, too.
FotR has had my whole heart from the moment I first saw Frodo sitting under a tree reading and heard the Shire Theme. The intelligence of their insight into Tolkien’s vision and language continues to impress me, even now.
I thought Berry was very good and that the rage against her win was repulsive. Washington’s win was the first time I caught on how good Warner is at the Oscar game, although Weinstein and Angelotti were the Oscar gods then.
The Hobbit is about language. Tolkien makes that clear in the first scene of the book – the running gag in the book is the contrast between heroic speech and modern bourgeois speech… the language in The Hobbit is bad, a shock, after the intelligence of the adaptation in the LotR films.
2001 was a rare year where I thought all 5 Best Picture nominees were good films, although “A Beautiful Mind” & “Gosford Park” are far from great. Here are my picks for the year:
BEST PICTURE
1. Moulin Rouge
2. The Man Who Wasn’t There
3. Shrek
4. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
5. Black Hawk Down
6. In the Bedroom
7. The Royal Tenenbaums
8. A.I.: Artificial Intelligence
9. The Score
10. Training Day
BEST DIRECTOR
1. Baz Luhrman, Moulin Rouge
2. Peter Jackson, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
3. Joel & Ethan Coen, The Man Who Wasn’t There
4. Ridley Scott, Black Hawk Down
5. Wes Anderson, The Royal Tenenbaums
BEST LEAD ACTRESS
1. Nicole Kidman, Moulin Rouge
2. Sissy Spacek, In the Bedroom
3. Frances McDormand, The Man Who Wasn’t There
4. Thora Birch, Ghost World
5. Judi Dench, Iris
BEST LEAD ACTOR
1. Billy Bob Thornton, The Man Who Wasn’t There
2. Russell Crowe, A Beautiful Mind
3. Tom Wilkinson, In the Bedroom
4. Denzel Washington, Training Day
5. Mike Myers, Shrek
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
1. Jim Broadbent, Moulin Rouge
2. Gene Hackman, The Royal Tenenbaums
3. Ian McKellan, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
4. John Leguizamo, Moulin Rouge
5. Tony Shaloub, The Man Who Wasn’t There
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
1. Frances O’Connor, A.I.: Artificial Intelligence
2. Marisa Tomei, In the Bedroom
3. Maggie Smith, Gosford Park
4. Helen Mirren, Gosford Park
5. Kate Winslet, Iris
Best Original Screenplay: The Man Who Wasn’t There
Best Adapted Screenplay: Shrek
Best Original Song: “Come What May” Moulin Rouge
Best Score: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Best Use of Music (Should be an Oscar category): Moulin Rouge
Best Editing: Moulin Rouge
Best Cinematography: Moulin Rouge
Best Production Design: The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
Best Sound: Moulin Rouge
Best Sound Editing: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Best Visual Effects: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Best Costume Design: Moulin Rouge
Best Makeup: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Best Animated Feature: Shrek
Best Foreign Language Feature: Amelie
Best Documentary: Promises
Best Ensemble Cast (Should Be an Oscar Category): The Royal Tenenbaums
@Zach,
Simply put, I think the editing work in #Black Hawk Down# is capital and truly serves its purpose in terms of enhancing the film’s action-movie experience. It gives viewers thrill and excitement, etc.
That said, I always have a special place […] for #Moulin Rouge#. I love pop/rock music. I could relate to all those tunes adapted and used in this beautiful movie piece (love those scenes and moments). The Roxanne cut, as you’ve mentioned, to my heart and mind, however, is more about the able performances given by all thesps involved, especially that Australian (?) actor who provides the main vocal and theatrical performance. Not to mention, the production design, cinematography, […], as well as the directing itself — rather than editing (which, of course, is also pleasing).
“Seems today people/critics/the Academy don’t give enough credit to films that are purely entertaining (unless it’s Argo or The Artist).”
I agree in general.
But as time goes by, for instance even now, I am already not so sure about #Argo# (B or B-).
But I could go back and watch #The Artist# over and over again (strong B+; [SPOILER] I think, at the end of final ACT, the shots where “she” goes back to “his” house and, finding him there, they both hug each other, etc., could expand for more; it’s basically left something more to desire [if they fixed that and redid those scenes for better, I would probably give it A- for the end result of the entire piece]; but the tap-dance performance in the final scenes is a real joy to watch).
Recently re-watched MEMENTO and my initial misgivings are still there. I feel as if the film begins and ends with its gimmick. I don’t think it has anything particularly revelatory or moving to say about grief, revenge, or denial. Instead, its all about narrative mechanics. I think it’s well made, told, and acted, but its reputation has gotten out of hand. It’s a B+ film for me.
Top 10 of 2001
10. MOULIN ROUGE
9. VANILLA SKY
8. THE PLEDGE
7. IN THE BEDROOM
6. LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING
5. THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS
4. GOSFORD PARK
3. AI: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
2. IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE
1. MULHOLLAND DRIVE
No John Williams’ work on Harry Potter just doesn’t come close to what Howard Shore achieved with Fellowship of the Ring. The score is epic on so many levels, but also intimate and personal. He followed Williams’ lead from Star Wars, giving leitmotif themes to cultures of Middle Earth, bringing texture and life to Jackson’s Middle Earth. This was Shore’s first nomination after over a decade of very good, unrecognized work. Look at Silence of the Lambs—the score is vital to that film, and Shore went unrecognized. Not only was this Oscar a worthy career award, but his achievement in Lord of the Rings is unsurpassed in recent years. My favorite scoring of the film is the Mines of Moria sequence, probably the greatest in the film:
A Journey in the Dark: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ttCJ6uQN_Q
Bridge of Khazad-Dum: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUIZvAe3RBg
And this isn’t even counting the instantly recognizable Concerning Hobbits, Shire, Isengard, Rivendell, Lothlorien, Legend of the Ring/Argonath, and Breaking of the Fellowship themes. Definitely one of the few years the Original Score category went to the right film.
Forgot to mention Mulholland Drive, one of the few films Imdidnt lime/get at all, and the re-watched and fell in love with.
Halle Berry, Denzel. Very good performances. Not my best of the year hut I was fine with their wins,
But yeah, Fellowship still takes this for me.
Great year. Memento and Mulholland Dr. both masterpieces in their own way. I also love the terribly underrated The Man Who Wasn’t There.
Baz Luhrmann should have atleast be nominated for Directing, Robelt Altman or David Lynch should have won for Directing, ‘Amelie’ should have won in Foreign Language and Cinematography.
I remember this was the year of first Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings movies. What I like about Harry Potter was that it never pretended to be something else but a fantasy movie for kids and family and knew its place having Lord of the Rings on the same year. What’s great about Harry Potter was that it consistently improved in its aspects one way or the other every year may it be production design (its stongest aspect), music (ofcourse John Williams’ music is unforgettable and should have won for the 1st and 3rd movie), costume, make-up, visual effects, screenplay, directing and cinematography. It kept its quality for 8 years and credits to David Heyman and the crew for that. I remember watching ‘Sorcerer’s Stone when I was in 6th grade and how it set my imagination to that world and sparked my interest to read the novels and in movie making in general. It was also the first full Oscar telecast I watched hoping the film can win one of the 3 or 4 categories it was nominated (alas! The franchise ended up not winning a single gold).
Regarding the concern that after twelve years and no black actress has come close to Halle Berry’s feat, I just don’t think there was a really strong performance that’s Oscar-worthy and difficult to ignore even by the Academy’s standard for the past twelve years in a leading role. Even Viola Davis’ performance in ‘The Help’ was argued to be a supporting role for it was an ensemble work. Maybe lack of leading role for women in Hollywood is the problem? Because honestly, Hollywood doesn’t offer ‘Black Swan’, ‘The Kids are All Right’ and ‘Gravity’ movies every year. Not that there aren’t good roles for African-American women (because there are/were, Hello Gabourey Sidibe) but I guess the fact that they still prefer to have Octavia Spencer or Davis in supporting roles after their success in The Help, says it all.
@JPNS Viewer, I personally would have given Moulin Rouge! Best Editing, even though it’s not hard to see why they didn’t. It wasn’t consistently slick like Chicago a year later, but it helped define the film. Plus I was, and am, a huge Moulin fan and thought the cutting of “Roxanne” was breathtaking.
For the record, the first 20 minutes of the film, not to say anything of the rest, are a lot to handle. I too felt it changed, or could change, filmmaking, but I also loved A Beautiful Mind and felt that it was the best all-around story and screenplay of the year. A brilliant, and now underrated, piece of storytelling and acting that plays on your expectations as the viewer. The game theory scene is genius. As time goes on, though, it’s easy to forget A Beautiful Mind’s strengths next to the impact of Moulin Rouge! let alone the other game-changers that year. It wasn’t until years later that I discovered Mulholland Dr., and in some ways that is the most brilliant of them all. All three films will remain on my list of personal favorites.
Of course, LOTR, Gosford Park, Memento, Shrek, Amelie, and A.I. were all strong.
It was a good year for entertaining nominees. Seems today people/critics/the Academy don’t give enough credit to films that are purely entertaining (unless it’s Argo or The Artist).
Good article, Sasha. I appreciate your continued commentary regarding this issue.
Iconic year in my head.
“Mulholland Drive” is the best film that year, one of the top 5 of the decade. It is hard to overstate the greatness of that film, and its relevance to the history of cinema (history of Los Angeles cinema). But as a landmark achievement in filmmaking, it is matched only by “Moulin Rouge.” (Bryce’s list disqualifies itself in my mind for its exclusion of Baz Luhrmann’s otherworldly and still-unbelievable manipulation of editing, light, and sound into a truly underappreciated masterpiece!)
When I saw “Moulin Rouge,” I thought it changed filmmaking forever. And then nobody since has even came close to what it did. And so it is a hidden masterpiece, one of a kind. It still marks potential for one direction 21st century films have the potential to go. When I think of directors that have changed the very rules of “pacing”/”temporality”–the very idea of time in the 21st century, I think primarily of Paul Greengrass and Baz Luhrmann. There is rather too much to be said on that.
For me, 2001 is the year of “Mulholland Drive” and “Moulin Rouge,” but “Fellowship,” “In the Bedroom,” “Royal Tenenbaums,” etc. made it a significant one all around.
But that David Lynch nomination tho!
so many interesting movies made that year and Academy thought A Beautiful Mind was the best. This movie and The King’s Speech are the only Oscar winners (in the last 20 years at least) I don’t understand what made Academy think were the best. none of them is a bad movie, but they are just so unexceptional. actually I don’t think A Beautiful Mind was very good either. It is such a serious story – a real life genius mathematician struggling with schizophrenia – and Ron Howard turned it into a Disney movie.
Chris,
I saw most of the movies on my top 10 after 2001, but I should be more consistent with how I assign years. So far I’m comfortable with premiere date. Even if it’s only festival or non-US release (i.e. How IMDB assigns) But for the sake of discussion at AD, I agree that Oscar eligibility should be priority. Maybe I’ll adopt that principle starting with next podcast preview. And yesss, WAKING LIFE is a marvel 🙂 Cannot wait for “BOYHOOD”
You could even argue that these three films would constitute a fine top 3 of the whole decade
I know, right? They’re that strong!
[Part 3]
Good call, Zach. Kudos.
—
I personally found it fair enough to give it (Best Editing) to Black Hawk Down (or Memento for that matter) considering only those five nominees. (I though need to see these two [etc.] again to give it my personal final say. But that was at least how I saw it turn out back then.)
That was an interesting year. The big stories were Russell Crowe; the unprecedented black wins, Sidney Poitier and Robert Redford winning honorary awards, the beginning of LOTR; the ascendance of Nicole Kidman; the return of Robert Altman, Sissy Spacek, Maggie Smith, Helen Mirren, and Marisa Tomei; Ron Howard being overdue; the return of the movie musical; the Baz Luhrmann snub; Amelie losing Foreign Film; Jim Broadbent upsetting in Supporting Actor (really an open field); Renee Zellweger’s weight gain for Bridget Jones; how vastly different SAG’s Supporting Actress nominees were from the Oscars’; Dakota Fanning holding her own opposite Sean Penn; Kate Winslet’s first nomination since Titanic; Jennifer Connelly fulfilling a career of promise; Black Hawk Down winning Editing over Best Picture nominees; the disqualification of “Come What May” from the Original Song category; Randy Newman’s first Oscar, a surprise over big-name musicians; breakthroughs by Tilda Swinton and Naomi Watts; the disappointment of The Shipping News; Shrek becoming the most successful non-Disney animated film of all time and winning the first-ever animated Oscar; and the controversy over John Nash.
“Curious why you left Waking Life off the list, Bryce, . . . ”
He didn’t. It was included at no. 23.
Never mind, I see it on there, Bryce. I never did see Spirited Away unfortunately…..
[Part 2]
And for the record, Artificial Intelligence: AI was definitely one of the most underrated that year.
Sometimes, it comes up on my cables. And I still welcome it with my wide, open arms.
(Some people in that voting body really disliked Spielberg, perhaps . . . . )
I count Y Tu Mama Tambien for ’02 because that’s when I saw it, and Memento for ’01 cause that’s when I saw it. Coincidentally that is when pretty much everyone in the States saw those two movies. Curious why you left Waking Life off the list, Bryce, as that is one of my absolute faves. Anyways, here’s my list:
1. Memento
2. Mullholland Dr.
3. Waking Life
4. The Royal Tenenbaums
5. Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring
6. Hedwig And The Angry Inch
7. In The Bedroom
8. Sexy Beast
9. AI: Artificial Intelligence
10. Moulin Rouge
11. Ghost World
12. Amores Perros
13. Chopper
14. The Others
15. Ocean’s Eleven
16. Gosford Park
17. Series 7: The Contenders
18. Training Day
19. Bully
20. Donnie Darko
To me, this year’s best film is an animated feature from Japan: SPIRITED AWAY. This site being AD, it may well be an insult to my fellow readers if I start rambling about how great this film be and what it’s all about – since it’s almost a given, virtually every soul hereupon if not having already seen it at least should have good ken of it.
Anyway, Crowe, in my opinion, could have won again had it not been for the BAFTA incident. (Don’t get me wrong. Washington gave his good performance, thanks to the equally good/great performance by Ethan Hawke, and other factors. But in all honesty, reading thoroughly between the lines, though; then I would give it to Crowe that year considering only those five nominees.) Not sure, though, how Smith got nominated that year.
Again: Considering that year’s Oscar Best Picture nominees only, I personally would give BP award to . . .
The Fellowship of the Ring.
The runners-up look like this:
1) Moulin Rouge (or Gosford Park)
2) Gosford Park (or Moulin Rouge)
3) In the Bedroom
4) A Beautiful Mind
The beautiful, talented Marisa Tomei, nominated for Best Supporting Actress (In the Bedroom) has continued to amaze me, and all of the world for that matter, while proving that her win and nom from Vinny was no fluke at all, babaaay!
One of these days, she would get a great role she certainly deserves more than anyone else – well, it is to be hoped.
[Edited by me]
This year 2013 has been unusual in the amount of Black-themed movies released and are making money. It’s like a pent up demand to see stories about “other” people besides white people. I don’t think this year will come about again in the next two years. Especially where it concerns “serious” drama and historic movies about African Americans.
Wasn’t this the year that the Academy was pushed to making scheduling changes in response to the dirty campaigning? If I understand correctly, this was the year that things really came to a head – with the man who was the subject of A Beautiful Mind actually being one of the casualties. He was accused of everything from being a fraud to a nazi, if I’m not mistaken, and I think I also heard that the PR machine behind In the Bedroom was behind a lot of the dirty tricks.
Sissy Spacek’s performance was dull. Halle Berry deserved her Oscar.
(nominees are ranked, and the winners in bold)
Best Picture
1. Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN
2. MULHOLLAND DRIVE
3. THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS
4. A.I. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
5. GOSFORD PARK
Best Director
1. Alfonso Cuaron – Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN
2. David Lynch – MULHOLLAND DRIVE
3. Wes Anderson – THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS
4. Steven Spielberg – A.I. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
5. Robert Altman – GOSFORD PARK
Best Actor
1. Gene Hackman – THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS
2. Tom Wilkinson – IN THE BEDROOM
3. Haley Joel Osment – A.I. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
4. Cui Lin – BEIJING BICYCLE
5. Jake Gyllenhaal – DONNIE DARKO
Best Actress
1. Sissy Spacek – IN THE BEDROOM
2. Naomi Watts – MULHOLLAND DRIVE
3. Maribel Verdu – Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN
4. Graciela Borges – LA CIENAGA
5. Isabelle Huppert – THE PIANO TEACHER
Best Supporting Actor
1. Ian McKellen – THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING
2. Jude Law – A.I. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
3. Eduardo Noriega – THE DEVIL’S BACKBONE
4. Steve Buscemi – GHOST WORLD
5. Tsutomo Yamazaki – GO
Best Supporting Actress
1. Helen Mirren – GOSFORD PARK
2. Laura Helena Herring – MULHOLLAND DRIVE
3. Marisa Tomei – IN THE BEDROOM
4. Maggie Smith – GOSFORD PARK
5. Anjelica Huston – THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS
Best Original Screenplay
1. David Lynch – MULHOLLAND DRIVE
2. Alfonso & Carlos Cuaron – Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN
3. Wes Anderson, Owen Wilson – THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS
4. Jullian Fellowes – GOSFORD PARK
5. Werner Herzog – INVINCIBLE
Best Adapted Screenplay
1. Steven Spielberg, Ian Watson – A.I. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
2. Todd Field, Robert Festinger – IN THE BEDROOM
3. Peter Jackson,Phillippa Boyens, Fran Walsh – THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING
4. Ken Nolan – BLACK HAWK DOWN
5. Ted Griffin – OCEAN’S ELEVEN
Best Film Editing
1. Mary Sweeney – MULHOLLAND DRIVE
2. Pietro Scalia – BLACK HAWK DOWN
3. Dylan Tichenor – THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS
4. John Gilbert – THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING
5. Tim Squyres – GOSFORD PARK
Best Cinematography
1. Emmanuel Lubezki – Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN
2. Peter Deming – MULHOLLAND DRIVE
3. Robert Yeoman – THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS
4. Janusz Kaminski – A.I. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
5. Guillermo Navarro – THE DEVIL’S BACKBONE
————-criminally missing the cut————–
6. Slawomir Idziak – BLACK HAWK DOWN
7. Peter Zeitlinger – INVINCIBLE
8. Roger Deakins – THE MAN WHO WASN’T THERE
9. Steven Soderbergh – OCEAN’S ELEVEN
10. Jie Liu – BEIJING BICYCLE
Best Original Score
1. Howard Shore – THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING
2. Angelo Baladamenti – MULHOLLAND DRIVE
3. John Williams – A.I. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
4. Javier Navarrete – THE DEVIL’S BACKBONE
5. Michael Andrews – DONNIE DARKO
Best Animated Feature
1. Hayao Miyasaki – SPIRITED AWAY
2. Shinishiro Watanabe – COWBOY BEBOP: THE MOVIE
3. Satoshi Kon – MILLENNIUM ACTRESS
4. Rintaro – METROPOLIS
5. Richard Linklater – WAKING LIFE
Best Art Direction
1. THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS
2. THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING
3. A.I. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
4. INVINCIBLE
5. THE DEVIL’S BACKBONE
Best Costume Design
1. THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS
2. THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING
3. INVINCIBLE
4. THE DEVIL’S BACKBONE
5. GOSFORD PARK
Best Sound Mixing goes to THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS
Best Sound Editing goes to MULHOLLAND DRIVE
Best Foreign Language Film
1. Spain – THE DEVIL’S BACKBONE
2. China – BEIJING BICYCLE
3. France – THE PIANO TEACHER
4. Argentina – LA CIENAGA
5. Canada – ATANARJUAT: THE FAST RUNNER
Prize of the Ecumenical Jury
1. Josh Harnett – PEARL HARBOR
2. Chris Evans – NOT ANOTHER TEEN MOVIE
3. Ben Affleck – PEARL HARBOR
4. James Marsden – SUGAR & SPICE
5. Freddie Prinze Jr. – HEAD OVER HILLS
Entrancing Performance by a Fit Actor
1. Gael Garcia Bernal – Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN
2. Nick Stahl – IN THE BEDROOM/BULLY
3. Eduardo Noriega – THE DEVIL’S BACKBONE
4. Josh Harnett – BLACK HAWK DOWN/O
5. Brad Renfro – BULLY/GHOST WORLD
Having seen all five of the nominated BP films, it’s Fellowship of the Ring for me, by far. I didn’t get any of the hype for Gosford Park after I watched it…Maggie Smith being in the film got me excited, but the film itself was meh. Looking back I think people were pushing for Robert Altman to finally win the Oscar and that was driving the hype. I recognize Moulin Rouge was extremely well done, but as a whole it fell short of the other three films for me. It did not deserve to win Costume Design and Art Direction against the competition. I loved Russell Crowe in A Beautiful Mind and the film is decent and entertaining, but it didn’t feel as dramatic to me as In the Bedroom, where the performances and the plot felt more genuine and Marissa Tomei proved for the doubters that she was the real deal (more than just Mona Lisa Vito). Both however came up short next to Fellowship of the Ring, which had strong performances AND was very director-driven. Peter Jackson’s vision is all over the film, and years later this one still remains my favorite of the trilogy. I still remember seeing it and being caught completely off guard. We were looking forward to Harry Potter having read the books, and having watched the animated Hobbit and Bakashi/Rankin Bass Lord of the Rings, the Hobbit story had appealed to me more and I simply wasn’t as excited for Fellowship, even after seeing the trailers. Then just a few weeks later when my dad wanted to see it I could tell in the opening prologue, the black screen with the gravity of Cate Blanchett’s voice, that Lord of the Rings would completely blow Harry Potter away. That prologue set the history of the movie, the stakes that would drive the quest to destroy the ring. It was a spectacle unlike anything I had seen, imbued with sheer wonder, well paced, beautifully scored (thank you Academy for recognizing a great score), and the least reliant of the three Rings movies on CGI visual effects. The costumes and art direction are fantastic, as was Ian McKellen’s performance as Gandalf, robbed of an Oscar again. I’d argue the Moria sequence leading up to the aftermath of the Bridge of Khazad-Dum is one of the most stunningly executed I have ever seen on film. Pure cinematic wonder!
I can certainly understand the concern that there had never been a black winner for Best Actress until Halle’s win. But prior to that was there ever really a performance by a black actress that was hands down the best of the year??? None that I can think of. Not even Whoopi Goldberg in the Color Purple. Look what Whoopi was competing against. 1985 was one of the most competitive years ever for the Best Actress category. And that’s not even including the performances that didn’t get nominated. So the point is, things have to be looked at in the context in which they take place.
2001 was one of the weakest years for film, And other than A Beautiful Mind and Gosford Park, there’s really nothing else from that year that I find memorable. Russell Crowe should definitely have won the Oscar (he did win all 4 precursor awards). It was his best performance ever. Nicole Kidman should have been nominated for The Others.
MULHOLLAND DRIVE was the best picture of the year and if Naomi Watts had been nominated that year, sorry Halle, I’d have given her the Oscar. Her performance was leagues ahead of any other performance that year, male and female. Of the five nominated performances, Halle was deserving.
The first year that my parents let me sit through the entire telecast (the year before was my first and I had to go to bed right before Julia won and then heard about it all day from the girls in class at school – her dress, her speech, her excitement, cute, cute, cute). I was so grateful I got to witness the history. In her entire career, Halle has had the privilege of being a great reason to watch shit movies (B.A.P.S., Gothika, etc.) Her greatest work to me will always be her heartbreaking performance in Their Eyes Were Watching God, though my personal favorite will always be B.A.P.S. She either needs a new agent, or she needs to stick to T.V.
I also enjoyed Life as a House. Brilliant performances from Kevin Kline and Hayden Christensen.
Best films of the year: Fellowship of the Ring, Gosford Park, Moulin Rouge.
Loved 2001.
-Gosford Park has to include some of the best ensemble acting/cast work that I’ve ever seen. Such a fun film to watch. It rightfully won SAG Ensemble and Director at the Globes.
-As for Moulin Rouge, that brought pure movie magic.
-And Fellowship of the Ring was just magnificent.
It’s hard to disagree with your top 3, Bryce. You could even argue that these three films would constitute a fine top 3 of the whole decade.
It’s back!
(I considered MEMENTO for ’00 so that’s that, it’s done, but what a year of motion pictures!!)
1. Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN, Alfonso Cuaron
2. MULHOLLAND DRIVE, David Lynch
3. THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS, Wes Anderson
4. A.I. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, Steven Spielberg
5. GOSFORD PARK, Robert Altman
6. IN THE BEDROOM, Todd Field
7. THE LORD OF THE RINGS THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING, Peter Jackson
8. INVINCIBLE, Werner Herzog
9. SPIRITED AWAY, Hayao Miyasaki
10. BLACK HAWK DOWN, Ridley Scott
11. THE DEVIL’S BACKBONE, Guillermo del Toro
12. DONNIE DARKO, Richard Kelly
13. COWBOY BEBOP: THE MOVIE, Shinishiro Watanabe
14. OCEAN’S ELEVEN, Steven Soderbergh
15. MILLENNIUM ACTRESS, Satoshi Kon
16. BEIJING BICYCLE, Xiaoshuai Wang
17. THE PIANO TEACHER, Michael Haneke
18. THE MAN WHO WASN’T THERE, Joel & Ethan Coen
19. LA CIENAGA, Lucrecia Martel
20. ATANARJUAT: THE FAST RUNNER, Zacharias Kunuk
21. METROPOLIS, Rintaro
22. GO, Isao Yukisada
23. WAKING LIFE, Richard Linklater
24. PULSE, Kiyoshi Kurosawa
25. GHOST WORLD, Terry Zwigoff
26. READ MY LIPS, Jacques Audiard
27. PLANET OF THE APES, Tim Burton
28. LIFE AS A HOUSE, Irwin Winkler
29. HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER’S STONE, Chris Columbus
30. FULL TIME KILLER, Johnnie To, Ka-Fai Wai
31. O, Tim Blake Nelson
32. ICHI THE KILLER, Takashi Miike
33. GODZILLA, MOTHRA, AND KING GHIDORAH: GIANT MONSTERS ALL-OUT ATTACK, Shusuke Kaneko
34. L.I.E., Michael Cuesta
35. WET HOT AMERICAN SUMMER, David Wain
36. THE OTHERS, Alejandro Amenabar
37. BULLY, Larry Clark
38. HEIST, David Mamet
39. TAPE, Richard Linklater
40. THE SCORE, Frank Oz
41. MONSTER’S BALL, Marc Foster
42. THE DEEP END, Scott McGehee, David Siegel
43. POOTIE TANG, Louis C.K.
44. ALI, Michael Mann
45. SPY GAME, Tony Scott
46. THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS, Rob Cohen
47. THE MEXICAN, Gore Vervinski
48. JOY RIDE, John Dahl
49. FAT GIRL, Catherine Breillat
50. THE BELIEVER, Henry Bean
51. BEHIND THE SUN, Walter Salles
52. ENEMY AT THE GATES, Jean-Jacques Annaud
53. TRAINING DAY, Antoine Fuqua
Guilty Pleasure: PEARL HARBOR, Michael Bay