2003 was the year Peter Jackson, and his collaborators, finally collected gold on their Middle Earth trilogy. Return of the King was the grand slam, filling the bases and bring it all home. It won all of the 11 Oscars it was nominated for. The bigger fan you were of the films the better you did on the Oscar contest that year.
But there were other movies, most notably, Lost in Translation. Sofia Coppola’s lovely, lyrical coming of age film starring Scarlett Johansson and Bill Murray. It was also the year of Clint Eastwood great Mystic River. Sean Penn ended up winning the Oscar but many thought Bill Murray should have won instead (and were predicting such). That race was really the big story.
Funnily enough, Sean Penn and Charlize Theron (who are now dating) both won that year. Theron won for her astonishing transformation in Monster.
City of God was another standout. We’ll be discussing this year this week. Any comments or questions in advance, please put them here.