79th Academy Awards
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| 79th Academy Awards | |
|---|---|
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| Date | Sunday, February 25, 2007 |
| Site | Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, California |
| Preshow | Chris Connelly Lisa Ling Allyson Waterman |
| Host | Ellen DeGeneres |
| Producer | Laura Ziskin |
| Director | Louis J. Horvitz |
| Duration | 3 hours, 51 minutes |
The 79th Academy Awards ceremony, honoring the best in film for 2006, took place on February 25, 2007 at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, California. Ellen DeGeneres hosted the ceremony for the first time.[1] This was the sixth time that the Kodak Theatre has hosted the ceremonies since its construction. It was also the 32nd time that the ceremony was televised in the United States by ABC, which is under contract through 2014.[2] The producer was Laura Ziskin.[3] The announcers were Don LaFontaine and Gina Tuttle.
The nominees were announced on January 23 at 5:38 a.m. PST (13:38 UTC) by Academy president Sid Ganis and actress Salma Hayek, at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in the Academy's Beverly Hills headquarters. Bolstered by three nominations for Best Song, the musical Dreamgirls received eight nominations, becoming the first film ever to receive the most nominations without being nominated for Best Picture. Babel received the second highest number of nominations with seven.
Contents |
[edit] Major winners
This is a breakdown of only major winners. For a complete list of nominees and winners, see: 79th Academy Awards nominees and winners
[edit] Feature films
[edit] Acting
[edit] Writing
| Category | Winner | Film |
|---|---|---|
| Original screenplay | Michael Arndt | Little Miss Sunshine |
| Adapted screenplay | William Monahan | The Departed |
[edit] Directing
| Category | Winner | Film |
|---|---|---|
| Academy Award for Directing | Martin Scorsese | The Departed |
[edit] Special honors
| Category | Winner |
|---|---|
| Academy Honorary Award | Ennio Morricone |
| The Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award | Sherry Lansing |
[edit] Films with multiple nominations
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[edit] Films with multiple wins
- Four
- Three
- Two
[edit] Presenters in order of appearance
- Daniel Craig and Nicole Kidman - Best Art Direction
- Maggie Gyllenhaal - announced recipients of Scientific and Technical Awards, Gordon E. Sawyer Award
- Will Ferrell, Jack Black, John C. Reilly - Best Makeup
- Abigail Breslin and Jaden Smith - Best Animated Short Film and Best Live Action Short Film
- Steve Carell and Greg Kinnear - Best Sound Editing
- Jessica Biel and James McAvoy - Best Sound Mixing
- Rachel Weisz - Best Supporting Actor
- Al Gore and Leonardo DiCaprio - announcement regarding the Academy's attempts to help the environment
- Cameron Diaz - Best Animated Feature
- Ben Affleck - introduced montage of films portraying writers, edited by Nancy Meyers
- Helen Mirren and Tom Hanks - Adapted Screenplay
- Emily Blunt and Anne Hathaway - Best Costume Design
- Tom Cruise - Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award
- Gwyneth Paltrow - Best Cinematography
- Naomi Watts and Robert Downey, Jr. - Best Visual Effects
- Catherine Deneuve and Ken Watanabe - introduced montage of past Best Foreign Language Film winners, edited by Giuseppe Tornatore
- Clive Owen and Cate Blanchett - Best Foreign Language Film
- George Clooney - Best Supporting Actress
- Eva Green and Gael García Bernal - Best Documentary Short Subject
- Jerry Seinfeld - Best Documentary Feature
- Clint Eastwood - Academy Honorary Award to Ennio Morricone for his many film scores
- Hugh Jackman and Penélope Cruz - Academy Award for Original Score
- Academy president Sid Ganis spoke during a sequence highlighting the Academy's preservation and educational work
- Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst - Best Original Screenplay
- Jennifer Lopez - introduced the Dreamgirls performances
- Queen Latifah and John Travolta - Best Original Song
- Will Smith - introduced montage of films dealing with themes of U.S. politics as well as immigration and cultural diversity, edited by Michael Mann
- Kate Winslet - Best Film Editing
- Jodie Foster - introduced the memorial montage. The artists that died in the previous year who were remembered: Glenn Ford, Bruno Kirby, Alida Valli, songwriter Betty Comden, Jane Wyatt, Don Knotts, Red Buttons, director Gillo Pontecorvo, Darren McGavin, director Richard Fleischer, cinematographer Sven Nykvist, producer/cartoonist Joseph Barbera, Tamara Dobson, set designer Gretchen Rau, June Allyson, director Gordon Parks, Philippe Noiret, Maureen Stapleton, Jack Wild, director Vincent Sherman, James Doohan, director Shohei Imamura, producer Carlo Ponti, Peter Boyle, cinematographer James Glennon, screenwriter Sidney Sheldon, Jack Palance, Mako, Jack Warden, composer Basil Poledouris, art director Henry Bumstead, screenwriter Jay Presson Allen, and director Robert Altman.
- Philip Seymour Hoffman - Best Leading Actress
- Reese Witherspoon - Best Leading Actor
- Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg - Best Director
- Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton - Best Picture
[edit] Performers
William Ross was the orchestra conductor. Other performers included:
- Pilobolus (dance company) - interpretive depictions of films titles and logos
- Will Ferrell, Jack Black and John C. Reilly, accompanied by Marc Shaiman - "Comedian at the Oscars"
- Sound effects choir, conducted by Steve Sidwell, previously seen in a Honda commercial [1], performing voice effects to a montage of classic films
- James Taylor and Randy Newman - "Our Town"
- Melissa Etheridge - "I Need to Wake Up"
- Celine Dion - premiere of "I Knew I Loved You" as tribute to Ennio Morricone
- Jennifer Hudson, Beyoncé Knowles, Anika Noni Rose and Keith Robinson - Dreamgirls medley: "Love You I Do", "Listen", and "Patience"
[edit] Voting trends
For the second year in a row, no film received more than eight nominations, with the selections scattered among numerous films. Continuing a trend of the previous two years in the major nominations, Academy voters favored films which had struggled at the U.S. box office, although the Best Picture nominees performed slightly better than those of the previous year due to the presence of one sizable hit. The Departed had the best showing through January 21 with $121.7 million, placing the film 17th among the year's releases. However, the next best showing among the five nominees was that of Little Miss Sunshine, which placed 50th with $59.6 million. The Queen ($35.6 million), Babel ($23.7 million) and Letters from Iwo Jima ($2.4 million) completed the Best Picture field, but did not place among the year's top 80 box office hits.
Among the rest of the top 50 releases of 2006 in U.S. box office through the weekend before the nominations, only The Pursuit of Happyness (12th), Borat (15th), The Devil Wears Prada (16th) and Dreamgirls (28th) received nominations for directing, acting or writing, with only Dreamgirls gaining more than one nomination in those areas. The top sixteen films in box office received a total of only thirteen nominations, with four going to the year's top hit, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, and two others in the category of Animated Feature. Six of the ten nominations for Best Actor and Best Actress went to films which had grossed less than $8 million each.
For the second consecutive year, four of the Best Picture nominees were rated R (under 17 requires accompanying adult). Of the 88 nominations awarded to non-documentary feature films (apart from the Foreign Film category), a majority of 56 went to R-rated films (up from 43 one year earlier), 28 to films rated PG-13, two to PG-rated films (down from 16 the year before, and both for Animated Feature) and two to a G-rated film (the final nominee for Animated Feature). In a precise duplication of the previous year, R-rated films captured 32 of the 40 nominations for Best Picture, directing, screenwriting and acting. Non-R-rated films received exactly half of the nominations (24 of 48) in the remaining categories, primarily those in "below the line" areas (the editing, original score and sound editing categories accounted for 13 of the 24 nominations for R-rated films, while the categories for costume design, song, visual effects and animated feature accounted for 14 of the 24 nominations for non-R-rated films).
Peter O'Toole – who received his first nomination for Best Actor 44 years earlier – set a record for most years between nominations in that category, breaking Henry Fonda's record of 41 years (Katharine Hepburn received Best Actress nominations 48 years apart). Kevin O'Connell increased his number of nominations to 19 in the Best Sound Mixing category. He is still without a win.
For the second year in a row, no film received more than four awards, and the awards for Best Picture and the four acting categories again went to five different films. Forest Whitaker won for his performance as Idi Amin, and Helen Mirren won for her role as Queen Elizabeth II, making it the sixth time – and second consecutive year – that both lead acting awards went to performers playing real people; it was also the sixth time in eight years that the Best Actress award has gone to someone playing a real person. No individual person won more than one award.
[edit] Notable events
- About one-third of the way through the ceremonies, former U.S. Vice President Al Gore (An Inconvenient Truth) appeared with Best Actor nominee Leonardo DiCaprio (Blood Diamond) to congratulate the organizers for using environmentally-friendly practices in producing the show. DiCaprio asked Gore (whose potential candidacy for the presidency has drawn wide speculation) if there was anything he wanted to announce.
“ I guess with a billion people watching, it's as good a time as any. So my fellow Americans, I'm going to take this opportunity right here and now to formally announce my intentions ..., ”
- Gore announced, his voice then trailing away as the orchestra cut him off. After accepting Best Documentary along with Davis Guggenheim, he finished his earlier "incomplete" speech that global warming is a moral issue.[4]
- Sacha Baron Cohen was set to present an Academy Award. However, after learning that he could not present the award as his journalist character Borat Sagdiyev, Cohen opted out.[5]
- Jack Black and Will Ferrell opened with a musical number (composed by Marc Shaiman) where both actors sing about the lack of Oscar recognition for comedians and improvise by roasting on nominated actors:
- Black to Leonardo DiCaprio: "HEY, LEO! You think you can date supermodels and win awards? I'm gonna elbow you in the larynx!"
- Ferrell to Ryan Gosling: "Ryan Gosling... you're all hip and now. Well, I'm gonna break your hip... RIGHT NOW!"
- Black to Peter O'Toole: "Hey Peter O'Toole... you're all legendary and English. I'm gonna beat you to the ground with my Nickelodeon Award!"
- Ferrell to Mark Wahlberg: "MARK WAHLBERG! WHERE ARE YOU? I won't mess with you. You're actually kinda badass. Once again, I hope we're cool. You are very talented."
- Black to Helen Mirren: "And Helen Mirren? You are just hot. What party are you going to?"
Eventually, John C. Reilly rose from his seat and told the two that instead of fighting, they should star in both comedic and dramatic roles, much like he did ("I chose to be in both Boogie and Talladega Nights"). Black and Ferrell realized that if they took Reilly's advice, an Oscar and Helen Mirren "will come home with them". When Reilly appeared, Ferrell nearly called him "Jack Black," stopping just before he finished the name.
- Intro by Errol Morris, in which nominees and other prominent Hollywood figures poke fun at themselves.
- The group Pilobolus formed a number of shapes in silhouette behind a white screen. First they formed the shape of an Oscar statuette, then logos for films such as The Devil Wears Prada, Little Miss Sunshine, and Snakes On a Plane, where the "snakes" played around with DeGeneres. She stated that the members of the group backstage were naked, which may have been true as that is one of the trademarks of the dance group. The one time they appeared in front of the screen to be introduced, they were wearing loose wraps.
- Ellen was talking audience members in between award presentations. She first talked with Martin Scorsese who was offered a faux script by Ellen that was a cross between Scorsese's Goodfellas and Big Momma's House (one of Ellen's favorite comedies) called Goodmommas and Scorsese joked along saying he was interested. She then spoke with Clint Eastwood who joked that he was jealous that she gave her faux script to Scorsese and not to him. Ellen then asked if he would be in a picture with her for her MySpace page (which does not officially exist). She first gave her camera to the woman sitting next to Eastwood, but then saw Steven Spielberg and instead wanted him to take the picture. After Spielberg took the first picture, Ellen asked him to take another because it wasn't centered.
- After five previous nominations, with no wins, Martin Scorsese finally won the Academy Award for Best Director.
[edit] Mistakes
As sometimes happens with live (no-retake) shows, a few problems occurred.
- A mistake was made early in on the show when the awards were presented for Best Adapted Screenplay to The Departed where the voice-over announcer (Gina Tuttle) incorrectly referred to it being based on a Japanese film (presumably it was incorrect in the text she was given to read). In fact, it was based on a Hong Kong film, Infernal Affairs. However, Martin Scorsese correctly referred to the Hong Kong film in his acceptance speech for his win for Best Director. Yet, Scorsese mis-pronounced Infernal Affairs director Andrew Lau's last name as "Law".
- While discussing the international diversity present in the nominated films' subjects, actors, directors and production teams, Ellen DeGeneres implied that Best Actress nominee Penélope Cruz was from Mexico, like Alfonso Cuarón and Guillermo Arriaga, but later apologized and acknowledged that Cruz is from Spain, not Mexico.
- Will Ferrell mistakenly started to introduce John C. Reilly as the already present Jack Black before correcting himself.
- Clint Eastwood struggled with reading his introduction to Ennio Morricone. Just as the presentation was cutting to a collection of film clips of Morricone's work, Eastwood was heard to say, "I should have worn my glasses." Although the translation of Morricone's speech was available to Eastwood on the teleprompter, Eastwood took severe liberties with it.
- In the introduction of the nominees for Best Director, Stephen Frears's last name was mispronounced by George Lucas as "Fears."
- During Scorsese's speech after winning Best Director, the usual on-screen graphic that displays the winner's film and category was not shown.
- Instead of reading who the winner was in the category of Best Animated Short, Jaden Smith prematurely began to read the cue for the next award, for Live Action Short, before co-presenter Abigail Breslin cut him off. Smith then ad-libbed a little joke about his mistake.
- Jack Black referred to Peter O'Toole as 'English'. Although O'Toole speaks with an English accent, he is actually Irish. The mistake was in Marc Shaiman's original lyrics for the song, and may have been intentional.
[edit] Advertisers
At least two advertisers produced special commercials for the Oscar show
- JCPenney's ad featured models in attire from their store enacting various scenes from movies including: Singin' in the Rain, Midnight Cowboy, Titanic, Say Anything and Mary Poppins.
- Apple's ad featured clips from various films from several decades in which characters answered the phone and said "Hello" including: Lucille Ball in I Love Lucy; Jackie Gleason as Ralph Kramden in The Honeymooners; Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon; Marlon Brando as Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire; Marilyn Monroe as Sugar Kane Kowalczyk in Some Like It Hot; Betty Rubble in The Flintstones; Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly in Back to the Future; Audrey Tautou as Amélie Poulain in Amélie; William H. Macy as Jerry Lundegard in Fargo; Cameron Diaz as Natalie Cook in Charlie's Angels; Samuel L. Jackson as Jules Winnfield in Pulp Fiction; John Travolta as Castor Troy in Face/Off; Ben Stiller as Derek Zoolander in Zoolander; Michael Douglas as Andrew Shepherd in The American President; and Mr. Incredible in The Incredibles.
- American Express featured Wes Anderson in a lengthy commercial depicting him at work.
[edit] See also
- Submissions for the 79th Academy Award for Best Foreign Film
- Road to the 79th Academy Awards
- 79th Academy Awards nominees and winners
- 2006 Golden Raspberry Awards
[edit] References
- ^ "Ellen DeGeneres to Host 79th Academy Awards® Presentation", Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, 2006-09-07. Retrieved on January 12, 2007.
- ^ "ABC and Academy Extend Oscar® Telecast Agreement", Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, 2005-02-07. Retrieved on January 12, 2007.
- ^ "Laura Ziskin Returns As Telecast Producer for 79th Academy Awards", Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, 2006-07-21. Retrieved on January 12, 2007.
- ^ Yahoo.com. Violent thriller "Departed" blows away Oscars competition (Yahoo! News with Reuters). Accessed Febraury 26, 2007.
- ^ IMDb.com, IMDb's News archives., accessed February 26, 2007.
[edit] External links
- Academy Awards official website
- Academy 2007 press releases (includes all official presenter & performer announcements)
- List of eligible films
- The Envelope.com with contributions by Paul Sheehan
- Name Pronunciation Guide to the 79th Academy Award Nominees
- Audio Clips for the 79th Academy Award narrated by award winning radio journalist Lori Lerner.
