'Million Dollar Baby' lands Oscar knockout
Posted Monday, February 28, 2005 at 5:36 AM Central
by Tim Briscoe
The main event at Sunday night's Academy Awards was the bout between leading contenders The Aviator and Million Dollar Baby. The two stood toe-to-toe and Clint Eastwood's boxing-themed flick delivered four big punches by winning in the Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, and Best Supporting Actor categories.
OK, OK. We won't make you endure any more bad boxing analogies. Million Dollar Baby nearly shut out the heavily nominated The Aviator in the major categories. The Howard Hughes biopic did earn an Oscar statuette for Cate Blanchett in the Best Supporting Actress category, but director Martin Scorsese had to go home a loser once again proving he is the Susan Lucci of the Oscars.
Other highlights from the night included a big win and moving acceptance speech by Jamie Foxx for his portrayal of Ray Charles in Ray; an upset of Shrek 2 by The Incredibles in the Best Animated Feature Film category; and big wins for Spanish language films — the Original Song for The Motorcycle Diaries and Spain's foreign language film The Sea Inside.
Here are complete list of winners:
Best Picture Million Dollar Baby
Actor In A Leading Role Jamie Foxx, Ray
Actress In A Leading Role Hilary Swank, Million Dollar Baby
Actor In A Supporting Role Morgan Freeman, Million Dollar Baby
Actress In A Supporting Role Cate Blanchett, The Aviator
Directing Clint Eastwood, Million Dollar Baby
Original Screenplay Charlie Kaufman & Michel Gondry & Pierre Bismuth, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Adapted Screenplay Alexander Payne & Jim Taylor, Sideways
Animated Feature Film The Incredibles
Art Direction The Aviator
Cinematography The Aviator
Costume Design The Aviator
Documentary Feature Born Into Brothels
Documentary Short Subject Mighty Times: The Children's March
Film Editing The Aviator
Foreign Language Film Spain, The Sea Inside
Makeup Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events
Music (Original Score) Jan A.P. Kaczmarek, Finding Neverland
Music (Original Song) Al Otro Lado Del Rio, The Motorcycle Diaries
Short Film (Animated) Chris Landreth, Ryan
Short Film (Live Action) Andrea Arnold, Wasp
Sound Editing The Incredibles
Sound Mixing Ray
Visual Effects Spider-Man 2