The 2004 Academy Award Weekend A Special Report by Dill Line Leap year 2004 will be remembered more for the wackiness of the business of film than for any surprises that might have added interest to the 76th Annual Academy Awards and have added drama to past Academy Award celebrations. Last year’s 75th award show saw Adrian Brody upset Daniel Day Lewis and Jack Nicholson for Best Actor (in The Pianist, Gangs of New York and About Schmidt respectively) and Roman Polanski upsetting Martin Scorsese for Best Director (also for The Pianist over Gangs of New York). And the prior year saw Halle Berry beat out Sissy Spacek, Judy Dench, Nicole Kidman and Renee Zellweger to become the first African American woman ever to win the Oscar for Best Actress, for her daring performance in Monster’s Ball. But the weekend of February 28th and 29th, 2004 saw only predictable victories. The Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King, received Oscars in each of the eleven categories in which it was nominated, becoming only the third ever film to win so many. And the broadcast itself could not have been more straightforward. Perhaps the highlights of the show were the performances of two of the songs nominated for Best Song of the Year, those from A Mighty Wind and a little animated picture, The Triplets of Belleville, that included musicians playing a bicycle wheel and a vacuum cleaner live on stage. Even the speeches seemed practiced. Renee Zellweger had already captured the Golden Globe and SAG (Screen Actors Guide) awards for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Cold Mountain and Charlize Theron was a clear front runner for weeks for her harrowing turn as a serial killer in Monster. Perhaps more interesting and less celebrated was the annual Independent Spirit Awards celebration, held the day prior to the Oscars in a large tent on the beach in Santa Monica. This event is nice in its casual nature and its youthful approach. Charlize Theron attended in blue jeans, t-shirt and light jacket and was given the award for Monster. Tom Cruise was in attendance with a jacket over a light shirt and thanked for his role as a producer as well as his acting and Bill Murray had to borrow a jacket before bounding to the stage to collect his Best Actor award for his performance in Lost in Translation (Sean Penn who won the Oscar for Best Actor for his role in Mystic River was not eligible, as Mystic River was considered a studio movie, not an independent picture). Nominees, independent filmmakers, producers, distributors and guests schmoozed for about an hour prior to the start of the awards show, sipping cocktails and enjoying the casual afternoon energy of the event. The guests then congregated at round tables where they ate and talked some more just prior to the event. The day’s MC was John Waters, wonderfully witty and inappropriate, making jokes only appropriate for Bravo, the broadcaster of the event. At the conclusion of the event, guests left with leather goody bags containing cameras, t-shirts, and all manner of cosmetics. Because the Oscar telecast had been moved up by one month in the hopes of drawing a larger viewing public (past years have found audiences tiring of one award show after another) the 76th Annual Academy Awards fell during one of the three most important film markets of the year (the American Film Market in Santa Monica, California). This film market is an event where independent English language and Foreign language films from around the world are bought and sold. Because of the timing of the two awards shows and the market, film executives shuttled between the awards and the market and Santa Monica was full of some of the most important film personalities from around the globe (the Japanese, English and French distributors of The Lord of the Rings for instance). So while the 76th Annual Academy Awards may have been lacking in interest and surprise, the weekend itself was full and the business was thriving. Let’s only hope that next year brings some more drama to the Oscars, perhaps one of the films that played at the American Film Market. One never knows.