2001 Academy Award Predictions…
Why do I keep trying? Just as I always pick clothes appropriate for the previous day’s weather, I’m always a year or two or three behind when it comes to psyching out the Academy Award voters. Just as I failed to see how successful the 1998 Miramax campaign for Shakespeare in Love and against Saving Private Ryan would be, I completely misjudged how ineffective Miramax’s lobbying against A Beautiful Mind would ultimately be. The irony is that, in the 1998 race, Miramax didn’t have the superior movie. And this year, it did. That is more than enough to feed my cynicism, so there is no need to get me started on what came of all those nominations for The Lord of the Rings…
Category Most Likely to Win Most Deserving to Win Actual Winners I Missed Completely Best Picture Best Actor Russell Crowe (A Beautiful
Mind) Tom Wilkinson (In the
Bedroom) Denzel Washington (Training Day) Best Actress Halle Berry (Monster’s Ball) Sissy Spacek (In the
Bedroom) Best Supporting Actor Ben Kingsley (Sexy Beast) Ian McKellen (The Lord of the Rings: The
Fellowship of the Ring) Jim Broadbent (Iris) Best Supporting Actress Marisa Tomei (In the
Bedroom) Helen Mirren (Gosford Park) Jennifer Connelly (A Beautiful
Mind) Best Director Ron Howard (A Beautiful
Mind) Peter Jackson (The Lord of the Rings:
The Fellowship of the Ring) Best Original Screenplay Milo Addica & Will Rokos (Monster’s Ball) Jonathan Nolan & Christopher Nolan (Memento) Julian Fellowes (Gosford
Park) Best Adapted Screenplay Akiva Goldsman (A Beautiful
Mind) Frances Walsh, Philippa Boyens & Peter Jackson (The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the
Ring) Best Animated Feature Best Foreign Language Film Amelie (France) No Man’s Land (Bosnia-Herzegovina) Total Scores 4 predictably accurate predictions 2 actual instance of justice in the universe 5 completely off the mark
Color Key to Actual Results:
I want to thank the Academy…
It was an honor just to be nominated…