Oscar History: 2002

2002 was a vast improvement over 2001 at the theaters and this was reflected in the lineup of Oscar nominations in the major categories. In my view, however, there were a number of worthy titles that were snubbed.

The Best Picture race went as planned with Rob Marshall’s Chicago taking the top prize. The musical garnered the love of the Academy and it leapfrogged the early favorite, Martin Scorsese’s Gangs of New York for top honors. Other nominees: Roman Polanski’s The Pianist, Stephen Daldry’s The Hours, and Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. 

Other titles that I believe merited consideration: Alexander Payne’s About Schmidt and Spike Jonze’s Adaptation. And I would’ve given some thought to my favorite M. Night Shyamalan thrill-fest Signs, which I believe to be slightly superior to The Sixth Sense.

However, my favorite film of the year was Steven Spielberg’s Minority Report and I unquestionably would have included it.

While the Best Picture category winner was not a surprise – Best Director was. While the recipient of Picture and Director usually match, that was not expected in 2002. Rob Marshall’s Chicago won and he was nominated, but the smart money was on Martin Scorsese to win his first Directing Oscar for Gangs. Surprise, surprise. The winner called was Roman Polanski for The Pianist. Of course, Mr. Polanski was not in the auditorium to accept. If you don’t know why, Google his name and find out. Other nominees were Daldry for The Hours and Pedro Almodovar for Talk to Her. Peter Jackson was the odd man out for his work on the second Lord of the Rings entry.

Obviously, I would’ve had Spielberg on my list for Report. Even if you didn’t love the movie like I did, the direction was amazing.

The surprises continued in the Best Actor field. The two favorites were Daniel Day-Lewis for Gangs of New York and Jack Nicholson for About Schmidt. But The Pianist surprises continued when its relatively unknown star Adrien Brody took the statue… and memorably accepted the award by planting a long smooch on presenter Halle Berry. Other nominees: Nicolas Cage in Adaptation and Michael Caine in The Quiet American.

While nearly all major Chicago actors were nominated, Richard Gere missed the cut for his leading role. And I may have had Leonardo DiCaprio’s impressive work in another Spielberg pic, Catch Me If You Can.

The surprises stopped with Nicole Kidman, who won Best Actress for The Hours, as expected. Other nominees: Salma Hayek for Frida, Diane Lane in Unfaithful, Julianne Moore in Far From Heaven, and Renee Zellwegger in Chicago. 

A couple of other worthy names: Jennifer Aniston’s surprising and effective performance as a Midwestern housewife in The Good Girl and Jodie Foster’s fine work as a mother dealing with new home problems in Panic Room.

The Supporting Actor race would honor Chris Cooper for his work in Adaptation. Cooper won out over Ed Harris in The Hours, Paul Newman in Road to Perdition, John C. Reilly in Chicago, and Christopher Walken for Catch Me If You Can.

That’s a solid group of nominees there. I might have put in Ray Liotta for his menacing role in Narc, but no big complaints here.

Catherine Zeta-Jones would win Supporting Actress for her heralded work in Chicago. The other nominees were Kathy Bates in About Schmidt, Queen Latifah in Chicago, Julianne Moore in The Hours, and Meryl Streep in Adaptation.

Three other first-rate performances I would’ve thought about: Toni Collette in About a Boy, Hope Davis for About Schmidt, and Amanda Peet for Igby Goes Down.

In closing, 2002 was a year in which Chicago reigned supreme, but The Pianist provided some major surprises in other big categories.