1997 was quite a strong year for movies. Oscar voters, like that year’s audiences, bestowed their love to James Cameron’s Titanic, which became the highest grossing film of all time. It would hold that record for an astonishing 12 years… until Cameron’s follow-up Avatar supplanted it.

Titanic was an obvious choice to win Best Picture. It beat out As Good As It Gets, The Full Monty, Good Will Hunting, and L.A. Confidential. A strong lineup of titles, with the exception of Monty, which doesn’t belong here. Of the five, my personal pick would be Curtis Hanson’s terrific L.A. Confidential.

It’s worth noting that my favorite film of 1997, Paul Thomas Anderson’s brilliant Boogie Nights, didn’t make the cut. Perhaps the subject matter was too risque, but it deserved at least a nomination.

My love for Quentin Tarantino probably would’ve meant a nomination for Jackie Brown as well, a film that I feel is undeservedly underrated.

James Cameron would take Best Director honors over Peter Cattaneo (Full Monty), Hanson (Confidential), Gus Van Sant (Good Will Hunting), and Atom Egoyan (The Sweet Hereafter). James L. Brooks was the odd man out whose film (As Good As It Gets) got a Picture nod while he didn’t. Once again, Boogie Nights maker Anderson should be on here. I would’ve given strong consideration to David Fincher for his work in The Game as well.

The Best Actor race saw four veteran heavyweights competing with a newcomer. That newbie was Matt Damon in the title role in Good Will Hunting, up against Robert Duvall (The Apostle), Peter Fonda (Ulee’s Gold), Dustin Hoffman (Wag the Dog), and Jack Nicholson (As Good As It Gets). It was Nicholson who took the prize, winning his second Best Actor trophy. Many Titanic fans noted the exclusion of Leonardo DiCaprio in the category, but I have no problem with that and he would earn nominations in later years for more deserving performances. Keeping my Boogie Nights theme going, I would’ve found room for Mark Wahlberg in his breakout role. Same goes for Aaron Eckhart, who gave a fantastic performance in the indie drama In the Company of Men. I also would’ve considered Samuel L. Jackson for his great work in Jackie Brown. And just as I mentioned Eddie Murphy’s comedic brilliance being ignored in 1996’s The Nutty Professor, how about Mike Myers equally brilliant turn in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery?

Nicholson’s co-star Helen Hunt would win Best Actress for As Good As It Gets. 

The other four nominees: Helena Bonham Carter (The Wings of the Dove), Julie Christie (Afterglow), Judi Dench (Mrs. Brown), and Kate Winslet (Titanic). A popular nominee choice would likely have been Julia Roberts for My Best Friend’s Wedding, but I certainly would’ve had Pam Grier’s performance in Jackie Brown in the mix.

Robin Williams would take the Supporting Actor category for his performance as Will’s shrink in Good Will Hunting. 

Other nominees: Robert Forster (Jackie Brown, well-deserved), Anthony Hopkins (Amistad), Greg Kinnear (As Good As It Gets), and Burt Reynolds (Boogie Nights). I love Anthony Hopkins, but his nomination here is questionable. This would’ve been another chance for the Academy to honor comedy with Rupert Everett’s hilarious turn as Julia’s BFF in My Best Friend’s Wedding. However, my personal choice would be for another comedy: Paul Giamatti’s unforgettable turn as Howard Stern’s producer Pig Vomit in Private Parts.

Kim Basinger would win Supporting Actress for her role in L.A. Confidential, beating out Joan Cusack (In&Out), Minnie Driver (Good Will Hunting), Julianne Moore (Boogie Nights), and Gloria Stuart (Titanic). Keeping with the Jackie Brown love, Bridget Fonda should have been nominated for her surfer girl part in that picture. And here’s another name: Charlize Theron’s fine work as Keanu Reeves’ supremely freaked out wife in The Devil’s Advocate.

Of course, the Titanic lovefest extended to Celine Dion for her song “My Heart Will Go On”, even though I don’t remember the Canadian songstress dancing with and rapping about aliens like this guy did in that very same year:

For Oscar purposes, 1995 gave us the opportunity to say something we certainly haven’t said much recently: it was a great year for Mel Gibson.

Mad Max directed and starred in Braveheart and the historical epic was nominated for ten Academy Awards and won five. Those wins included Best Picture and Director.

In the Picture category, it was a relatively weak field in my judgment. Braveheart beat out Ron Howard’s Apollo 13, Chris Noonan’s childrens film Babe, Ang Lee’s Sense and Sensibility, and Michael Radford’s critically acclaimed Italian film Il Postino. 

I will confess that I’ve never seen Postino, but the other four nominees are all what I would describe as very good movies… none of them great. I’m certainly aware Braveheart has fans who would disagree. Sorry. My personal favorite picture of 1995 is probably Michael Mann’s heist drama Heat with its at the time historic pairing of Robert De Niro and Al Pacino. It was no surprise that it didn’t get a Best Picture nomination, but its exclusion in the cinematography and editing categories is inexcusable. Competing with Heat for favorite film honors of the year is certainly David Fincher’s Seven and it sadly received only one nomination, for Editing. And if the Academy wanted to include a kids film, I would have left Babe off and put in Pixar’s wonderful inaugural feature, Toy Story.

Three out of the five Picture nominees saw their directors nominated – Gibson, Noonan, and Radford. A little surprising that Ron Howard and Ang Lee were the ones left out. They were replaced by Mike Figgis for his work in Leaving Las Vegas and Tim Robbins for Dead Man Walking. 

For Best Actor, Nicolas Cage was honored for his work in Leaving Las Vegas as a suicidal alcoholic. It certainly is one of his finest performances (he mixes in good acting every once in a while to join a host of over-the-top and silly performances). His main competition was Sean Penn as a death row inmate in Dead Man Walking. Penn would get his due not once, but twice in later years. Other nominees were Richard Dreyfuss in Mr. Holland’s Opus, Anthony Hopkins in Nixon, and Massimo Troisi in Il Postino. Italian actor Troisi joined the small list of posthumous nominees. He passed away of a heart attack the day after Il Postino completed principal photography. Other performances that might have made my list: John Travolta’s terrific work in Get Shorty and Jack Nicholson in The Crossing Guard.

While Penn didn’t win the gold for Dead Man Walking, his co-star Susan Sarandon took the Best Actress award for that film as a nun counseling Penn. Her competition: Elisabeth Shue in Leaving Las Vegas, Sharon Stone in Casino, Meryl Streep in The Bridges of Madison County, and Emma Thompson in Sense and Sensibility. Amazingly, this was Thompson’s fourth nomination in three years. She won the Actress category in 1992 for Howards End and was nominated for Actress in 1993 for The Remains of the Day and Supporting Actress for In the Name of the Father. 1995 was actually quite a year for leading female roles. In addition to the five nominees, there were many other deserving performances: Nicole Kidman in To Die For, Kathy Bates in Dolores Claiborne, Julianne Moore in Safe, Jennifer Jason Leigh in Georgia, and Heather Matarazzo in Welcome to the Dollhouse. Popular choices could have included Michelle Pfeiffer in Dangerous Minds or Julia Roberts in Something To Talk About.

In the Supporting Actor category, the favorite to win was Ed Harris in Apollo 13 or possibly Brad Pitt for 12 Monkeys. The winner is an example of the Academy getting it right, when they recognized Kevin Spacey for his breakout role in The Usual Suspects. The other nominees: James Cromwell in Babe and Tim Roth in Rob Roy. Pretty solid field, though I might have found room for Don Cheadle in Devil in a Blue Dress or a second nomination for Spacey in Seven. 

For Supporting Actress, the winner was a performer in a Woody Allen film for the second year in a row. In 1994, Dianne Wiest took the honor for Bullets Over Broadway. Here, it’s Mira Sorvino for her first-rate comic performance in Mighty Aphrodite. She beat out Joan Allen in Nixon, Kathleen Quinlan in Apollo 13, Kate Winslet in Sense and Sensibility, and Mare Winningham in Georgia. 

Again, my list probably would have looked a lot different in the Picture field, with consideration given to Heat, Seven, Toy Story and possibly 12 Monkeys or The Usual Suspects or Oliver Stone’s Nixon. However, it was Mr. Mel Gibson’s year.

Maybe more than any other year I can think of, 1994 stands as a year in Oscar history where hindsight has definitely changed public opinion on the Best Picture winner. There’s been plenty of examples: Rocky over Taxi Driver? Ordinary People over Raging Bull? Annie Hall over Star Wars? Chariots of Fire over Raiders of the Lost Ark? Gandhi over E.T.? Dances with Wolves over GoodFellas?

1994 is unique because there’s not one, but two movies that have grown in stature over that year’s winner. In the summer of 1994, a movie based on a fairly unknown novel came out of nowhere to become a smash hit that deeply connected with audiences: Robert Zemeckis’s Forrest Gump, starring Tom Hanks, Gary Sinise, Robin Wright Penn, and Sally Field. The movie was a phenomenon, becoming one of the highest grossing films of all time and second only that year to Disney’s The Lion King. The Academy would reward Gump with Best Picture, Director, and would give Hanks his second Best Actor win in a row, after winning for 1993’s Philadelphia. Hanks would become only the second actor in Oscar history, after Spencer Tracy, to achieve that historic distinction.

I’m a huge fan of the movie just like everyone else and in most years, Gump would be looked back at as a highly deserving winner. However, 1994 was a milestone year for a couple of other films.

First, Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction. As you may have noticed, I’m a huge fan of Quentin Tarantino and Pulp is now seen as possibly the most important and influential movie of the past 25 years. It certainly is by me. Pulp was a cultural phenomenon upon its release and its reputation has only grown since.

Then there’s that other movie: Frank Darabont’s The Shawshank Redemption. Many may not be aware, but Shawshank actually didn’t perform very well at the box office upon its release. It was critically acclaimed, but audiences didn’t respond right away. Once it reached video shelves, it took on a life of its own when audiences discovered just how wonderful it is. This all culminated a few years ago when Shawshank became the #1 ranked film on IMDB.com, over even The Godfather. It’s hard to find anyone nowadays who doesn’t absolutely adore Shawshank. In 1994, however, while it did get nominated, it wasn’t considered a real contender to win.

I suspect many a film buff, including this one, would certainly rank Pulp and Shawshank above Gump. The other two pictures nominated included an expected one, Robert Redford’s solid Quiz Show, about the game show scandals of the 1950s and a surprise, the British romantic comedy Four Weddings and a Funeral, starring Hugh Grant and Andie McDowell. Both are good movies that had no chance of winning considering the competition.

As already mentioned, Zemeckis would win the Director award for Gump, beating out Woody Allen for Bullets Over Broadway, Redford for Quiz Show, Tarantino for Pulp, and Kryzsztof Kieslowski for the foreign film Red. As further evidence of Shawshank not being regarded as highly as it is now, director Darabont wasn’t even nominated.

Gump love would lead Hanks to that second win in a row. Both Morgan Freeman for Shawshank and John Travolta for Pulp were nominees, along with Paul Newman for Nobody’s Fool and Nigel Hawthorne for The Madness of King George. In hindsight, seems like room should have been made Tim Robbins work in Shawshank as well.

Jessica Lange would win Best Actress for the little-seen indie film Blue Sky, edging out Jodie Foster in Nell, Winona Ryder in Little Women, Miranda Richardson in Tom and Viv, and Susan Sarandon in The Client (only nominee for an actor based on a John Grisham novel – fun fact!).

Veteran actor Martin Landau would take Supporting Actor for his great performance as monster movie icon Bela Lugosi in Tim Burton’s Ed Wood. The other nominees: Samuel L. Jackson in Pulp, Paul Scofield in Quiz Show, Gary Sinise in Gump, and Chazz Palminiteri in Bullets Over Broadway. Again, with the Shawshank angle, Bob Gunton’s work as the sadistic warden should have been recognized in this category.

Dianne Wiest would win Supporting Actress for Bullets Over Broadway, beating out Jennifer Tilly for that same film, Helen Mirren in The Madness of King George, Uma Thurman in Pulp, and Rosemary Harris for Tom and Viv. Surprisingly, neither Sally Field or Robin Wright Penn were recognized for Gump. I would also make a case for Kirsten Dunst for her breakthrough performance in Interview with the Vampire.

What else got left out? Not a whole lot, honestly. You could certainly make the case that Disney’s Lion King is one of their better animated features and could have received a Picture nomination. The Academy hardly ever recognizes comedic brilliance, so Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels hilarious work in Dumb and Dumber was the longest of long shots.

More than anything, 1994 in Oscar history will be remembered as a year where two of the most important movies of the last quarter century were nominated… and neither won.

The Oscar race for Best Picture in 1993 was essentially over as soon as its winner that year was released: Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List, the heart-wrenching Holocaust drama starring Liam Neeson, Ben Kinglsey, and Ralph Fiennes. Released to great reviews and solid box office, List won just about every movie award there was.

It’s certainly a deserving winner, no question. My experience with Schindler’s List is the following: I saw in the theater and haven’t seen it again. I’ve said many times in recent years that I want to watch it again, but let’s be honest – that’s the kind of movie you really have to dedicate your time to watching again. And also prepare yourself for its weighty subject matter. I remember how great it is and know Spielberg totally threw himself into researching that horrible time in history. It’s brilliant directed. Truth to be told, it’s also not a movie you want to view multiple times.

Obviously, the other four nominees didn’t stand a chance, but they were James Ivory’s The Remains of the Day, with Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson. Just one year before, James Ivory’s Howards End with Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson was nominated too. As I wrote in the Oscar History: 1992 blog post, I don’t remember much about Howards End. I recall a bit more about Remains, especially Hopkins’ fine performance as a repressed butler. Still, not gonna pretend I remember it well. If you’ve figured out Merchant-Ivory British costume dramas aren’t totally my cup of tea (get it?), you’d be correct.

Another nominee: Jim Sheridan’s In the Name of the Father, a top-notch drama starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Emma Thompson, and the late Pete Postlethwaite. Sheridan and Day-Lewis had teamed up in 1989 for My Left Foot, in which Day-Lewis won his first Oscar (of a soon-to-be-likely three). If you haven’t seen it, check it out to see yet another brilliant performance from its lead actor.

Jane Campion’s The Piano starring Holly Hunter, Harvey Keitel, and Anna Paquin was another nominee. I know it got rave reviews and Hunter’s performance is supposed to be spectacular, but I’ll get this one short: I haven’t seen it.

The fifth nomination was a bit unconventional: The Fugitive, based on the 1960s TV series. Starring Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones, The Fugitive received rave reviews and did huge box office. That translated to some very rare Academy recognition for an action movie. It’s certainly a deserving pick and it’s one of my favorite action flicks in the last quarter century. It’s just a shame the Academy didn’t recognize some others that are even greater, like 1987’s Lethal Weapon and 1988’s Die Hard.

Having ran through the five nominees, it must be said that 1993 was a very solid year for movies. Since I haven’t seen The Piano, it’d be unfair to put something in its place (same could be said for Remains because I don’t remember it too well). But I’ll just list some other films I loved that year: Tony Scott’s True Romance. Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused. Brian DePalma’s Carlito’s Way. Wolfgang Peterson’s In the Line of Fire. Steve Zaillian’s Searching for Bobby Fischer. And if the Academy could make room for an action movie, I would argue they could have done something even more rare for them: nominate a comedy. And in 1993, one of my all-time favorites was released: Groundhog Day, which is easily in my Top Ten comedies ever.

Just as Best Picture was an obvious pick, Spielberg would win his first Golden Guy for Schindler. The other nominees included Jane Campion for The Piano, Jim Sheridan for In the Name of the Father, and James Ivory for Remains of the Day. It was Fugitive director Andrew Davis who was left out even though his movie was nominated. Instead, for the second year in a row, legendary director Robert Altman got nominated for Short Cuts. In 1992, he was nominated for The Player, even though the film was not.

In the Best Actor race, the Academy would honor what may be the greatest ever transition  for a comedic actor into dramatic territory: Tom Hanks in Philadelphia. Starring as a brilliant lawyer who is diagnosed with AIDS and fired from his job, Philadelphia was a hot button movie that featured Hanks in his first “serious” role. We all knew he was great in funny movies, but Philadelphia proved he could do drama too. Sounds strange to say now since Hanks has stuck with the serious stuff for the most part for the last two decades, but it his performance really was a revelation in 1993.

The other four nominees: Hopkins in Remains of the Day, Day-Lewis in In the Name of the Father, Neeson in Schindler, and Laurence Fishburne for his terrific portrayal of Ike Turner in What’s Love Got to Do With It? Very strong group that year. I would’ve given strong consideration to the incomparable Bill Murray in Groundhog Day. Also, while its Supporting Actor would win, Harrison Ford was the anchor that kept The Fugitive moving along. 

I mentioned I haven’t seen The Piano, but Holly Hunter’s portrayal of a mute who experiences repressed love (or something like that) would earn her the Gold, against Emma Thompson for Remains, Angela Bassett who was wonderful as Tina Turner in What’s Love…, Debra Winger in Shadowlands, and Stockard Channing in Six Degrees of Separation.

As I hinted, Tommy Lee Jones would take Best Supporting Actor for The Fugitive. It’s a great performance, but I wouldn’t have picked him. Maybe more than any other year I can recall – this category was amazing in 1993. The other four nominees all gave wonderful performances: John Malkovich for In the Line of Fire, Pete Postlethwaite for Name of the Father, Ralph Fiennes in Schindler, and a young Leonardo DiCaprio for What’s Eating Gilbert Grape? Of those five, I probably would have gone with Fiennes. There were actually two other performances I might have made room for: Sean Penn’s amazing performance in Carlito’s Way and Val Kilmer’s unforgettable turn as Doc Holiday in Tombstone. 

For the second year in a row, a major upset would occur in the Best Supporting Actress race. The front runner was Winona Ryder for Martin Scorsese’s The Age of Innocence. If she didn’t win, it was expected to go to Rosie Perez for Peter Weir’s Fearless. The other nominees were Emma Thompson in Name of the Father and Holly Hunter for The Firm (great actress, but undeserving nominee for this role). The winner called that night: 11 year old Anna Paquin in The Piano. We all know her now from X-Men and “True Blood”, but her win truly was a shock, making her the second youngest winner ever after Tatum O’Neal in Paper Moon (1973).

Another note: not only did Spielberg have immense Oscar success with List, he also directed the blockbuster Jurassic Park that year. Between Schindler and Jurassic, his two films in 1993 won a total of ten Oscars. Beside Picture and Direction, List would win for Adapted Screenplay, Score, Art Direction, Cinematography, and Editing. Jurassic would receive well-deserved awards for Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, and Visual Effects.

My Oscar history will continue soon with 1994, where one winner from 1993 would get more Oscar love and the Best Picture winner happened to be the surprise blockbuster of that year, even though two other films released that year are now held in higher regard. Stay tuned!

And now a brand spanking new feature on my blog that will look back on certain years in Oscar history and review what won and was nominated, what wasn’t, and why.

We’ll start with 1992 – a year that brought one iconic actor some very overdue recognition, gave us a real surprise in the Supporting Actress category, and started the Academy recognition for another iconic director and actor that would continue over the next two decades.

In the Best Picture race, the film to beat was actually released in summer 1992: Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven, which received critical acclaim and was a huge box office hit.

Eastwood had not exactly been on a roll in 1992. Titles he directed and appeared recently before that included Pink Cadillac, an action comedy co-starring Bernadette Peters and the buddy cop flick The Rookie, with Charlie Sheen. Unforgiven marked a great achievement for Eastwood – a great Western with a wonderful cast that included Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman, and Richard Harris. Audiences responded well and the Academy saw it as their first real chance to honor the filmmaker.

Also nominated in the Best Picture race: Rob Reiner’s hit A Few Good Men, with an all-star that included Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, Demi Moore, Kevin Bacon, and Kiefer Sutherland. We all remember the final courtroom scene showdown between Cruise and Nicholson (I won’t bother quoting it – you couldn’t handle it). Released in December 1992 to decent reviews and huge box office, I won’t deny that Men is an intensely watchable film with some fine moments. However, I’ve always maintained that it’s a little bit overrated. Still, 1992 is a pretty weak year for movies, so it’s nomination is no big surprise and I do not strenuously object to its nomination.

On the British side, we have Jame Ivory’s Howards End with Anthony Hopkins (fresh off winning Best Actor in 1991 for some movie where played a cannibal) and Emma Thompson, based on E.M. Forster’s novel. I would love to share my thoughts on this picture, but truth be told, it’s been years since I’ve seen it and I don’t remember much about it. Rewatching the trailer – I kind of want to see it again and I’m sure the performances were terrific, but I’m not going to pretend I recall a whole lot about it.

A film that came out of nowhere in 1992 is Neil Jordan’s thriller The Crying Game, starring Neil Jordan, Jaye Davidson, Miranda Richardson, and Forest Whitaker. A top-notch thriller – it’s become famous for a twist in the second half that truly is shocking. I won’t spoil it for those who haven’t seen it (because you should), but it took the film in a totally unexpected direction that helped garner the attention paid to it. Shocking twist aside, The Crying Game, along with Unforgiven, deserved its Academy recognition.

The same cannot be said, in my humble opinion, for the fifth nominee – Martin Brest’s Scent of a Woman. Al Pacino stars as a blind Army colonel who gives his new aide (Chris O’Donnell) a hard time and in the process they learn about life and stuff. Pacino also has a now famous tango scene. It’s been a while since I’ve seen it, but Scent of a Woman didn’t have much of an impact on me and it, unfortunately, helped start a little down slide in the great Pacino’s career where he overacted way too much.

Those were the five nominees in 1992. Unforgiven was the clear frontrunner at the time and it won, as did Eastwood for his directing. Other directing nominees were Martin Brest for Scent, James Ivory for Howards End, and Neil Jordan for Crying Game. Rob Reiner’s direction in A Few Good Men was not nominated. Instead, the fifth slot went to Robert Altman for The Player, a biting satire of Hollywood that is one on my favorite features of 1992 and should ha received a Best Picture nomination.

What else could’ve or should’ve been Best Picture contenders in 1992? Many would say Spike Lee’s biopic Malcolm X. Or Glengarry Glen Ross, a terrific film adaptation of David Mamet’s play. Or how about Michael Mann’s The Last of the Mohicans, starring Daniel Day-Lewis? Also, Robert Redford’s A River Runs Through It. 1992 also marked Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs, which in a perfect world, should’ve been nominated. Another favorite of mine from that year is George Miller’s Lorenzo’s Oil, starring Nick Nolte and Susan Sarandon as the parents of a boy with a rare disease. It’s not an easy film to watch, but it’s great.

In the Best Actor race, the Academy would finally give Pacino his gold statue. It’s unfortunate that his only Oscar win came for something as unspectacular as Scent. He definitely should’ve won in 1974 for The Godfather – Part II, instead of Art Carney in Harry and Tonto. He also should’ve won Supporting Actor in 1972 for the original Godfather. I’ll forgive him not winning in 1975 for Dog Day Afternoon because I think Jack Nicholson was equally deserving for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. His 1992 win is clearly an example of the Academy honoring someone for their body of work and not necessarily the particular film. His competition that year: Clint Eastwood (Unforgiven), Robert Downey Jr. (Chaplin), Stephen Rea (The Crying Game) and Denzel Washington (Malcolm X). Many thought Denzel was the actor who deserved it. I probably would’ve found room for Day-Lewis in Mohicans and Nolte in Lorenzo’s Oil among the five as well and perhaps Tim Robbins in The Player.

Emma Thompson would win Best Actress for Howards End, over Catherine Deneuve in Indochine, Mary McDonnell in Passion Fish, Michelle Pfeiffer in Love Field, and Susan Sarandon in Lorenzo’s Oil. Pretty weak category that year and I can’t really think of anyone left off who was totally deserving.

The Supporting Actor category would reward Gene Hackman for his terrific performance in Unforgiven. Other nominees: Jaye Davidson in Crying Game, Jack Nicholson in Few Good Men, Al Pacino in Glengarry Glen Ross, and David Paymer for Mr. Saturday Night. I definitely would’ve left Nicholson and Paymer off the list and replaced them with two more actors in Glengarry Glen Ross: Jack Lemmon (who is the heart and soul of that great movie) and Alec Baldwin, who only has one scene in it, but it’s so fantastic that I would’ve given him a nomination.

The Supporting Actress category would have a foreign feel to it. The nominees: Judy Davis in Husbands and Wives, Joan Plowright in Enchanted April, Vanessa Redgrave in Howards End, and Miranda Richardson in Damage. But it’s the winner that shocked Hollywood: Marisa Tomei in My Cousin Vinny. First off, the Academy hardly ever nominates peformers in comedies so Tomei’s nomination was rare. For her to win over that group of actresses though? Shocking. So shocking that there’s been conspiracy theories in Hollywood that Jack Palance (the elderly actor who presented the category) read the wrong name on stage. Probably not true, but Tomei winning is a true Academy surprise. I thought Vinny was a watchable, though completely unremarkable comedy and her performance was good, but Oscar worthy? In that category, I probably would’ve found room for Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman in Batman Returns.

 

So that’s 1992 – a good year for Eastwood and Pacino but a pretty blah year for movies in general. 1993 would be a definite improvement, even if that Best Picture race ended when its winner was released. Stay tuned.