The 70th Academy Awards were noted for their high ratings and the 11 wins racked up by the Best Picture, Titanic. Billy Crystal hosted the ceremony for the sixth time, and received an Emmy award for his performance.
Although the evening was dominated by Titanic, the picture notably did not receive any awards for its actors' performances. Other pictures picked up the acting awards; Good Will Hunting, which was nominated for 9 awards and won 2; L.A. Confidential, which was nominated for 9 awards and won 2; and As Good As It Gets, which was nominated for 7 awards and won 2.
Due to the popularity of Titanic, which was still the #1 movie at the box office at the time, the show earned its highest ratings ever in history based on audience size (57.25 million), though the highest rated show based on percentage of households watching was in 1970.
Notable quotes
- "I'm the king of the world!" - Titanic director James Cameron, on winning the Best Director Oscar.
- "My friend James Cameron and I made three films together: True Lies, Terminator, and Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Of course, that was during his early low-budget art-house period." - Arnold Schwarzenegger, presenting an Award.
- "I just soiled myself." - actor Mike Myers, on retrieving an envelope from animal actor Bart the Bear, who was brought on stage
- "Comic Relief is going to be rough this year." - host Billy Crystal, immediately following the Oscar win of his friend and Comic Relief co-creator Robin Williams.
- "I know Gil Cates is startin' to sweat back there." - Jack Nicholson, on producer Cates' reaction to his Best Actor acceptance speech running long.
- "Matt Damon must feel like he's on the Seniors' Tour." - Billy Crystal, regarding Matt Damon competing for Best Actor against four veteran actors - Jack Nicholson, Peter Fonda, Robert Duvall, and Dustin Hoffman.
- "This may be the first time I'm speechless." - Robin Williams' first words upon receiving the Best Supporting Actor award
- "Oh, what a shocker." - Madonna on opening the envelope revealing the winner of Best Song was the Celine Dion performed "My Heart Will Go On"
- "I hope we can begin to embrace every race. Diversity is the ingenue, she's the true American star, and she's ready for her close-up." – Chris Tashima accepting the Live Action Short Film Award, for Visas and Virtue
Winners & Nominees
Best Picture
Titanic
Best Actor in a Leading Role
As Good as It Gets - Jack Nicholson
Best Actress in a Leading Role
As Good as It Gets - Helen Hunt
Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Good Will Hunting - Robin Williams
Best Actress in a Supporting Role
L.A. Confidential - Kim Basinger
Best Director
Titanic - James Cameron
Best Original Screenplay
Good Will Hunting - Matt Damon and Ben Affleck
Best Adapted Screenplay
L.A. Confidential - Brian Helgeland and Curtis Hanson
Best Cinematography
Titanic - Russell Carpenter
Best Art Direction-Set Decoration
Titanic - Peter Lamont and Michael Ford
Best Costume Design
Titanic - Deborah Lynn Scott
Best Sound
Titanic - Gary Rydstrom , Tom Johnson, Gary Summers and Mark Ulano
Best Film Editing
Titanic - Conrad Buff IV , James Cameron and Richard A. Harris
Best Effects, Sound Effects Editing
Titanic - Tom Bellfort and Christopher Boyes
Best Effects, Visual Effects
Titanic - Robert Legato , Mark A. Lasoff , Thomas L. Fisher and Michael Kanfer
Best Makeup
Men in Black - Rick Baker and David LeRoy Anderson
Best Music, Original Song
Titanic - James Horner and Will Jennings for the song My Heart Will Go On
Best Music, Original Dramatic Score
Titanic - James Horner
Best Music, Original Musical or Comedy Score
The Full Monty - Anne Dudley
Best Short Film, Animated
Geri's Game
Best Short Film, Live Action
Visas and Virtue
Best Documentary, Short Subjects
A Story of Healing
Best Documentary, Features
The Long Way Home
Best Foreign Language Film
Karakter - The Netherlands
Honorary Oscars
Stanley Donen received an honorary Oscar for his years as a director on such musicals including Singin' in the Rain.
Special events
- As a celebration of 70 years of Oscar, the Academy showed clips of all the films that won Best Picture in the past 70 years. The Academy also invited 70 Oscar winning actors and the camera went face to face announcing the actor or actress and the film they won the Oscar for and the year as well.
- Mike Myers introduced a montage of film clips featuring animal actors. The final clip of the montage was a growling shot of Bart the Bear (a large kodiak bear) from the film The Edge. A curtain then rose to reveal Bart on stage, wearing a bow tie and holding a wooden "envelope", which Myers was to retrieve from the bear before presenting the next award. Returning to the microphone, Myers quipped "I just soiled myself."
- Fay Wray made a special guest appearance. Billy Crystal introduced a small film of her work in RKO's King Kong (1933) and then he climbed off the stage, standing next to Miss Wray, and announced her presence. He described her as the "Beauty who charmed the Beast" and the "Legendary Fay Wray". A surprised Miss Wray rose from her seat to instantaneous rapturous applause and waved to the whole surprised and thrilled audience. Interestingly, she happened to be sitting right near James Cameron, and he can be seen just behind Fay Wray in most of the shots of her.
In memoriam
Presented by Whoopi Goldberg. The Academy takes a special moment to remember those involved with motion pictures that died in the previous year. Those that were featured: Lloyd Bridges, Richard Jaeckel, composer Saul Chaplin, cinematographer Stanley Cortez, William Hickey, screenwriter Paul Jarrico, screenwriter Dorothy Kingsley, hairstylist Sydney Guilaroff, editor William H. Reynolds, Billie Dove, oceanographic filmmaker Jacques Cousteau, Stubby Kaye, Red Skelton, producer Dawn Steel, Toshiro Mifune, Brian Keith, Chris Farley, executive Leo Jaffe, director Samuel Fuller, Burgess Meredith, J.T. Walsh, Robert Mitchum and James Stewart.
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