Photo Gallery: 79th Academy Awards held
Realted: Foreign flavor, environment highlight Oscars
Vivid colors, extravagant gowns adorn Hollywood stars
BEIJING, Feb. 26 (Xinhuanet) -- Martin Scorsese
finally got his best director Oscar and his mob epic "The Departed" took best
picture Sunday evening at the Academy Awards on Sunday.
"Could you double-check the envelope?" said Scorsese,
who arguably had been the greatest living American filmmaker without an Oscar.
"So many people over the years have been wishing this for me."
In an evening when no one film dominated as the
Oscars shared the love among a wide range of movies, three of the four acting
front-runners won: best actress Helen Mirren as British monarch Elizabeth II in
"The Queen;" best actor Forest Whitaker as Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in "The
Last King of Scotland;" and supporting actress Jennifer Hudson as a soul singer
in "Dreamgirls."
The other front-runner, Eddie Murphy of "Dreamgirls,"
lost to Alan Arkin for "Little Miss Sunshine."
"For 50 years and more, Elizabeth Windsor has
maintained her dignity, her sense of duty and her hairstyle," said Mirren, who
has been on a remarkable roll since last fall as she won all major film and
television prizes for playing both of Britain’s Queen Elizabeths.
Arkin played a foul-mouthed grandpa with a taste for
heroin "Little Miss Sunshine," a low-budget film that came out of the
independent world to become a commercial hit and major awards player.
"More than anything, I'm deeply moved by the
open-hearted appreciation our small film has received, which in these fragmented
times speaks so openly of the possibility of innocence, growth and connection,"
said Arkin.
Hudson won an Oscar for her first movie, playing a
powerhouse vocalist who falls on hard times after she is booted from a 1960s
girl group. The role came barely two years after she shot to celebrity as an
"American Idol" finalist.
"Oh my God, I have to just take this moment in. I
cannot believe this. Look what God can do. I didn't think I was going to win,"
Hudson said through tears of joy. "If my grandmother was here to see me now. She
was my biggest inspiration."
"Little Miss Sunshine" also won the original
screenplay Oscar for first-time screenwriter Michael Arndt.
The film follows a ghastly but hilarious road trip by
an emotionally messed-up family rushing to get their darling girl (10-year-old
supporting-actress nominee Abigail Breslin) to her beauty pageant.
The nonfiction hit "An Inconvenient Truth,"” a
chronicle of former Vice President Al Gore's campaign to warn the world about
global warming, was picked as best documentary.
"People all over the world, we need to solve the
climate crisis. It's not a political issue. It's a moral issue," Gore said,
joining the film's director, Davis Guggenheim, on stage.
"An Inconvenient Truth" also won original song for
Melissa Etheridge's "I Need to Wake Up."
Earlier, Gore appeared with best-actor nominee
Leonardo DiCaprio to praise organizers for implementing environmentally friendly
practices in the show's production.
Composer Gustavo Santaolalla won his second straight
Oscar for original score for "Babel," a film "that helped us understand better
who we are and why and what we are here for," he said. He won the same prize a
year ago for "Brokeback Mountain."
The dancing-penguin musical "Happy Feet" won the
Oscar for feature-length animation, denying computer-animation pioneer John
Lasseter ("Toy Story") the prize for "Cars," which had been the big winner of
earlier key animation honors.
"I asked my kids, ‘What should I say?’ They said,
‘Thank all the men for wearing penguin suits,'" said "Happy Feet" director
George Miller.
The savage fairy tale "Pan's Labyrinth" took three
Oscars. The Spanish-language film won for art direction, makeup and
cinematography.
Germany's "The Lives of Others," about a playwright
and his actress-girlfriend who come under police surveillance in 1980s East
Berlin, won the foreign-language Oscar, the films it beat included "Pan's
Labyrinth."
"Letters From Iwo Jima" won the sound-editing Oscar
for Alan Robert Murray and Bub Asman. Murray's father was an Iwo Jima survivor.
"Thank you to my father and all the brave and
honorable men and women in uniform who in a time of crisis have all made that
decision to defend their personal freedom and liberty no matter what the
sacrifice," Murray said.
The 79th annual Oscars featured their most ethnically
varied lineup ever, with stars and stories that reflect the growing
multiculturalism taking root around the globe.
(Agencies)
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