Forest scoops Oscar for Uganda
FOREST Whitaker won best actor award in his portrayal of ruthless Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in <i>The Last King of Scotland</i>, at the Oscars on February 25. The Oscars are given out annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and are the world’s top film honours.
FOREST Whitaker won best actor award in his portrayal of ruthless Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland, at the Oscars on February 25. The Oscars are given out annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and are the world’s top film honours.
Whitaker had to take a moment to calm himself, then with his voice breaking, he remembered a time when he was a young kid watching movies in the back seat of his family’s car at the local drive-in theatre. He said that for kids who believe in dreams, he was proof they can come true.
Director Martin Scorsese’s crime thriller, The Departed, won the Oscar for best film in a show that turned Hollywood’s biggest night into a showcase for environmental activism. It was the first Academy Award for the veteran director of classic films like Raging Bull, after five previous best director nominations.
Britain’s Helen Mirren was named best actress for her spot-on portrayal of the ruling Queen Elizabeth in The Queen, a tale about the British royal family in a time of crisis at the death of Princess Diana.
Mirren held her Oscar high in the air and said: “My sister told me all kids love to get gold stars and this is the biggest and best gold star I’ve ever had in my life.â€
A troupe of environmentalists led by global warming advocate and former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, painted the Oscars green. An Inconvenient Truth, which tells of Gore’s 30-year campaign to warn people about global warming, was named the year’s best documentary, and singer Melissa Etheridge was given the Academy Award for original song with I Need to Wake Up. Backstage, Gore told reporters: “The Academy has gone green this year.â€
Meanwhile, newcomer Jennifer Hudson won best supporting actress for her role as spurned singer Effie White in the musical Dreamgirls and veteran Alan Arkin, 72, won the Oscar for best supporting actor in Little Miss Sunshine.
“Oh my God, I just have to take this moment in, I can’t believe this. Look what God can do,†Hudson said, fighting back tears while holding her Oscar onstage.
While Hudson had been a front-runner heading into the Oscars, Arkin’s was a clear surprise over Eddie Murphy, who had won several other major Hollywood awards this year for his role as a soul singer with a drug habit in Dreamgirls. The musical won two honours: one for Hudson and one for sound mixing. Little Miss Sunshine, won best original screenplay for writer Michael Arndt.
Among other surprises, computer animated Happy Feet, about a bunch of dancing penguins with a love of their chilly Antarctic environment, took the Oscar for best animated movie over favourites, Cars.
Mexican film Pan’s Labyrinth, a fantasy about a young girl who discovers a violent world in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, earned three Oscars for art direction, makeup and cinematography.
Yet, in another surprise it lost the foreign language trophy to Germany’s The Lives of Others, which tells of a conflicted Stasi police officer in the old East Germany.
A film about Chinese orphans of AIDS victims won an Oscar for best documentary short film. Ruby Yang and Thomas Lennon won the Oscar for The Blood of Yingzhou District which tells the story of traditional Chinese obligations of family colliding with the fears of AIDS in impoverished Anhui province and the fate of those left behind.
Reuters
Whitaker had to take a moment to calm himself, then with his voice breaking, he remembered a time when he was a young kid watching movies in the back seat of his family’s car at the local drive-in theatre. He said that for kids who believe in dreams, he was proof they can come true.
Director Martin Scorsese’s crime thriller, The Departed, won the Oscar for best film in a show that turned Hollywood’s biggest night into a showcase for environmental activism. It was the first Academy Award for the veteran director of classic films like Raging Bull, after five previous best director nominations.
Britain’s Helen Mirren was named best actress for her spot-on portrayal of the ruling Queen Elizabeth in The Queen, a tale about the British royal family in a time of crisis at the death of Princess Diana.
Mirren held her Oscar high in the air and said: “My sister told me all kids love to get gold stars and this is the biggest and best gold star I’ve ever had in my life.â€
A troupe of environmentalists led by global warming advocate and former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, painted the Oscars green. An Inconvenient Truth, which tells of Gore’s 30-year campaign to warn people about global warming, was named the year’s best documentary, and singer Melissa Etheridge was given the Academy Award for original song with I Need to Wake Up. Backstage, Gore told reporters: “The Academy has gone green this year.â€
Meanwhile, newcomer Jennifer Hudson won best supporting actress for her role as spurned singer Effie White in the musical Dreamgirls and veteran Alan Arkin, 72, won the Oscar for best supporting actor in Little Miss Sunshine.
“Oh my God, I just have to take this moment in, I can’t believe this. Look what God can do,†Hudson said, fighting back tears while holding her Oscar onstage.
While Hudson had been a front-runner heading into the Oscars, Arkin’s was a clear surprise over Eddie Murphy, who had won several other major Hollywood awards this year for his role as a soul singer with a drug habit in Dreamgirls. The musical won two honours: one for Hudson and one for sound mixing. Little Miss Sunshine, won best original screenplay for writer Michael Arndt.
Among other surprises, computer animated Happy Feet, about a bunch of dancing penguins with a love of their chilly Antarctic environment, took the Oscar for best animated movie over favourites, Cars.
Mexican film Pan’s Labyrinth, a fantasy about a young girl who discovers a violent world in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, earned three Oscars for art direction, makeup and cinematography.
Yet, in another surprise it lost the foreign language trophy to Germany’s The Lives of Others, which tells of a conflicted Stasi police officer in the old East Germany.
A film about Chinese orphans of AIDS victims won an Oscar for best documentary short film. Ruby Yang and Thomas Lennon won the Oscar for The Blood of Yingzhou District which tells the story of traditional Chinese obligations of family colliding with the fears of AIDS in impoverished Anhui province and the fate of those left behind.
Reuters