76th Academy Awards - News and Recap

News and Recap

Billy Crystal returned for the eighth time to host the presentation. His opening monologue poked fun at the change (or rather the lack thereof) between the time he had hosted the ceremony in 1991, and the current one: "Things were so different then. You know how different it was? Bush was president, the economy was tanking and we'd just finished a war with Iraq."

However, the bulk of Crystal's good-natured barbs—and the comments of many of the presenters and award recipients as well—were directed at New Zealand and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, which dominated an evening lacking in surprises. The front-runner (or near front-runner) in every nominated category turned out to be the actual winner, although The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King was the first ever film of the fantasy genre to win Best Picture. Despite the lack of "drama" due to an "Obvious Winner" ceremony, the show attracted an audience of 43.56 million, breaking a low-ratings streak which had started back in 2001 due to the popularity of the best picture winner.

The television broadcast on ABC was aired live with a five-second tape delay, possibly because of the Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction controversy during Super Bowl XXXVIII. It was shown live in many other countries around the world (satellite delays notwithstanding). Host Billy Crystal joked during the awards ceremony that Robin Williams was the cause of the 5-second delay.

Jack Black and Will Ferrell finally shed light (and lyrics) on the mysterious song that the orchestra would play whenever a winner would make a speech: It was meant to "shut up" the winner and drive him or her to finish the speech.

Billy Crystal also sang themes to each of the nominees. For Mystic River it was Ol' Man River from Show Boat. For Lost in Translation it was Maria from West Side Story, with director Sofia Coppola's name replacing the title. For The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, it was My Favorite Things from The Sound of Music, and Crystal jokingly apologized to Julie Andrews before the song . For Seabiscuit it was Goldfinger. And finally for Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World it was Come Fly with Me.

Mystic River became only the 4th film in Oscar history to have won both Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor. The other three were Going My Way, Best Years of Our Lives and Ben-Hur. With that said, it is the only one of the four not to win Best Picture.