77th Academy Awards - News and Recap

News and Recap

• As of February 27, 2005, the field of Best Picture nominees did not include a bonafide blockbuster at the U.S. box office. For the first time in 20 years, and what would continue for the next few years, none of the nominees for Best Picture was among the year's top ten releases in box office at the time of the nominations, and as a group they most probably had the lowest box-office performance of any Best Picture field in history. To date, The Aviator was the highest earner with $93.7 million in domestic box office receipts, and ranked as the 24th highest grosser of 2004. It was followed by Ray at $74.9 million and Million Dollar Baby at $64.7 million.
• There was a considerable amount of controversy surrounding the omission of political-themed documentaries from the Best Documentary Feature Film category. However, this was not necessarily an oversight on the part of the Academy, as many of the candidates were rendered ineligible.
  • Fahrenheit 9/11 was intentionally withheld from submission in the Best Documentary Feature Film category by producer Michael Moore, in hopes of affecting the 2004 presidential election by airing it on broadcast television. Under rules established by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, documentaries shown on television within nine months of their theatrical release are ineligible for the documentary Oscar. Instead Moore submitted it for the Best Picture category which does not have that same rule.
  • Popular political documentaries Control Room and The Corporation were rendered ineligible by the fact that they had been broadcast in their entirety on network television within 9 months of their U.S. theatrical release.
• The popular The Motorcycle Diaries was not selected by any country as its official nomination for Best Foreign Language Film, as the crew, director, cast and filming locations were all affiliated with different nations. As it had no specific country of origin, no country was willing to make it their official selection for the category.
• When Chris Rock makes his introduction, the music accompanying him is a slightly jazzed up version of Brad Fiedel's theme from The Terminator.
• The ceremony attracted an average audience of 42.14 million, down three percent from the preceding year. However, the target age 18-49 demographic ratings stood at 16.84, higher with the preceding year's 15.68.
• During one segment, Rock asked "Who is this guy?" in reference to actor Jude Law who seemingly appeared in every movie Rock had seen that year and implied Law was a low-rent Tom Cruise (he made a joke about filmmakers rushing production and being unable to get the actors they want: "If you want Tom Cruise and all you can get is Jude Law, wait !") . Nearly two hours later, a defensive Sean Penn took the stage to present and said, "In answer to our host's question, Jude Law is one of our finest young actors." (At the time, Penn and Law were shooting All the King's Men.) This was later mocked on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart impersonating Penn explaining old jokes like airline peanuts. Law was not the only actor that Rock poked fun at that evening, however—he turned the joke on himself at one point, saying "if you want Denzel and all you can get is me, wait!"