Oscar history: Titanic's not-quite clean sweep, Julia's ascendance, and Chicago vs The Pianist
Tuesday, March 23, 2021 at 8:30AM 5 things that happened today, March 23rd, in Oscar History only...
1950 The 22nd annual Academy Awards honoring 1949 are held. All the King's Men wins Best Picture but it's the Olivia de Havilland classic The Heiress, among the Best Picture honorees, which wins the most Oscars (Actress, Costume Design, Art Direction, and Score) and has had the longest cultural shelf life thereafter.
1990 Pretty Woman hits movie theaters becoming a sensation and Julia Roberts ascends to superstardom...
She nabs Best Actress Oscar & BAFTA nominations as well as her second consecutive Golden Globe win. Who would you have voted for that year?
- Kathy Bates - Misery
- Anjelica Huston - The Grifters
- Julia Roberts - Pretty Woman
- Meryl Streep - Postcards from the Edge
- Joann Woodward - Mr & Mrs Bridge
And would you have traded any of them for the non-nominated leading ladies that year?
- Mary Alice - To Sleep With Anger (Spirit Nominee)
- Cher - Mermaids
- Laura Dern - Wild at Heart
- Mia Farrow - Alice (Globe nominee)
- Anjelica Huston - The Witches
- Jessica Lange - Men Don't Leave
- Genevieve Lemon - Sweetie
- Andie MacDowell - Green Card (Globe nominee)
- Maria de Medeiros - Henry & June
- Helen Mirren - The Cook The Thief His Wife and Her Lover
- Demi Moore -Ghost (Globe nominee)
- Michelle Pfeiffer - The Russia House (Globe nominee)
- Natasha Richardson - The Handmaid's Tale
- Susan Sarandon - White Palace (Globe nominee)
- Debra Winger - The Sheltering Sky
1998 The 70th Academy Awards honoring 1997 are held with Titanic performing a near-sweep winning 11 Oscars (losing only Best Actress, Best Supporing Actress, and Best Makeup). It shares the record of most Oscar wins with Ben-Hur (1959) and Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) but the latter is the only one of the three that managed a clean sweep, winning every category it was nominated in.
2003 The 75th Academy Awards are held honoring 2002. Chicago and The Pianist battle it out for Best Picture in an extremely December heavy year (all the Best Picture nominees, 4 of the directing nominees, and 15 of the 20 acting nominees were December releases). We discussed this Oscar year both last summer and also recently on This Had Oscar Buzz.
2018 Wes Anderson's Isle of Dogs hits US movie theaters in limited release. It will later score two Oscar nominations for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Score, both of which it totally should have won.
Oscar-approved birthdays today
Happy 57th birthday to three time Best Costume Design nominee Mary Zophres (True Grit, La La Land, and The Ballad of Buster Scruggs)
Happy 62nd birthday to two time Best Supporting Actress nominee Catherine Keener (Being John Malkovich, Capote).
Happy 73rd birthday to Best Supporting Actress nominee Penelope Milford (Coming Home). Other film credits include Heathers, Valentino, and Take This Job and Shove It
Happy 92nd birthday to director Mark Rydell, Oscar nominated for On Golden Pond (1981). He also directed various actors to Oscar nominations in The Reivers (1969), Cinderella Liberty (1973), The Rose (1979), The River (1984), and For the Boys (1991).
Happy 79th birthday to two time Oscar nominated Austrian master Michael Haneke of Amour, The White Ribbon, and Caché fame.
Today in 1925 the Oscar winning cinematographer David Watkin (Out of Africa) was born in England. Out of Africa was his sole nomination but he also shot Oscar nominees like Yentl, Moonstruck, Chariots of Fire and hit movies like The Three Musketeers and Help!. Oscar was pretty stingy with him. He was more popular with BAFTA where he received 9 nominations and 1 win (also for Out of Africa)
Today in 1914, the Oscar winning screenwriter Nedrick Young (The Defiant Ones, Inherit the Wind) was born.
Today in 1910 the legendary director Akira Kurosowa was born. Oscar only officially nominated him once for Best Director for his King Lear adaptation Ran (1985) but they also gave him an Honorary Oscar for his career as well as showing favor on several of his movies like Dersu Uzala and Rashomon which both won Best Foreign-Language Film and Oscar nominations in various categories for Ran, Seven Samurai, Kagemusha, Dodes-ka-den and Yojimbo.
Today in 1904 the incredible Joan Crawford was born. Oscar resisted her for years but finally caved with Mildred Pierce (1945), arguably her best work and you know how rarely Oscar rewards gifted actors at exactly the right time (!). She received two additional Best Actress nominations for Possessed (1947) and Sudden Fear (1952).
Today in 1893 in Dublin, Ireland Art Director Cedric Gibbons was born. He is the all time Oscar champ for Best Art Direction (now called Best Production Design) with 40 nominations and 11 wins. Some of his classics include The Wizard of Oz (1939), Gaslight (1944), The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945), The Yearling (1946), An American in Paris (1951), I'll Cry Tomorrow (1954), Lust for Life (1956), and Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956)
Reader Comments (45)
Among the nominees, AMPAS got it right with Bates...but that really should've been Farrow's year.
Bates bitch.
Huston in The Grifters forever.
I also vote for Bates. As to the which film has had the longest cultural shelf life, I would disagree and say All the King's Men.
You know I'm a Kathy Bates partisan but Debra Winger in The Sheltering Sky is the only 1990 actress also-ran who was snubbed.
Anjelica!
Bates so deserved. Great that in the fist nineties at least two horror movies as Misery and Silence Of the lambs snatched some Oscars.
I would replace Julia Roberts in Pretty woman with Cher or Laura Dern. Haven't seen Mr & Mrs Bridge yet
Since The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover was released in 1990 in the U.S., I'd say Helen Mirren deserved a spot in the Best Actress lineup that year. Otherwise I'm totally fine with Kathy Bates winning.
Also, not to be nitpicky, but The Return of the King won Best Picture, not Fellowship of the Ring (which I'm sure you know because you got the year right, just so you're aware of the mistake).
Bates, hands down. Misery is so rewatchable. She’s downright terrifying.
Kathy Bates. Also like the more in-depth birthdays.
Justice for Richard Farnsworth in Best Supporting Actor.
I'd want to find room for Laura Dern's powder keg of a performance in Wild At Heart.
I love all of the nominees, but I'd pick either Streep (in one of her best performances) or Woodward.
My personal favorite would be Cher's hilarious, magnetic turn in Mermaids.
The 1990 Best Actress category is a strong one - but I'm with /3rtful on Debra Winger in The Sheltering Sky. I'd have to find room for her.
I think The Pianist deserved to win Best Picture in 2002. I like Chicago but The Pianist would be a worthy winner in any year. Such a gripping film - infused with the added authenticity that Polanski brought to it, having lived through similar experiences himself during the war.
Joan Crawford wasn't the only one who won best actress for the right role. Both Olivia de Havilland (The Heiress) and Julia Roberts (Erin Brockovich) won for the correct movies, and both on March 23!
I would have voted for Anjelica Huston in 1990, hands down. Wonderful in both 'The Witches' and 'The Grifters.'
Kathy Bates is entertaining and memorable in 'Misery,' but I don't think those qualities alone make for a truly outstanding performance. She veers into cartoonish territory at times, and it was Huston who had the more challenging role (and in a far better film).
Olivia de Havilland is pretty good--not great--in 'The Heiress,' and really benefited from a weak field that year. It's a shame 'Sunset Blvd.,' completed in 1949, was not released to qualify that year; de Havilland did not need a second Oscar.
1990 was a great Best Actress year. I would have given the win to Joanne Woodward. I've always found it odd that Paul Newman didn't get any awards traction that year.
That 1990 Best Actress lineup, winner and other nominees, is one that I feel has really aged well. I wouldn't change a single thing about it.
Isn't it THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING that swept the Oscars?
Bhuray & Edwin -- yes, of course. that's what I get for typing things from knowledge and instinctually and not proofreading.Of course i meant "return of the king" and not "fellowship of the ring" but i think about the latter far more often so it subbed in while my fingers were doing their thing ;)
I would have voted for Meryl in one of her best (and least appreciated) performances. I love Laura Dern in Wild at Heart, but it's tough to knock out any of the nominees.
I also would have voted for Winslet for Titanic, for what it's worth.
For the 1990 Best Actress slate remove Bates, Streep and Woodward. Replace them with Elaine May (In the Spirit), Lena Stoltz(The Nasty Girl) and Gong Li(Ju Dou). But give the trophy to Anjelica Huston(The Grifters). Her finest performance in an estimable career.
Does anyone know when the the smackdown season starts?
Julia, Meryl and Anjelica are all in a better position than Bates in <I>Misery</I>. There are times when I cringe at those line deliveries. One of my most disliked wins in the best actress category.
For 1990 Oscar I'd go with Bates - she's pure magic! and would replace Julia Roberts with Shirley MacLaine in Postcards. 🍸Cheers, everybody!
I would take out Roberts and replace her with Jessica Lange for her brilliant work in Men Don't Leave. I do like Bates' win, but I feel Huston should have taken the Oscar. It's hard to be objective because I think The Grifters is a masterpiece.
21/3: Meryl Streep
4/1: Joanne Woodward
4/1: Julia Roberts
4/1: Kathy Bates
3/1: Anjelica Huston
Everyone has an Oscar! Seems easier for that to happen if Streep
is a co-nominee in your category.
Fun post today,
I suggest that the 1949 film with the longest cultural shelf life thereafter was not The Heiress but, rather, the Foreign Language Film winner Vittorio De SIca's masterpiece The Bicycle Thieves.
Shirley MacLaine (Postcards from the Edge) should have been in the candidates for Best Actress of 1990. I always thought it was an error that she was promoted for Supporting Actress.
While I wish Penelope Milford a happy birthday, her role in Coming Home should have gone to Jane Fonda's original choice. After meeting her on the set of Julia, Fonda was taken with Meryl Streep and sought her to play Viola Munson. Streep chose instead to appear in The Deer Hunter to be able to nurse her terminally lover John Cazale.
Mary Alice should have replaced Julia Roberts in that line-up, and “Andie MacDowell” and “Best Actress” should never henceforth be uttered in the same
sentenceparagraph.Cedric Gibbons: hubba hubba.
For Best Actress 1990: I'd kick out Julia and Joanne, and add Mary Alice and Shirley MacLaine. Kathy would still be the champ.
Unpopular opinion, but I never understood what's so great about Bates in Misery, so I'm not a fan of her win. My favourite that year was Roberts, followed closely by Huston/Woodward.
I think the 1990 nominees are great as is. My personal pick would have been Huston for The Grifters, but I am OK with Bates having won. Of the other names on the list, I have to say I was very fond of Susan Sarandon in White Palace--that was a great performance.
Also, nice to see that photo of Catherine Keener! She's someone who I think generally elevates everything she is in. I'm glad that she continues to work so consistently--I'd love to see her land another plum role again.
My favorite American film of 1949 is White Heat without a doubt, James Cagney and Margaret Wycherly should have cruised to Best Actor and Supporting Actress Oscars. Of the nominees I agree that All the King's Men is a worthy winner. The Heiress and Letter to Three Wives are also pretty impressive. The 2 war movies, Twelve O'Clock High and Battleground are completely uninteresting to me. A Fallen Idol, Passport to Pimlico, and, especially, The Bicycle Thieves would have been much better choices.
I think all of the 90 candidates are doing great things but Bates a little known character actress at the time was such an atypical pick.
Personally i'd have almost given it to the once in lifetime Julia Roberts performance,has anyone broke out like that since,I also enjoyed and would have nominated Sarandon,Huston,Bates and Streep.
Kathy Bates deserved her win. No one comes close.
Cedric Gibbons- who knew he was so good looking?
Catherine Keener should have won for Being John Malkovich. She has such a relaxed sensuality and that is so hard to do right but she freaking nails it.
Olivia de Havilland absolutely deserved two Oscars and her performance in "The Heiress" is an acting masterclass.
I'm ok with Bates winning the Oscar, but Anjelica Huston in The Grifters gave the best performance of the year and one of the all time best.
I would have replaced Woodward with Sarandon. Her work in White Palace is incredibly authentic but, sadly, no one seems to remember it nowadays.
Kathy Bates... obviously.
Julia was my winner in 1990. Iconic performance. Huston and Streep also were strong.
I´m perfectly fine with 1990 best actress nominees.
Maybe I´d replace Woodward with Farrow.
It's TFE Three Artful, we're all aware that the 1990 Actress lineup are all Oscar winners.
My rating of the 1997 Best Picture nominees
1. Titanic **** / A-
2. L.A. Confidential **** / B
3. The Full Monty **** / B
4. As Good as it Gets **** / B-
5. Good Will Hunting *** 1/2 / C+
MY Best Picture of 1997: Chasing Amy, by Kevin Smith ***** / A+
Fun fact: Kathy Bates, who won for playing a Stephen King villain character would go on to give the next year award as Lead Actor to Sir Anthony Hopkins for playing another villain character in a horror thriller but this time written by Thomas Harris. A psycho-killer rewarding another one. Cue that Talking Heads legendary song when playing the video!
I think you told a fact, not so much a fun one, but as long as you had fun Jesus is all that counts.
julia's nomination for PW is a deserved starturn nomination. i would venture to say she is one of those actresses who deserve each of her nominations, maybe just a diff category for her last one.