Posted on 01/05/2002 9:38:36 PM PST by LenS
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) - The fantasy epic ``The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring'' won best-picture honors and two other prizes at the first American Film Institute (news - web sites) Awards on Saturday.
Denzel Washington was named best actor for playing a flamboyantly corrupt narcotics detective in ``Training Day.'' Sissy Spacek won lead-actress honors as a grieving, vengeful mother in ``In the Bedroom.''
Spacek, a five-time Academy Award nominee who won for ``Coal Miner's Daughter,'' could emerge as a front-runner for another Oscar.
``This film is so close to my heart,'' Spacek said. ``It was a real labor of love, I think, for all of those who worked on it.''
Robert Altman was picked as best director for his satiric murder mystery ``Gosford Park.''
Gene Hackman of ``The Royal Tenenbaums'' and Jennifer Connelly of ``A Beautiful Mind'' earned supporting-actor honors.
Hackman won for his role as an outcast patriarch who weasels his way back into the dysfunctional family he abandoned years earlier. Connelly won as the conflicted wife of schizophrenic math genius John Nash (Russell Crowe) in ``A Beautiful Mind,'' directed by Ron Howard.
Based on J.R. R. Tolkien's trilogy about hobbits, wizards, elves and a ring of ultimate power, the three parts of ``Lord of the Rings'' were shot simultaneously. Part two is due out next Christmas, with the final chapter coming in 2003.
``It's a classic epic. It's a true adventure,'' said Elijah Wood, who stars as the hobbit Frodo Baggins. ``I think it appeals to people of all ages, and it has for years and years.''
The 12 awards in the film categories were spread among nine movies. The only multiple winners were ``Lord of the Rings,'' which also won for digital effects and production design, and ``Moulin Rouge,'' honored for composing and editing.
``In the Bedroom'' and ``Black Hawk Down'' had led with five nominations each, but ``Black Hawk Down'' was shut out in every category.
Writer-director Christopher Nolan won the screenplay award for the convoluted, backwards-moving thriller ``Memento.'' Roger Deakins took the cinematography honor for the Coen brothers' film-noir update ``The Man Who Wasn't There.''
Many nominees turned out for the awards show, but there were plenty of no-shows, including Washington, Altman, Hackman, Connelly and James Gandolfini, who won best actor on a TV series for ``The Sopranos (news - Y! TV).''
``Sopranos'' co-star Edie Falco won the best TV series actress honor. The show also won for best drama series.
``Thanks for watching the show, which we love probably more than you guys,'' Falco said.
HBO's ``Curb Your Enthusiasm'' won for best comedy series.
``This is a rare opportunity for my family to see me on TV. They refuse to get HBO, so they have no idea what the show is about,'' said Larry David, the show's star.
Jeffrey Wright won the best actor award in a TV movie or miniseries as Martin Luther King Jr. in ``Boycott.'' Judy Davis took the best actress honor in a TV movie or miniseries as Judy Garland in ``Life With Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows.''
Garland's daughter, Lorna Luft, accepted the award on Davis' behalf.
``I would like to thank Judy Davis for her extraordinary courage, her exceptional talent and her love of my mother's memory,'' said Luft, a producer on the miniseries.
The AFI Awards, aired live on CBS, included nominees in 12 movie and seven television categories.
CBS newsman Dan Rather recapped television's reaction to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, citing David Letterman (news - Y! TV)'s return to work and a star-studded multi-network telethon for victims as symbols of the nation's response to the attacks.
The new show is the first big ceremony of Hollywood's long awards season. The Golden Globes take place Jan. 20, actor and director guilds give out their awards in March and the Oscars (news - web sites) cap things off March 24.
Nominees were chosen by two 13-member committees - one each for movies and television - which included AFI trustees, industry professionals, film and TV scholars, and critics. Winners were picked by a 100-member jury of industry insiders.
AFI, best known for its lists ranking all-time top American films or screen stars, provides industry training, holds film screenings and conducts movie-preservation efforts.
LOTR is such a deeply spiritually inspiring story that it will generate creative visions forever.
Life is good! :-)
In the academy awards this happens about 75% of the time. But the Best Picture award goes to the Producer, and is concerned with the totality of the picture, not the direction of the actors alone. Motion pictures is a collaboratory art form, like Opera. The old auteur doctrine of the 1960's, which is that the picture is solely the director's product has pretty well gone by the boards.
Trust me. Just give it time. They will find a way to talk the Tolken family into let them make the other books into movies. A couple of hundred million dollars, a percent of the gross and/or profit of the movies might do the trick.
Trust me. Just give it time. They will find a way to talk the Tolken family into let them make the other books into movies. A couple of hundred million dollars, a percent of the gross and/or profit of the movies might do the trick.
There is another facet to how the trilogy could encounter some significant resistance, and that is our national fear that if we give too much honor to one soul or one thing, it might somehow seem to be taking too much power from the people to overcome us. I put forth Tom Hanks as an example. Having won back-to-back Oscars for best actor, Hanks could have put in the performance of 15 lifetimes and not gotten it again, consecutively. We Americans also have this thing about not honoring something so highly that it becomes an artificial standard against which all other attempts at excellence must fall short. So I'm hoping if any of the trilogy has to get somewhat less honor, it will be the second movie, so that the final one can sweep everything in sight.
I was in theonering.net chat room last night during the awards. We were all in there booing last night when Moulin Rouge won best score. Twas alot of fun.
No problem.
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