Don't mention the war I'd like to thank . . . Who won what Going, going, gong

Iraq made this year's Oscars bash unusually muted - and mercifully short. Michael Dwyer reports on Hollywood's winners and losers

These are strange days, and the mood of uncertainty even penetrated the glitz and glamour of the Academy Awards, Hollywood's annual self-congratulation extravaganza, in Los Angeles on Sunday night. Even the staging of the ceremony was in doubt until a final decision was made on Sunday morning to proceed with it but dispense with or tone down its most ostentatious trappings.

As the presenter of the show (an edited version of which was broadcast last night), Steve Martin found himself in the dilemma of reining in his razor-sharp wit while still entertaining the millions of viewers tuned in to the show in the US and around the world. One could imagine the producers in their control booth, muttering: "Don't mention the war."

In his amusing opening monologue, Martin made a single, mild reference to events in the Middle East when he quipped: "Everyone has been so supportive of my hosting - except for France and Germany." As the show proceeded, it became clear the war would be mentioned time and again by award winners, most of whom simply expressed their wish for peace.

Even the outspoken Susan Sarandon - who, on the eve of the ceremony, had marched in an anti-war protest with her husband, the actor Tim Robbins, and the Oscar-nominated Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar - restricted herself to giving the peace sign as she walked on stage.

Then came Michael Moore, the author of the best-selling Stupid White Men, to accept the best-documentary-feature Oscar for his provocative Bowling For Columbine. Bringing his fellow nominees in the category on stage with him, Moore dispensed with the usual blather about thanking agents, managers, lawyers and financiers to get straight to the point.

"We like non-fiction and we live in fictitious times," Moore declared. "We live in a time where we have fictitious election results that elect a fictitious president. We live in a time where we have a man sending us to war for fictitious reasons." While the orchestra cut him off, the audience responded with both boos and cheers.

There were more shocks than usual as the envelopes were opened and the winners announced - and a little awe, too, in the eyes of the surprise winners. After weeks of intensive canvassing, expensive advertising and downright cut-throat campaigning, the consensus was that Chicago would sweep the board: a musical, even one as cynical as this, was the ideal escape from the problems in the world.

A musical had not won the Oscar for best picture since Oliver! got the prize in 1968, at the height of the Vietnam War. The path towards the resurrection of the musical as a Hollywood staple had been paved by Evita and Moulin Rouge!, two much more cinematically adventurous excursions into the genre.

With more than $100 million in takings at the US box office, Chicago was a certified hit, and it led the Oscar field with 13 nominations - just one less than the record shared by Titanic and All About Eve. Just over an hour into the awards, Chicago seemed to be on a roll, winning four of the first five categories in which it had been nominated: art direction, costume design, sound and best supporting actress, for a radiant, heavily pregnant Catherine Zeta-Jones.

Chicago failed to go the distance, however, collecting just two more Oscars from its other eight nominations: film editing and the one that counts the most, best picture, which is bound to give it a significant boost at the box office, especially outside the US.

The only other big winner on a night when the 21 Oscars for feature films were spread across 12 movies was also the biggest surprise. The Pianist, Roman Polanski's Holocaust drama, had lost out in four categories and there were just seven awards to go when it won the best actor award for Adrien Brody, who at 29 is the youngest ever to win this Oscar. Stunned and emotional, Brody began by planting a long kiss on the lips of presenter Halle Berry. The award had been widely expected to go to Daniel Day-Lewis for Gangs Of New York or, perhaps, to Jack Nicholson for About Schmidt.

The Pianist went on to pull off another surprise when it took the best adapted screenplay award for Ronald Harwood, who generously declared that it was Polanski who deserved it. Like most observers, Harwood assumed Polanski would not be honoured personally for his film, not least because the Oscar nominations had highlighted again the charges of statutory rape made against Polanski in 1977. Having jumped bail at the time, Polanski continues to be regarded as a fugitive from justice in the US, and he would have been arrested had he entered the country to attend the ceremony.

There were therefore gasps of astonishment when Harrison Ford declared Polanski the winner of the best director award. The favourites had been Rob Marshall, for Chicago, and Martin Scorsese, for Gangs Of New York. That Polanski had won the Palme d'Or at Cannes for the film, followed by major awards at the Césars in Paris and at the British Academy Film Awards in London was not regarded as helping his chances.

Ever since its world premiere at Cannes last May, The Pianist has divided audiences and critics. I, for one, found it a dramatically inert production based on a true story that ought to have been rendered far more compelling. I must also acknowledge that my review of the film has generated more angry correspondence than anything I have written in years, including a letter from a member of the cast, Maureen Lipman, which was published in this newspaper a few weeks ago.

The big loser was Gangs Of New York, the second most nominated film this year, after Chicago. It entered the ceremony with 10 nominations and went home empty handed, the victim of a backlash against the marketing excesses used by Miramax Films to promote its Oscar prospects and, in particular, the company's campaign to secure Scorsese his first Oscar for best director after four nominations. The last straw came when Miramax solicited an endorsement of the Scorsese campaign from Robert Wise, the 88-year-old former president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (which awards the Oscars), who was named best director in 1961 and 1965, for West Side Story and The Sound Of Music.

Miramax then ran Wise's comments as an advertisement. When it emerged that Wise had not even written the testimonial - a Miramax publicist had - some of the electorate, who had voted early, were so irate that they demanded (unsuccessfully) to have their ballots returned.

The spectacular backfire of this campaign certainly contributed to Gangs Of New York losing out in the few categories where it was strongly expected to win: Day-Lewis for best actor, Dante Ferretti for art direction and U2 for best original song with The Hands That Built America. Introduced on stage in both English and Irish by a dapper Colin Farrell, the Irish band gave a sturdy performance of their song, but the Oscar went to the only one of their fellow nominees not to show up for the ceremony: Eminem for Lose Yourself, from 8 Mile.

There was one Oscar for an Irishman, when Peter O'Toole graciously accepted an honorary award, presented after an eloquent citation by Meryl Streep. "Always the bridesmaid and never the bride, my foot!" exclaimed O'Toole, a seven-time nominee who never won. "I'm as delighted as I am honoured, and I am honoured."

Apart from the six Oscars to Chicago and the three for The Pianist, the only films to take more than one award this year were Frida, which won best original music (score) for Elliot Goldenthal, Neil Jordan's regular composer, and best make-up, and The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers, for visual effects and sound editing. Speculation is already rife that The Lord Of The Rings will get its due acknowledgment from the academy at next year's ceremony, after the Christmas release of the final film in the trilogy, The Return Of The King.

Whatever the outcome in 2004, when the Oscar ceremony moves forward to the earlier date of February 29th - it being a leap year - one hopes the organisers have learned some lessons from this year's show, which was much leaner and tighter than usual and, mercifully, clocked in about 40 minutes shorter than in recent years, at a mere three and a half hours.

Who won what

Best picture: Chicago, Martin Richards

Directing: The Pianist, Roman Polanski

Leading actor: Adrien Brody, The Pianist

Leading actress: Nicole Kidman, The Hours

Supporting actor: Chris Cooper, Adaptation

Supporting actress: Catherine Zeta-Jones, Chicago

Honorary award: Peter O'Toole

Adapted screenplay: The Pianist, Ronald Harwood

Original screenplay: Talk To Her, Pedro Almodóvar

Animated feature: Spirited Away, Hayao Miyazaki

Art direction: Chicago, John Myhre and Gordon Sim

Cinematography: Road To Perdition, Conrad L Hall

Costume design: Chicago, Colleen Atwood

Documentary feature: Bowling For Columbine, Michael Moore and Michael Donovan

Documentary short: Twin Towers, Bill Guttentag and Robert David Port

Film editing: Chicago, Martin Walsh

Foreign language film: Nowhere In Africa, Caroline Link

Make-up: Frida, John Jackson and Beatrice De Alba

Music (score): Frida, Elliot Goldenthal

Music (song)|: 8 Mile, Lose Yourself by Eminem

Animated short: The Chubbchubbs!, Eric Armstrong

Live action short: This Charming Man (Der Er En Yndig Mand), Martin Strange-Hansen and Mie Andreasen

Sound: Chicago, Michael Minkler, Dominick Tavella and David Lee

Sound editing: The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers, Ethan Van der Ryn and Michael Hopkins

Visual effects: The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers, Jim Rygiel, Joe Letteri, Randall William Cook and Alex Funke

• At the 2003 IFP Independent Spirit Awards for independent productions, held on Santa Monica beach on Saturday afternoon, Far From Heaven had a clean sweep, taking all five categories in which it had been nominated: best feature, director (Todd Haynes), leading actress (Julianne Moore), supporting actor (Dennis Quaid) and cinematographer (Edward Lachman). Derek Luke was named best actor for Antwone Fisher, Emily Mortimer best supporting actress for Lovely And Amazing and Nia Vardalos best debut performance for My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

The other Spirit winners were Mike White (best screenplay for The Good Girl); Peter Care (best first feature for The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys); Erin Cressida Wilson (best first screenplay for Secretary); Alfonso Cuarón (best foreign-language film for Y Tu Mamá También); Michael Moore (best documentary for Bowling For Columbine); and Rebecca Miller (who won the John Cassevetes Award for a low-budget film, for Personal Velocity).

• At the 23rd Golden Raspberry awards - aka the Razzies - for the worst achievements in cinema in 2002, Swept Away swept the boards. Starring Madonna and directed by her husband, Guy Ritchie, it took five prizes, including worst picture, worst remake, worst director and worst actress, which Madonna shared with Britney Spears for Crossroads. Madonna was also named worst supporting actress for her fleeting appearance in the 007 movie Die Another Day.

The Razzie for worst actor went to former Oscar winner Roberto Benigni for his critically drubbed Pinocchio. The worst screenplay prize went to George Lucas and Jonathan Hales for Star Wars: Episode II - Attack Of The Clones, which also took worst supporting actor for Hayden Christensen.

None of the winners turned up.