The ancient Roman epic Gladiatortook best picture and earned Russell Crowe an Oscar for best actor at the 73rd Academy Awards in the US. Taiwan's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragonand drug docudrama Trafficwon four Oscars apiece.
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Russell Crowe
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British director Ridley Scott's tale of ancient Rome won a total of five golden statuettes, it beat
Crouching Tiger
,
Traffic
,
Erin Brokovich
and
Chocolat
for the top film award but lost out in seven other categories.
Crowe - as the valiant Maximus in the movie - continued his transformation into one of Hollywood's most bankable leading men, winning the best actor Oscar.
Crowe had been nominated for best actor last year for his portrayal of a tobacco company executive in Insider. The New Zealand-born Aussie paid tribute to friends, family, and colleagues but made special mention of Scott, saying: "But really folks, you know, I owe this to one bloke and his name is Ridley Scott."
In the academy voting, Crowe beat two-time Oscar winner Tom Hanks ( Castaway), veteran Ed Harris ( Pollock), Spaniard Javier Bardem ( Before Night Falls) and Geoffrey Rush ( Quills), another previous winner, to pick up his first Oscar.
The best actress award went as expected to Julia Roberts, a three-time nominee, for her role as a real-life crusading and cleavage-bearing law clerk in Erin Brockovich.
Roberts played a tough-talking single mother who discovers a powerful utility is poisoning the drinking water of a local community.
She won over four other nominees: Joan Allen ( The Contender), Juliette Binoche ( Chocolat), Ellen Burstyn ( Requiem for a DreamYou Can Count on Me).
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Bob Dylan wins first Oscar for
Things Have Changed
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Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,
took the Oscar for best foreign language picture, overcoming competition from
Amores Perros
(Mexico),
Divided We Fall
(Czech Republic)
Everybody Famous
(Belgium) and France's
The Taste of Others
.
The 10 Oscar nominations garnered by Lee's fantasy are the most ever received by a foreign-language film. May were stunned by its runaway box-office success.
Crouching Tigeralso picked up Oscars for best art direction, best original musical score and best cinematography.
Accepting the award, Lee paid special thanks to "my friends and family in Taiwan, to my collaborators in Hong Kong and to everyone, people in China who helped us so much to make this move."
Steven Soderbergh earned best director award for Traffic, an unflinching look at the world of drugs on both sides of the US-Mexican border.
Aging folk-rock icon Bob Dylan won his first Oscar for best original song with Things Have Changedfrom the movie Wonder Boys." Rock star Sting and Randy Newman were also up for the award.
AFP