My 2002 Oscar Ballot

And we are officially finishing up our 19th season of the Oscar Viewing Project ballots as we always do with "My Ballot."  I have been making a point with these write-ups to not just catch every single one of the Oscar-nominated narrative, feature-length films (see below for links to all of our 2002 races), but also trying to seek out a number of films from the year I hadn't seen in a while or haven't seen at all, and that was true of 2002.  Obviously I can't see everything, but I will own that I've seen a lot of movies from 2002, and here is the list of the movies I'd vote for if I'd have been able to choose the Oscar nominations.  Thanks for playing along-join in in the comments over whom you would've picked!

Picture

Catch Me If You Can

Chicago

Far from Heaven

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

The Hours

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

Minority Report

The Pianist

Spirited Away

Talk to Her

Gold: The best of the three Peter Jackson Tolkien movies (best of the six if you want to extend a helping hand to The Hobbit), The Two Towers is an astounding mix of journey, cliffhanger, friendship, mystery, and battle all in one movie.  It's the sort of movie you just want to rewatch the second it's done you're on such a high.

Silver: Few films shaped the way I look at movies quite like The Hours.  The constant crescendo as these three women arrive at their preordained fate, and just scene-after-scene of marvelous monologues and character study-everyone is firing on all cylinders here.

Bronze: Steven Spielberg's last great popcorn film to date (possibly his last period given how rarely he does them anymore), Minority Report is a Grade-A action thriller, one buoyed by a brilliant piece of acting from Tom Cruise & totally authentic world-building.

Director

Stephen Daldry (The Hours)

Peter Jackson (The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers)

Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away)

Roman Polanski (The Pianist)

Steven Spielberg (Minority Report)

Gold: Jackson gets this one, and by a solid margin in my opinion.  He is given the impossible task of trying to create a complete story that doesn't have a beginning or an end, and not only does he do that, he shifts it dramatically so it feels like it can stand on its own, and does it with his most compelling character appearing as CGI.

Silver: Stephen Daldry's work here is at its best when you realize the symmetry.  Think of how well he takes a difficult book to adapt (the main three characters almost never interact), and makes it feel like they're inseparable, each scene less connecting to the next and more falling on top of each other like layers on a cake.

Bronze: Possibly the first time I've gone with the exact same trio for Picture/Director, but do you want to deny Spielberg here?  After all, this is so well-paced and sharp...there's no spare scene in Minority Report, particularly in that urgent first half.

Actor

Adrien Brody (The Pianist)

Tom Cruise (Minority Report)

Daniel Day-Lewis (Gangs of New York)

Leonardo DiCaprio (Catch Me If You Can)

Elijah Wood (The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers)

Gold: Adrien Brody brings such connection to his work in The Pianist.  Think of the way we see this gregarious, outgoing musician shed so much of his humanity like (in the case of his weight loss) literal layers.  He totally envelopes & makes this astounding movie.

Silver: The best performance Leo's ever given?  I could make a case for it.  The way that DiCaprio brings a child's wonder to an increasingly brilliant series of cons that make him no less lonely, all while never losing an ounce of that breezy movie star glamour & appeal...it's effortless.

Bronze: Daniel Day-Lewis's commitment to the role of Bill the Butcher is unbelievable, but so are the results.  Saving the film from itself, he creates one of the great villains of Scorsese's filmography with a nastiness that blows everyone else off the screen.

Actress

Nicole Kidman (The Hours)

Diane Lane (Unfaithful)

Julianne Moore (Far from Heaven)

Julianne Moore (The Hours)

Meryl Streep (The Hours)

Gold: For me, this is Kidman's finest hour (I know that's a controversial take).  It's not the nose, though, but the woman underneath it.  There's this incredible depth that she brings to the role, showing a woman of great brilliance, unparalleled in her world, who still knows that this place is not enough for her...she needs excitement, even if it destroys her.  "Richmond is death" always gives me chills.

Silver: The commitment to Todd Haynes' homage to Douglas Sirk is remarkable in Julianne Moore's Cathy.  Her turn in Far from Heaven is so placid, like she's caught between realms, and it's spectacular how she never loses that disconnect, even as everyone else in her universe tears her foundation asunder.

Bronze: Meryl Streep's Oscar miss for The Hours is easily the biggest snub from a woman who can't claim with a straight face that she's been "snubbed" by AMPAS.  The work here is so grounded.  Look at the way she carries herself in early scenes (every conversation feels like she's already rehearsed it), and then it slips away as the day loses control.

Supporting Actor

Sean Astin (The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers)

Ian McKellen (The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers)

Paul Newman (Road to Perdition)

Dennis Quaid (Far from Heaven)

Andy Serkis (The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers)

Gold: Andy Serkis ushered in a new era of acting with his Gollum, that's how singular this achievement is.  The way that he brings expression in every click of his voice, creating two characters in one (Smeagol peaking out from behind the scary facade), and playing off his costars beautifully.

Silver: Ian McKellen also has to play a second character, taking on the guise of Gandalf the White, and while it doesn't have the whimsy of the previous film, it also brings us gravitas that we need with the increasing stakes.  Personally, I don't get why Oscar stopped at just one nomination for him.

Bronze: Paul Newman's swan song from the movies (not really, but it should have been) is glorious.  He plays a crime boss trying to also balance a fierce, frequently unearned loyalty to a family that he sacrificed in order to see success in business.  His final soliloquy is some of the best work of a long career.

Supporting Actress

Patricia Clarkson (Far from Heaven)

Samantha Morton (Minority Report)

Lois Smith (Minority Report)

Meryl Streep (Adaptation)

Catherine Zeta-Jones (Chicago)

Gold: Catherine Zeta-Jones' gives the performance of a lifetime as Velma Kelly, stealing every scene she's in, and turning the longtime Broadway show into something most of the musicals that would come in Chicago's shadow couldn't claim-a story destined for the big screen.  Bonus points for proving she CAN do it alone.

Silver: Samantha Morton is a chameleon of an onscreen performer, indistinguishable from one film from the next.  This gives her an unreal aspect that perfectly fits Minority Report, where she plays a woman devoid of her humanity, but literally brimming with it when given the chance to show the world.

Bronze: We're giving Meryl two bronzes in 2002, it would appear.  Her Susan Orlean is also an upper-class white woman caught in a literary quagmire, but here she has to encounter aspects of herself that go beyond Manhattan, and look not into her past but into her future.  Think of how well Streep frames what changes about Susan as the film goes on...and what cannot shift.

Adapted Screenplay

Catch Me If You Can

The Hours

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

Minority Report

The Pianist

Gold: I've read Michael Cunningham's The Hours, so I know what David Hare had going for him when he decided to tackle a book that feels quintessentially destined for the page.  Not only does he bring that story to life, but he also does it while making it feel cinematic, as if this is the only way you could hear these women's tale.

Silver: The Two Towers gets the difficult task of taking Tolkien's detail-rich prose and trying to make something cinematic and engrossing.  This is the toughest of the three scripts because it doesn't involve finality or world-building, but instead just a central story that keeps viewers enthralled every second.

Bronze: The way that Catch Me If You Can just floats is marvelous.  I'm always a sucker for a caper/heist film, and this borrows from the best in the first half of the film almost to the point where you don't realize that you've fallen in love with this protagonist, and want him to find his way in the back half.

Original Screenplay

Far from Heaven

Panic Room

Spirited Away

Talk to Her

Y Tu Mama Tambien

Gold: In a year where the adapted films are taking a lot of the credit here, one of the best films of the year was wholly original (or at least if you don't count the parts it's cribbing from Lewis Carroll).  Spirited Away stands up as one of Miyazaki's best films in large part due to the originality of its concept, and how truly vested you become in its tale.

Silver: The best part of Talk to Her is definitely its script.  Almodovar's film is grand, shocking, and uses its twists to shape a rich story.  The structuring here is extraordinary, and the way that it all makes sense in retrospect...I loved it.  Few screenwriters are so instantly cinematic.

Bronze: Todd Haynes uses Far from Heaven's visual flourishes a bit more than Talk to Her (literally the only time you'll ever catch me saying someone out-visions Pedro), but that doesn't mean his script isn't working overtime.  A story of forbidden love, prejudice, & betrayal all while operating in a suspended universe is grand in its execution.

Animated Feature Film

The Cat Returns

Spirited Away

Treasure Planet

Gold: It's not a contest.  Honestly, if only to give Miyazaki a competitive statue, and for one of his greatest achievements, this Oscar category deserves to exist.  Spirited Away is an epic tale with complicated morality, total immersion, and it sucks me in every time.  A winning achievement that deserved a Best Picture nomination (which I've rectified above!).

Silver: Disney's Treasure Planet is a gorgeous kaleidoscope of color, and the best movie in an era where the Mouse House seemed to be phoning it in.  The film's animation is breathtaking, the way that it combines a steam punk aesthetic to the pirate ships, and the story works well...very little to complain about in a movie that's grown on me through the years.

Bronze: Sure, The Cat Returns is considered to be somewhat "lesser" Studio Ghibli, but the studio even at its bargain basement is still the best restaurant in town.  Fun, spry, and maybe in need of some development (it definitely needed to spend more time with its side characters), but a charming stop if you're a completionist for the studio.

Sound Mixing

Far from Heaven

Hero

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

Minority Report

Road to Perdition

Gold: The Two Towers takes Fellowship and turns it up to eleven in terms of its sound capabilities.  The movie's score is better incorporated, especially into battle sequences, and it has the very difficult work of trying to mix both Gollum and the Ents into Jackson's universe.

Silver: The same can be said for the click-click-clicking of John Williams' score in Minority Report, which adds to an already tense series of chases and great mixing of dialogue into effects-heavy sequences in the movie.  Think of how well silence is used in the one-off scenes with, say, Lois Smith & John Turturro.

Bronze: The clashing swords & whooshing fights of Hero are entrancing.  This is a film that was in Crouching Tiger's shadow, and rather than shy away from it, it turned the volume up to eleven & gave us a remarkable array of showdowns & battles.

Sound Editing

Hero

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

Minority Report

Signs

Spirited Away

Gold: I'm going to switch it up a bit and give this one to Spielberg's Minority Report.  The creepy spiders, and the way they spin on the floor, the design of the precogs, the constant dropping of the ball...it's fascinating to come to pass.  Based on the sound effects alone, you get a complete world onto itself.

Silver: Close at hand, don't worry, is The Two Towers, which like it does with mixing, brings in a new dimension to the franchise.  The battle of Helm's Deep (and of course the work with Gollum & the Ents) is marvelous in this movie, and gives so much depth to an already strong auditory palette.

Bronze: I'm going to go with Signs for third, which might be unusual for some, but I think Shyamalan saves the reveal of his aliens (and the bump-in-the-night horrors that lead up to it) so well here, even if the movie itself doesn't quite work for me.

Original Score

Far from Heaven

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

The Hours

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

Minority Report

Gold: Philip Glass's hyper-stylized score for The Hours might be a bit too much for some, but for this moviegoer it was exactly what I wanted.  You need stakes from the get-go in a movie that pronounces a main character will die in the first few minutes, and Glass gives us so much strings & violins to accompany this epic day in the life of three women.

Silver: It hurts me to no avail to put Howard Shore's The Two Towers into silver, as it's my favorite of the three scores in the movies (I'm literally breaking out in panic trying to decide when we get to 2001 between Fellowship and Harry Potter for this category specifically), and it aides us so well, especially the themes that are introduced around Gollum and Helm's Deep.

Bronze: Elmer Bernstein's Oscar-nominated sendoff in Far from Heaven is the perfect closer to an epic career.  The score is tricky here because it's supposed to overwhelm the film-the movie is designed to be constantly giving Cathy (and the viewer) too much, and that works as we continue, beautiful cellos & violins drowning out her reality.

Original Song

"Die Another Day," (Die Another Day)

"Gollum's Song," (The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers)

"Hey Goldmember," (Austin Powers in Goldmember)

"I Move On," (Chicago)

"Lose Yourself," (8 Mile)

Gold: About the only thing that you can count against "Lose Yourself" is that it's an end credits song, and you really wish that you could see Eminem use it to close the movie.  But it also works as a coda, a confirmation of the promise our protagonist has displayed all film, and with that, the promise that one of the great rappers of his generation brought at the peak of his powers.

Silver: Forgotten by Oscar, "Gollum's Song" is the only ominous ode in the sextet of Tolkien end credit songs.  It also plays into the chilling last moments of the film, when Gollum fully commits to evil & gives the audience something to be frightened of in the coming finale.  Like "Lose Yourself," it's an end credits song that doesn't have that impact-it feels like it connects into the movie itself.

Bronze: Our first appearance of Madonna in the Original Song category (she'll be back-I don't have the allergy to her that Oscar had, and she had some of the best film music of the 1990's).  I think her work here is better than it gets credit for, with Die Another Day (the silliest & least of the Brosnan movies) getting a techno beat to match its lighter approach to 007.

Art Direction

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Hero

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

Minority Report

Spirited Away

Gold: Even if you subtract Rivendell & the Shire from the equation, you're still given so much newness in this film that it's an easy first place to give away.  In particular, I am struck by the maze-like wonder of Helm's Deep, and the world of Rohan and its expansive, horse-riding plains.  It's such fine stuff, filled with detail.

Silver: Animation has art direction & production design too, and don't you forget it.  This is especially the case for something like Spirited Away, which creates its own little island away from our world, and gives us expansive castles and a city of the sky.

Bronze: I loved the futuristic aesthetic of Minority Report.  You shouldn't get points for predicting the future, but honestly the soulless, modernist design of the offices combined with a mall that feels like it's plucked out of our "constantly connected" phone addiction is proof that Spielberg was onto something here.

Cinematography

Far from Heaven

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

Minority Report

The Pianist

Road to Perdition

Gold: Edward Lachman's gorgeous ode to Douglas Sirk in Far from Heaven is the film's best asset.  Awash in a sea of fall-time golds & browns, he makes every shot of this movie read like an oil painting, covered with color, light, and trying to sneak out, a bit of shadow.  Contrast the almost overwhelming glow of day against the moody richness of his nighttime shots-it's extraordinary.

Silver: Conrad L. Hall's swan song (lots of legends in this write-up getting their final shots at Oscar glory), this is beautiful.  There's so much use of cloud & night in this movie, but it contrasts well with the earth tone color scheme, which I love.  It's also one of the best uses of nighttime shooting I've seen (my pet peeve is eternally that I want to be able to see the actors in all of the shots, even when it's dark out!).

Bronze: Andrew Lesnie gets the bronze here, but only because the competition is so fierce.  His strong battle sequences in The Two Towers are spectacular, but the real achievement is the way that he does such a good job of giving us glorious New Zealand backdrops to accompany the most effects-heavy of these five nominees.

Costume Design

Chicago

Far from Heaven

Hero

The Hours

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

Gold: I will forever be puzzled as to how Sandy Powell missed for Far from Heaven (I don't care that she made it for a different movie, this still feels weird).  The movie's costuming is so glamorous, as if pulled out of a catalog that most women would only circle from in the 1950's, meticulously framed over every actor.

Silver: The Hours has the difficult task of creating looks across three different time periods that suit women with an enormous amount in common.  Look at the way that sexuality bursts open with Toni Collette's low-cut dress compared to Julianne Moore's frumpier daywear, or how Meryl Streep seems to always be enveloped by her clothes like she's using them as armor.

Bronze: Emi Wada's glorious costuming in Hero is epic, using monochromatic kimonos in every sequence, oftentimes not only matching the mood of the characters, but the set design itself (think of Jet Li in solid black against the large onyx doors, or the blood red Zhang Ziyi highlights against a yellowing forest of trees).  Every outfit feels like it's specifically catered for a moment.

Film Editing

Far from Heaven

The Hours

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

Minority Report

The Pianist

Gold: I love the way that The Two Towers is structured and paced.  This is a movie that is coming in at three hours (or more if you're an extended edition girl), but it never feels like you need to stop to breathe (or that you want to).  It's also topping this list because one of the characters, the most memorable one, has to be sewn into the fabric of the film itself by VFX artists and the editing team.

Silver: In another world, I'd be very happy to hand this statue to The Hours, which does an equally impressive job of crafting its story together, here making the interlocking tales of three women on separate journeys feel less like they are headed for each other, and more like they are piled on top of one another, each one adding to the others' burden.

Bronze: Minority Report gets the bronze here, and that's all to do with pacing.  Minority Report is a long movie that pushes the envelope, especially as you spend much of the movie on-the-run with Cruise's John Anderton.  You feel the urgency in every corner that our main protagonist's life depends on running.

Makeup & Hairstyling

Chicago

Hero

The Hours

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

The Ring

Gold: As I've mentioned before, I try to grade on a curve for sequels (only putting in what's new), but the thing about The Two Towers is there's a LOT of newness here, and it's all spellbinding.  Gandalf's alabaster transformation, Theoden going from old to young, the entire bloody battle of Helm's Deep-it's a new dimension to Tolkien's world.

Silver: Unlike Oscar, I don't fixate on this needing to be all about ugliness or prosthetics, and so I am very at-home with giving a trophy to Chicago here for the way they transform all of our gorgeous leading ladies & gents into 1920's flappers & prisoners, period-adjacent with just the right amount of flare.

Bronze: My friend Cody will happily remind you that horror, which is home to some of the most incredible creations in the history of movie makeup, should be featured pretty much every year in this category.  So I'm following his lead with a nomination for The Ring, where our main villain takes on an instantly iconic swamp monster aesthetic that would launch a thousand Halloween costumes.

Visual Effects

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Hero

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

Minority Report

Star Wars: Episode II-Attack of the Clones

Gold: Even if I didn't love the film itself, only a fool wouldn't hand this over to The Two Towers.  Gollum puts this movie in the company of films like Star Wars, Jurassic Park, Titanic, and Avatar as a total advancement that changed the industry, never entirely the same after something so groundbreaking.

Silver: Everything else kind of pales by comparison, but I am impressed by Star Wars here, and while I know some think this film is ugly, I'm not one of them.  I think the matte painting is strong, and while it isn't in the same league as Gollum, Yoda's visual look here makes his showdown against Count Dooku quite stunning.

Bronze: Third place will be Minority Report one last time (its fifth bronze medal this article!). It's not as rule-breaking as our first two contenders, but it combines CGI with a lot of great practical effects.  The wall of cars moving in sync, in particular, stands out as a spellbinding effect.

Also in 2002: Picture, Director, Actress, Actor, Supporting Actress, Supporting Actor, Adapted Screenplay, Original Screenplay, Foreign Language Film, Animated Feature Film, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Original Score, Original Song, Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume, Film Editing, Visual Effects, Makeup, Previously in 2002

Other My Oscar Ballots: 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020

OVP: Picture (2002)

OVP: Best Picture (2002)

The Nominees Were...

Martin Richards, Chicago

Alberto Grimaldi & Harvey Weinstein, Gangs of New York

Scott Rudin & Robert Fox, The Hours

Barrie M. Osborne, Fran Walsh, & Peter Jackson, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

Roman Polanski, Robert Benmussa, & Alain Sarde, The Pianist

My Thoughts: We are officially at the end point here!  After possibly our longest Oscar Viewing Project season, we've cruised through the past month for most of these articles, and will continue on that pace, starting our next set of nominees as early as next week.  If you're new to the blog, or to the series, welcome, and check out the links below for past Best Picture races, as well as past 2002 contests.  Tomorrow, we'll conclude with which films I would've nominated and awarded in 2002, but let's not hold you in suspense any longer-here are my thoughts on the five films nominated for Best Picture by Oscar, and my pick for who should've won.

Chicago is a film that's hard to dislike.  It's a winning score (one of the best in the history of musical theater), and has some splendid performances, particularly from Catherine Zeta-Jones.  It's also a film that kind of jump-started the musical trend.  While Moulin Rouge! was the catalyst, this mammoth hit & the awards that came after honestly were the real reason we ended up with Dreamgirls, Les Miserables, and La La Land in the years that followed.  It's not a perfect film (the direction is sloppy, I don't think Gere is a good choice for Billy Flynn), but it's the top of the heap of the Broadway transfers that would follow, and it's a lot of fun.  A nomination that ages well.

The same can be said for The Pianist, which is the film on this list that is most in Oscar's wheelhouse.  Polanski's film opus (despite steadily working in the twenty years since, this is his last "great" movie) shows us a jarring, horrifying look at what it was like in the Warsaw Ghetto's first hand (something that Polanski, who grew up in Poland during the Holocaust, lived through).  Aided by a spectacular performance from Adrien Brody, this is a truly mesmerizing, large piece of film, and one of the best films ever made about World War II.

The Hours is also jaw-dropping in the way it handles three separate but interwoven narratives.  The thing that I always come back to with this film is that the filmmakers do a marvelous job of making it feel necessary.  Like every conversation could be the last one we have with a character, the last time they'll interact with each other.  There's a giant ticking clock over a movie where we announce that a major character will die within the film's opening minutes, and must wait to find out who will have the Sword of Damocles falling on their shoulders.  It's also gorgeously shot, costumed, and acted, and I'll admit it, one of my all-time favorite movies.

The Two Towers also numbers among my favorite movies, and is to me the best part of Peter Jackson's miraculous six-part look at the world of JRR Tolkien.  In the same way that Zeta-Jones makes Chicago and Adrien Brody is the heart of The Pianist, here we have an unlikely magnet in our film, keeping us at the edge of our seats: a spindly creature named Gollum, perfectly played by Andy Serkis.  Everything about this movie works-the confidence it starts out with, and maintains the whole film, and a gorgeous cast, set design, & cinematography.  But if you think about The Two Towers, you cannot help but focus on Serkis, finding humanity in pixels in a way that no other actor, before or since, has been able to achieve.

Which brings us back to Gangs of New York.  Every season, there's at least one film that Oscar loved that I didn't, and it becomes something of a punching bag.  There are elements of Gangs that I enjoyed-I think Daniel Day-Lewis is stupendous in this movie, and I think the set design is really incredible.  But overall, it left me cold.  The central tension between the two leads feels underwhelming with DiCaprio over his head, and the romance with Cameron Diaz...it doesn't work.  This isn't a bad movie in the traditional sense, but it is by any metric you'd use to measure "Best" Picture, or the filmography of Martin Scorsese.

Other Precursor Contenders: The Globes separate their categories into Drama and Musical/Comedy, so you have The Hours beating the Drama list that included About Schmidt, Gangs of New York, The Two Towers, and The Pianist, while Comedy/Musical gave it to Chicago against About a Boy, Adaptation, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, and Nicholas Nickleby.  BAFTA gave their Best Picture to The Pianist, atop the entire Oscar lineup, and Chicago won the PGA, with Adaptation, Gangs of New York, The Two Towers, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, and Road to Perdition as the nominees.  In terms of sixth place, I honestly think these five were very set, and so it's hard to guess who was closest as I don't think they were very close.  People will say "it's Talk to Her" simply because of the directing/writing nominations, but there was very little buzz for this film for the top prize, and I think that's a stretch.  I'm guessing it's between Road to Perdition and Far from Heaven, both of which had a lot of support in the tech & acting branches...though if you told me it was My Big Fat Greek Wedding, I wouldn't have totally been blind sided (pun intended).

Films I Would Have Nominated: You'll find out tomorrow!

Oscar’s Choice: Chicago went into the night the frontrunner, and though it lost key contests for Director & Actress before the night was over, it did end up winning, likely over The Pianist.

My Choice: The Hours beats The Return of the King, but against The Two Towers, my favorite installment in the Tolkien sextet...I just can't do it.  Jackson beats Daldry, with The Pianist, Chicago, and Gangs of New York following them.

And there you have it-another OVP in the books.  Is everyone siding with the flappers of Chicago, or do you want to focus on the ents & orks of The Two Towers?  In a very established field, what do you think was the sixth place contender?  And overall-what is your favorite movie of 2002?  Share your comments below!

Also in 2002: Director, Actress, Actor, Supporting Actress, Supporting Actor, Adapted Screenplay, Original Screenplay, Foreign Language Film, Animated Feature Film, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Original Score, Original Song, Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume, Film Editing, Visual Effects, Makeup, Previously in 2002

Past Best Picture Contests: 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020

OVP: Director (2002)

OVP: Best Director (2002)

The Nominees Were...

Pedro Almodovar, Talk to Her

Stephen Daldry, The Hours

Rob Marshall, Chicago

Roman Polanski, The Pianist

Martin Scorsese, Gangs of New York

My Thoughts: My goal is for us to finish up 2002 this weekend (that will depend on how tired I am tomorrow after doing some winter recreation that is a bit outside of my wheelhouse so I'm hoping it doesn't knock me out), but for sure we're going to do Best Director today, because, well, you're reading it today.  The Best Director field of 2002 is fascinating partially because of who is not there.  In 2002, it was stunning that Peter Jackson, who had nearly won the Oscar the year before and was cited for Best Picture, was missing from the Best Director lineup, as he was assumed to be safe (and this nomination was a down payment on a win the following year that did materialize).  Instead, two directors, both with incredible filmographies (though wildly different public personas) got the nominations instead.

The first of those was Pedro Almodovar, who got his only (to date) nomination here for Best Director.  Almodovar's Talk to Her is a marvelously taut mystery, and similar to Original Screenplay, this is a worthy nomination & a great way for Oscar to have gotten creative.  I love the way that he frames this movie as a sort of expanding Rubik's Cube, where you don't entirely know where you'll go next and where the ground is ever-shifting.  Almodovar is also one of the truest "auteurs" working in movies today, giving his own flare to pretty much every inch of his movies, and this is no exception.

Roman Polanski, despite the fact that he won the Oscar for The Pianist, wasn't really expected to even get nominated headed into the ceremony.  Polanski's criminal history (which is well-documented online, and too long of a story to get into fully here) was something that many expected would keep him off of the Best Director list, which he hadn't been on since 1980's Tess.  I try really hard to keep an artist's personal biography out of these write-ups (it's hard not to, but I want to ultimately decide the wins here based on the work at hand), and it has to be noted that Polanski's direction here is superb. He keeps the story & film tightly focused on Brody's character, giving us an unflinching look at the Holocaust from someone who actually lived through it (Polanski, whose family were Polish Jews, lived in the Warsaw Ghetto as a child during World War II).  It's a mesmerizing one-man act that's really a two-man one, as this level of performance is only possible with a director helping Brody along every step.

Stephen Daldry's The Hours nomination was also somewhat in question in 2002, though not to the same degree.  Films with female leads sometimes get missed in the top categories, and obviously this is the story of three women, but I'm so glad he made it.  Daldry's work here is splendid, the way that he intersperses these women's lives, and I love the quickness of his direction...we never spend more than a scene or two with characters, and frequently leave people behind (think how Toni Collette makes this amazing impression, and then we are deprived of her for the rest of the film).  There's something so assured in his storytelling.

Our last two names weren't remotely in question in 2002-everyone knew they'd get nominated.  Rob Marshall was making his big-screen debut after years in theater & television (primarily focusing on musicals).  I'm going to own something here-I think the direction is the weakest element in Chicago.  The film just sort of sits there, and there's not enough flow from scene-to-scene, not enough connection to the musical numbers that are knocking it out of the park, and suddenly we return back to Roxie's world.  Marshall was criticized for this approach in later movies that didn't really call for it (this is not unusual for staged versions of Chicago), but I think here it doesn't work either-it's just flat, and it's the one thing holding Chicago back for me.

The final nomination is also one that I don't love, and it's from one of my favorite directors of all-time.  This was when we had officially entered the "Marty wants an Oscar" stage of Scorsese's career, where he was worried about becoming Kubrick & Hitchcock & Lumet, men who couldn't get competitive Oscars.  Gangs of New York, though, doesn't have the tightness that his other films do, and the sub-romances in the movie don't work at all.  This is a long, bloated epic that has the benefit of an incredible performance at its center, but in Scorsese's long filmography, this is the only celebrated title that I totally check out from, and I'm personally glad this isn't where he won his statue.

Other Precursor Contenders: The Globes went with Scorsese, and they did so over a six-wide field (atypical for the HFPA) as they had him beating Daldry, Marshall, Peter Jackson (The Two Towers), Spike Jonze (Adaptation), & Alexander Payne (About Schmidt).  The BAFTA Awards gave their statue to Polanski, and they had the same lineup as Oscar with Almodovar getting skipped for Jackson.  DGA had the same lineup as BAFTA (no Pedro, Jackson's there), but they went with Marshall for their winner.  And the sixth place is so clearly Peter Jackson, I won't entertain discussions about it being someone else.

Directors I Would Have Nominated: I already have the My Ballot ready, so I won't telegraph too much here other than I consider Jackson's miss to be a proper snub, and I will be correcting it on my end.  For the rest, tune in on Sunday!
Oscar's Choice: Heading into Oscar night, it was considered a truly tight race between Scorsese & Marshall, both of which felt like compromise wins (Marshall was brand new, Scorsese was winning for a film that no one agreed was one of his best), which is likely how Roman Polanski pulled off an upset and a standing ovation that featured Scorsese, Diane Lane, Meryl Streep, and (shudder) Harvey Weinstein that would be unthinkable today.

My Choice: Daldry, and not because I'm uncomfortable voting for Polanski (though truth-be-told, I would've struggled to vote for him if the Academy hadn't given me an out with a better directorial achievement).  Behind those two I'd go Pedro, followed by Marshall & then Scorsese.

Those were my thoughts-how about yours?  Are you more with the Academy honoring the controversial Polanski, or do you want to join me on less tempestuous ground surrounding Daldry?  Am I alone in thinking that Scorsese's nomination here is the one big miss in an otherwise grand Oscar history?  And where the hell is Peter Jackson?!?  Share your thoughts in the comments!

Also in 2002: Actress, Actor, Supporting Actress, Supporting Actor, Adapted Screenplay, Original Screenplay, Foreign Language Film, Animated Feature Film, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Original Score, Original Song, Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume, Film Editing, Visual Effects, Makeup, Previously in 2002

Past Best Director Contests: 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020

OVP: Actress (2002)

OVP: Best Actress (2002)

The Nominees Were...

Salma Hayek, Frida

Nicole Kidman, The Hours

Diane Lane, Unfaithful

Julianne Moore, Far from Heaven

Renee Zellweger, Chicago

My Thoughts: I've said repeatedly in the 2002 lineups that these are some of the best acting quintets that Oscar has assembled this century, and that holds true for Best Actress.  It wasn't just that 2002 was a good year for movies...Oscar had strong taste this year, and it came out in a variety of ways.  That being said, as you're going to notice in the precursors, Best Actress was kind of playing with the answer key for the nominations.  These five women totally dominated the awards season, and it was not a surprise at all when they were announced as the official ambassadors to the Kodak in early 2003.

At this point, Julianne Moore's acting in Far from Heaven is talked about in the way that cinephiles discuss Brando in On the Waterfront or Jane Fonda in Klute...it's so celebrated that it's hard to grasp that there was once a time that it was new.  The real genius in Moore's work (cause she is, true to reputation, wonderful) is that she's so fully-commited to this style of acting.  There are a lot of easy moments in Far from Heaven where she could break, where she could bust the ode to Douglas Sirk that Todd Haynes is crafting, and instead give herself a gigantic Oscar moment, but she doesn't.  That's what makes it so special, and keeps the film glued together even as others around her are faltering from her idealization.

Nicole Kidman's Oscar win has not aged well for reasons that are alien to me, because this might be my favorite performance of hers, confirmed by a recent rewatch of the movie.  In a movie as strong as The Hours, it's hard to single out a favorite and yet it's always Kidman's Virginia Woolf for this watcher.  I think it's the way that she's both (literally & figuratively) in charge of the story, bringing each new character in like a gleeful, sadistic narrator.  There's also the way that she embodies someone who is fed up with what's easy.  She knows that her old life is dangerous, and this new time in the country is where her health might recover, where she can last forever...but all she wants is to live.  "Richmond is death" is spit out like a bullet, her speaking aloud the truth that she knows every day but no one around her seems to understand.  I love her work here.

Renee Zellweger, not Moore, was Kidman's biggest rival for the Oscar, and this is a good performance from Zellweger in the brief time where she was one of the most exciting actresses in Hollywood (Tinseltown, not entirely sure what to do with a woman who was so good at a type of screwball comedy that had basically died by 2002, put her in dramas with diminishing results).  I think there's a fine line between "Roxie isn't a good singer" and Zellweger playing her (as Zellweger is not as good of a singer as, say, Catherine Zeta-Jones or Queen Latifah is), and it doesn't quite work for me with Gere, but that's really quibbling over the lobster...this is an excellent movie experience, and she's so good at pulling off Roxie's naked ambition (fame above all).

Unlike the first three women, Diane Lane does not get the benefit of being in a good movie...she's in, in fact, the worst movie of the five (also, it should be noted, opposite Richard Gere).  But Lane is sensational within this terrible picture.  She plays Connie as a complete woman, one that is difficult to pigeonhole even though it's our gut instinct to do so when given the cliche of a beautiful woman in a loveless marriage having an affair (an onscreen cliche if there ever was one).  She clearly feels alive in her affair, but understands that while her old life isn't something that she values, she knows that the handsome, easy life she's leaving for this man is of value, and can't part with it.  This is complicated, smart acting, and I'm so glad that Lane, who has yet to be nominated again in the years since, got her sole citation for such a terrific part.

All of this leads to Salma Hayek, an actress of talent & a celebrity who seems genuinely interesting (I love her in interviews), but who cannot make Frida work.  This was clearly a passion project for the likable Hayek, so I feel bad ragging on her too harshly, but this performance cannot compare to the four women with whom she's sharing this field.  She seems to simplify the complicated Frida too much, relying on Julie Taymor's visual hints about the artist rather than placing her own mark on Kahlo, and it shows nothing of the iconic Frida that the world would fall in love with in death.  There's not enough there.

Other Precursor Contenders: The Globes separate their nominations between Drama and Musical/Comedy, so we have ten women nominated for these awards.  For Drama we nearly went verbatim what Oscar said, only subbing out Zellweger for Meryl Streep (The Hours) with Kidman winning, while Zellweger won Comedy/Musical against Maggie Gyllenhaal (Secretary), Goldie Hawn (The Banger Sisters), Nia Vardalos (My Big Fat Greek Wedding), and Catherine Zeta-Jones (Chicago).  SAG went with Oscar's lineup exactly, but gave the statue to Zellweger and BAFTA gave theirs to Kidman, skipping both Lane & Moore in favor of Streep and Halle Berry (Monster's Ball, which she'd won for the year before-that used to happen with BAFTA back in the day before awards season became so lock-step).  In terms of sixth, it's Streep, and I'm not hearing any arguments here-one of the few times it was clear that Meryl just missed an Oscar nomination.

Actors I Would Have Nominated: Meryl deserved an inclusion here.  It's hard to be angry about it.  Streep was nominated for Adaptation in Best Supporting Actress, Hayek would never be nominated again & is an affable star...who cares, right?...even Meryl probably was fine with it turning out this way.  But if we're basing this solely on what everyone put forward, there's no debate-Streep deserved that nomination.

Oscar’s Choice: A tight race between Zellweger & Kidman led to the latter getting it (they had both been nominated the year before & both had lost).  Zellweger would help eliminate Nicole as competition the following year by starring with her, and getting the Oscar in the process.

My Choice: This is going to maybe shock some of my friends, but I'm going with Kidman, just barely over Moore.  This is one of those cases where an unreal connection with a performance makes it impossible for me to deny.  Lane, Zellweger, and then Hayek follow.

Those are my thoughts, but now I want to hear yours!  I know that we aren't all in agreement here even if Oscar & I are happy, so who do you want to give your love toward?  Is there another performance that Diane Lane or Salma Hayek should've been considered for other than these movies (Lonesome Dove wasn't eligible, and therefore doesn't count)?  And is this the only time that Meryl has ever been in sixth place?  Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Also in 2002: Actor, Supporting Actress, Supporting Actor, Adapted Screenplay, Original Screenplay, Foreign Language Film, Animated Feature Film, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Original Score, Original Song, Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume, Film Editing, Visual Effects, Makeup, Previously in 2002

Past Best Actress Contests: 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020