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77th Academy Awards 

77th Academy Awards
Date Sunday, February 27, 2005
Site Kodak Theatre
Hollywood, Los Angeles, California
Preshow Billy Bush
Jann Carl
Chris Connelly
Shaun Robinson
Host Chris Rock
Producer Gilbert Cates
Director Louis J. Horvitz
TV in the United States
Network ABC
Duration 3 hours 14 minutes
Ratings 42.16 million
25.29 (Nielsen Ratings)
 < 76th Academy Awards 78th > 

The 77th Academy Awards, honoring the best in film for 2004, were held on February 27, 2005, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, California. They were hosted by comedian Chris Rock.

The nominees were announced on January 25, 2005. Martin Scorsese's biopic of the eccentric Howard Hughes, The Aviator, led the pack with eleven nominations including Best Actor, Best Director, and Best Picture. Marc Forster's Finding Neverland and Clint Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby each had seven nominations. Ray and Sideways rounded out the nominees for Best Picture.

Contents

News and recap

  • As of February 27, 2005, the field of Best Picture nominees did not include a bonafide blockbuster at the U.S. box office. For the first time in 20 years, and what would continue for the next few years, none of the nominees for Best Picture was among the year's top ten releases in box office at the time of the nominations, and as a group they most probably had the lowest box-office performance of any Best Picture field in history. To date, The Aviator was the highest earner with $93.7 million in domestic box office receipts, and ranked as the 24th highest grosser of 2004. It was followed by Ray at $74.9 million and Million Dollar Baby at $64.7 million.
  • There was a considerable amount of controversy surrounding the omission of political-themed documentaries from the Best Documentary Feature Film category. However, this was not necessarily an oversight on the part of the Academy, as many of the candidates were rendered ineligible.
    • Fahrenheit 9/11 was intentionally withheld from submission in the Best Documentary Feature Film category by producer Michael Moore, in hopes of affecting the 2004 presidential election by airing it on broadcast television. Under rules established by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, documentaries shown on television within nine months of their theatrical release are ineligible for the documentary Oscar. Instead Moore submitted it for the Best Picture category which does not have that same rule.
    • Popular political documentaries Control Room and The Corporation were rendered ineligible by the fact that they had been broadcast in their entirety on network television within 9 months of their U.S. theatrical release.
  • The popular Motorcycle Diaries was not selected by any country as its official nomination for Best Foreign Language Film, as the crew, director, cast and filming locations were all affiliated with different nations. As it had no specific country of origin, no country was willing to make it their official selection for the category.
  • When Chris Rock makes his introduction, the music accompanying him is a slightly jazzed up version of Brad Fiedel's theme from The Terminator.
  • The ceremony attracted an average audience of 42.14 million, down three percent from the preceding year. However, the target age 18-49 demographic ratings stood at 16.84, higher with the preceding year's 15.68.
  • During one segment Rock asked "Who is this guy?" in reference to actor Jude Law who seemingly appeared in every movie Rock had seen that year and implied Law was a low-rent Tom Cruise (he made a joke about filmmakers rushing production and being unable to get the actors they want: "If you want Tom Cruise and all you can get is Jude Law, wait [to make the film]!") . Nearly two hours later, a defensive Sean Penn took the stage to present and said, "In answer to our host's question, Jude Law is one of our finest young actors." (At the time, Penn and Law were shooting All the King's Men.) This was later mocked on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart impersonating Penn explaining old jokes like airline peanuts. Law was not the only actor that Rock poked fun at that evening, however -- he turned the joke on himself at one point, saying "if you want Denzel [Washington] and all you can get is me, wait!"

Notable quotes

  • "I don't want to take my time—I want to get off the stage." –Charlie Kaufman
  • "My grandma used to sit down and talk to me, she said I want you to be a Southern gentleman, and she still talks to me, only now in my dreams. And I can't wait to go to sleep tonight because we've got a lot to talk about. I love you." –Jamie Foxx
  • "To answer our host's question, Jude Law is one of our finest actors".-Sean Penn, while presenting, responding to Chris Rocks question "Who is Jude Law?"

Trivia

Winners & Nominees

Best Motion Picture of the Year

Million Dollar Baby

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role

Ray - Jamie Foxx

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role

Million Dollar Baby - Hilary Swank

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role

Million Dollar Baby - Morgan Freeman

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role

The Aviator - Cate Blanchett

Best Achievement in Directing

Million Dollar Baby - Clint Eastwood

Best Writing, Original Screenplay

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - Charlie Kaufman , Michel Gondry and Pierre Bismuth

Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay

Sideways - Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor

Best Achievement in Cinematography

The Aviator - Robert Richardson

Best Achievement in Art Direction

The Aviator - Dante Ferretti and Francesco Lo Schiavo

Best Achievement in Costume Design

The Aviator - Sandy Powell

Best Achievement in Sound Mixing

Ray - Scott Millan , Greg Orloff , Bob Beemer and Steve Cantamessa

Best Achievement in Editing

The Aviator - Thelma Schoonmaker

Best Achievement in Sound Editing

The Incredibles - Michael Silvers and Randy Thom

Best Achievement in Visual Effects

Spider-Man 2 - John Dykstra , John Frazier , Scott Stokdyk and Anthony LaMolinara

Best Achievement in Makeup

Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events - Valli O'Reilly and Bill Corso

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Song

The Motorcycle Diaries - Jorge Drexler for the song Al Otro Lado Del Rio

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score

Finding Neverland - Jan A. P. Kaczmarek

Best Short Film, Animated

Ryan

Best Short Film, Live Action

Wasp

Best Documentary, Short Subjects

Mighty Times: The Children's March

Best Documentary, Features

Born Into Brothels: Calcutta's Red Light Kids

Best Foreign Language Film

The Sea Inside - Spain

Best Animated Feature

The Incredibles

Academy Award ceremony presenters and performers

Presenters and performers 

Breakdown

(Awards won/nominations)

Special honors

In memoriam

A special tribute to past host Johnny Carson was presented by host Chris Rock with previous emcee Whoopi Goldberg discussing Carson's legacy to television and the Academy Awards in the segment.

Presented by Annette Bening with a musical solo by Yo-Yo Ma The Academy recognizes those motion picture contributors that pass away in the previous year. In the order that they appear, the following actors and artists were featured: Ronald Reagan, Peter Ustinov, Carrie Snodgress, director Dan Petrie Sr., composer Dave Raksin, Fay Wray, film agent Phil Gersh, composer Elmer Bernstein, writer Carole Eastman, animator Frank Thomas, director Russ Meyer, Jerry Orbach, film editor Ralph E. Winters, writer Robert E. Thompson, Howard Keel, Janet Leigh, Christopher Reeve, Ossie Davis, producer Jerry Bick, Mercedes McCambridge, producer/writer William Sackheim, cinematographer Ed Di Gullio, writer Nelson Gidding, Paul Winfield, director Philippe de Broca, composer Jerry Goldsmith, Rodney Dangerfield, Virginia Mayo, Tony Randall and Marlon Brando.

See also

Academy Award portal

External links
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