| 74th Academy Awards | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Date | March 24, 2002 |
| Site | Kodak Theatre Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Hosted by | Whoopi Goldberg |
| Preshow hosts | Chris Connelly Leeza Gibbons Ananda Lewis[2] |
| Produced by | Laura Ziskin |
| Directed by | Louis J. Horvitz |
| Highlights | |
| Best Picture | A Beautiful Mind |
| Most awards | A Beautiful Mind andThe Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (4) |
| Most nominations | The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (13) |
| TV in the United States | |
| Network | ABC |
| Duration | 4 hours, 23 minutes[3] |
| Ratings | 41.82 million 25.54% (Nielsen ratings) |
The74th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by theAcademy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), took place on March 24, 2002, at theKodak Theatre inHollywood, Los Angeles. During the ceremony, AMPAS presentedAcademy Awards (commonly referred to as Oscars) in 24 categories honoringfilms released in 2001. The ceremony, televised in the United States byABC, was produced byLaura Ziskin and directed by Louis J. Horvitz.[4][5] ActressWhoopi Goldberg hosted the show for the fourth time.[6] She first hosted the66th ceremony held in 1994 and had last hosted the71st ceremony in 1999.[7] Three weeks earlier, in a ceremony held at theRegent Beverly Wilshire Hotel inBeverly Hills, California, on March 2, theAcademy Awards for Technical Achievement were presented by hostCharlize Theron.[8]
A Beautiful Mind won four awards, includingBest Picture.[9][10] Other winners includedThe Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring with four awards,Black Hawk Down andMoulin Rouge! with two, andThe Accountant,For the Birds,Gosford Park,Iris,Monster's Ball,Monsters, Inc.,Murder on a Sunday Morning,No Man's Land,Pearl Harbor,Shrek,Thoth, andTraining Day with one. Despite a record length of four hours and twenty-three minutes, the telecast garnered nearly 42 million viewers in the United States.[11]
The nominees for the 74th Academy Awards were announced on February 12, 2002, at theSamuel Goldwyn Theater inBeverly Hills, California, byFrank Pierson, president of the academy, and the actressMarcia Gay Harden.[12]The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring earned the most nominations with thirteen. It was the seventh film to earn that many nominations.A Beautiful Mind andMoulin Rouge! tied for second place with eight apiece.[13][14]
The winners were announced during the awards ceremony on March 24, 2002.[15] By virtue of its latest Best Picture victory forA Beautiful Mind,DreamWorks became the second film studio to release three consecutive Best Picture winners; the studio had previously releasedAmerican Beauty andGladiator.[16]Denzel Washington was the second African-American to win theAcademy Award for Best Actor, followingSidney Poitier for 1963'sLilies of the Field.[9]Halle Berry became the first, and as of 2025[update], only, African-American to win theAcademy Award for Best Actress.[9] Nominated for their performances as thetitle character inIris, Best Actress nomineeJudi Dench andBest Supporting Actress nomineeKate Winslet became the second pair of actresses nominated for portraying the same character in the same film, following Best Actress nominee Winslet and Best Supporting Actress nomineeGloria Stuart as Rose in 1997'sTitanic.[13]
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Winners are listed first, highlighted inboldface, and indicated with a double dagger (‡).[17]
| Awards | Film |
|---|---|
| 4 | A Beautiful Mind |
| The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring | |
| 2 | Black Hawk Down |
| Moulin Rouge! |
The following individuals (in order of appearance) presented awards or performed musical numbers.[21]
| Name(s) | Role | Performed |
|---|---|---|
| John Williams | Musical arranger and conductor | Orchestral medley of themes from various film scores. |
| Cirque du Soleil | Performers | Special performance in a tribute to movie visual effects |
| Sting | Performer | "Until" fromKate & Leopold |
| Enya | Performer | "May it Be" fromThe Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring |
| John Goodman Randy Newman | Performers | "If I Didn't Have You" fromMonsters, Inc. |
| Faith Hill | Performer | "There You'll Be" fromPearl Harbor |
| Paul McCartney | Performer | "Vanilla Sky" fromVanilla Sky |
The Academy wanted to find a new venue for the festivities amid limited seating and rehearsal time concerns with theDorothy Chandler Pavilion. In addition, problems arose regarding staging the Oscars at theShrine Auditorium because there was difficulty of directing guests from the auditorium where the main event took place to the adjacent Exhibition Hall for the Governor's Ball.[22] In August 1997, AMPAS and Canadian development firmTrizecHahn went into negotiations over the development of an entertainment complex located on the corner ofHollywood Boulevard andHighland Avenue adjacent to theMann's Chinese Theatre.[23] Seven months later, both the Academy and TrizecHahn agreed on a twenty-year lease that allowed for the ceremony to be staged at a new venue, which would later be called theKodak Theatre, located within the property which was also situated near theHollywood Roosevelt Hotel, the site of theinaugural awards ceremony in 1929.[24][25] This was the first time the ceremony was held in Hollywood since the32nd ceremony took place at thePantages Theatre in 1960.[24]
In view of the return of the Oscars to Hollywood, the Academy hired film producer andSony Pictures Entertainment chairmanLaura Ziskin in September 2001 to oversee production of the telecast.[4] Pierson explained the decision to hire Ziskin saying, "This show is one of the most difficult—if not the most difficult—producing jobs in show business. Laura Ziskin brings intelligence, experience and wit expressed in everything she has done."[26] This marked the first occurrence that a woman produced the Oscars solo. Four months later,Whoopi Goldberg was selected as host of the 2002 ceremony. In an article in theLos Angeles Times, Ziskin justified her choice of Goldberg commenting that she has "great warmth, with humor, humanity and social conscience, all qualities that I feel are essential for this year's show. I look forward to collaborating with Whoopi to put on a meaningful and entertaining evening."[27]
Furthermore, theSeptember 11 attacks affected the telecast and its surrounding events. Despite speculation and suggestions that the festivities be postponed or canceled, AMPAS President Pierson wrote in aVariety column refusing to take such action stating that it would send the message that "the terrorists have won".[28][29] However, due to security concerns, the Academy announced that red carpet bleacher seats would now be limited on a reservation basis based on a random selection and abackground check.[30]
On Oscar night,Tom Cruise opened the show and stated that it was the job of filmmakers to make films during troubling times. In addition, later in the evening Goldberg introduced a "New York icon" to the stage and filmmaker and directorWoody Allen, who had previously never attended a ceremony, made a surprise appearance. Allen was greeted with a hearty standing ovation from audience members includingBaz Luhrmann,Ron Howard,Jennifer Connelly,Denzel Washington, andEthan Hawke. He explained that the September 11 attacks influenced him to attend the Oscars so that he could represent the city he deeply admired and urged filmmakers to continue to film in New York City. Allen then presented a film montage directed by fellow New Yorker and screenwriterNora Ephron saluting New York City in film.[31]
Several other people participated in the production of the ceremony. ActorsGlenn Close andDonald Sutherland served as announcers during the show.[32] The orchestra, led by film composer and telecast musical supervisorJohn Williams, performed selections of film scores during a montage saluting film composers produced byKyle Cooper.[33] FilmmakerErrol Morris filmed a vignette featuring several famous people discuss movie memories.[34] DirectorPenelope Spheeris produced a montage saluting 60 years of Oscar-winning documentary feature films.[35][36]Cirque du Soleil performed a dance number inspired by movies and visual effects.[37]
Beginning with this ceremony, AMPAS introduced a new competitive award that would honoranimated feature films.[38] According to Academy communications director John Pavlik, the film must be at least 70 minutes in length, have a significant amount of animated characters, and be at least 75 percent animated in order to be qualified for consideration.[39] A minimum of eight qualifying films must be released within the calendar year to permit a slate of three nominees. If the number of films exceeds twelve, the nominee roster increases to five.[40] Prior to the introduction of this category, threeDisney films (1937'sSnow White and the Seven Dwarfs, 1988'sWho Framed Roger Rabbit, and 1995'sToy Story) were all givenSpecial Achievement Academy Awards.[41]
At the time of the nominations announcement on February 12, the combined gross of the five Best Picture nominees at the US box office was $484 million, with an average of $96.9 million per film.The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring was the highest earner among the Best Picture nominees with $271 million in domestic box office receipts.[42] The film was followed byA Beautiful Mind ($113 million),Moulin Rouge! ($57.1 million),Gosford Park ($22.2 million), and finallyIn the Bedroom ($19.5 million).[42]
Of the top 50 grossing movies of the year, 46 nominations went to 14 films on the list.[43] OnlyThe Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2nd),Shrek (3rd),Monsters, Inc. (4th),A Beautiful Mind (15th),Black Hawk Down (25th),Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius (27th),Training Day (29th),Bridget Jones's Diary (31st),Ali (41st), andMoulin Rouge! (44th) were nominated for Best Picture, Best Animated Feature, or any of the directing, acting, or screenwriting awards.[43] The other top-50 box office hits that earned nominations wereHarry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (1st),Pearl Harbor (7th),Vanilla Sky (19th), andAI: Artificial Intelligence (28th).[43]
The show received a mixed reception from media publications. Some media outlets were more critical of the show. Television critic Robert Bianco ofUSA Today complained that the awards ceremony was "intensely narcissistic and characteristically, almost unrelievedly, dull."[44] Columnist Matthew Gilbert ofThe Boston Globe bemoaned that "TV's most-watched slug crawled back into town last night." He also sniped, "As usual, the technical awards formed aBermuda Triangle in the middle of the show, and the film-clip fests and production numbers numbed our brains."[45]The Sacramento Bee's Rick Kishman lamented that "It was the first time both best-acting Oscars went to African Americans...yet viewers had to fight hours and hours of boredom to care." He also quipped that the excessive amount of montage and tributes dragged down the proceedings.[46]
Other media outlets received the broadcast more positively.Orange County Register film critic Henry Sheehan praised Goldberg's performance as hosting writing that her "ensuing entrance a laMoulin Rouge was a comparative triumph and her boom-boom-boom succession of jokes put the show right on track."[35] Television columnist Joanne Ostrow ofThe Denver Post raved, "The nearly five-hour telecast was stunning, historic, slick, efficient, and helped along by some knockout clothes." She also commented that Washington and Berry's acceptance speeches and the Sidney Poitier tribute added to the historic and emotional mood of the festivities.[47] John Levesque of theSeattle Post-Intelligencer commended producer Ziskin for producing "the best Oscar telecast this TV watcher can remember." In addition, he wrote that "It was clear the 74th Academy Awards ceremony was something special: fresh, crisp, different from its predecessors."[48]
The American telecast on ABC drew in an average of 41.82 million people over its length, which was a 3% decrease from theprevious year's ceremony.[49] The show also earned lowerNielsen ratings compared to the previous ceremony with 25.54% of households watching over a 40.34 share.[50] In addition, it garnered a lower 18–49 demo rating with a 16.13 rating over a 36.46 share among viewers in that demographic.[50]
In July 2002, the ceremony presentation received seven nominations at the54th Primetime Emmys.[51] Two months later, the ceremony won one of those nominations for Debra Brown's choreography during the telecast.[52]
The annual "In Memoriam" tribute, presented by actorKevin Spacey, honored the following people.[53]
Before theIn Memoriam montage was shown, Spacey requested amoment of silence in memory ofthe victims of the September 11 attacks.[54]
