March 8, 2002 UNT Inhouse publication: And the Academy Award goes to ...

homepage

And the Academy Award goes to ...

The difficulty of creating a movie about a thinker that will hold audiences' attention will result in A Beautiful Mind winning this year's Best Picture Academy Award and its director, Ron Howard, winning Best Director, according to Don Staples, UNT professor of radio, television and film.

Staples, a well-known film historian, has predicted Oscar winners with 85 percent accuracy for the past 32 years. Winners of the 2001 Academy Awards will be announced March 24, with the ceremony televised by ABC. Staples' skill in predicting Oscar winners is a combination of gut feelings, his Hollywood connections and background, and setting his own personal preferences aside. A member of the Screen Actors Guild and former president of the Society for Cinema Studies, Staples received critical acclaim for his book, American Cinema.

"It's very easy to make an action film because you don't often have to get inside someone's mind to interpret a character," he says. "It's also sometimes easier to direct thousands of people in an action scene. But A Beautiful Mind focused on directing individual actors, which is more difficult and is admired. Ron Howard is also a Hollywood product who has paid his dues, and it's his time to win."

A Beautiful Mind tells the story of math genius John Forbes Nash Jr. and his battle with schizophrenia. The film has been criticized for straying from the book on which it was based, but Staples says the criticism shouldn't hurt its chances for Oscars.

"Most Hollywood insiders believe that books don't have anything to do with movies. Everyone knows that the movie Gone With the Wind (Best Picture winner for 1939) only tells a small part of the book," he says.

Even though some movies have followed the books upon which they are based word for word — such as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone — "a good director is supposed to change things to make a book into an interesting film," Staples says.

This year's list of Oscar nominees indicate that the academy paid attention to the foreign element in films, Staples says.

Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, nominated for Best Picture, Best Director and 11 other awards, can almost be considered a New Zealand film, since its director, Peter Jackson, and other crew members hail from New Zealand, Staples says. Gosford Park, another Best Picture and Best Director nominee, can almost be considered a British film, as could Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, which is nominated for three technical awards, he says.

In addition, the French film Amélie is nominated for Best Art Direction, Best Original Screenplay and Best Foreign Language Film. That is "highly unusual," Staples says.

"The academy has obviously paid attention to foreign films this year and thought Amélie was good enough to go up against the American productions," he says.

This year's nominations are also unusual because two African American actors are competing for Best Actor — Will Smith for Ali and Denzel Washington for Training Day — and African American Halle Berry is nominated for Best Actress for Monster's Ball. It is the first time that three African Americans are among the top nominees, Staples says.

"Usually, only one African American is nominated each year. Denzel Washington has been nominated a number of times," he says.

Neither Smith nor Washington, however, will leave this year's Academy Awards ceremony with an Oscar, Staples predicts. He believes Russell Crowe will win his second Best Actor Oscar in two years for his role as John Nash Jr. in A Beautiful Mind. Crowe took home the Oscar last year for his role in Gladiator. The last actor to win back-to-back Best Actor Oscars was Tom Hanks, who won in 1993 for Philadelphia and 1994 for Forrest Gump.

Berry has a better shot than Smith or Washington at winning an Oscar, Staples says.

"Her role in Monster's Ball is truly an actress' role, and the performance is admired by her peers," he says. "The top two who are rumored to be in the running for Best Actress are Sissy Spacek (for In the Bedroom) and Nicole Kidman (for Moulin Rouge). They may split the vote and allow room for Halle Berry."

However, Staples believes Kidman will walk away with the Oscar.

"Even though she is Australian, she has become a true Hollywood product," he says.

Staples says the Best Supporting Actor and Actress categories are usually hard to predict, but he believes the Best Supporting Actor Oscar will go to either Jon Voight for Ali or Ian McKellen for Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.

"Both men have been around for a while and paid their dues but never won Oscars," he says. "In addition, they were in the two most popular films in the category. Box office revenues are important because they are a guide to the movies that people are seeing, and nominators will consider them because they will wonder what the buzz is about."

This year's nominees in the Best Supporting Actress category include two nominees from sGosford Park — Maggie Smith and Helen Mirren. Even though those who like the film may split their votes, Staples predicts Smith will win.

For the first time, the academy is presenting an award for the Best Animated Feature Film. Staples predicts Shrek will win over Monsters, Inc. and Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius.

"Shrek was more of a favorite for all ages of moviegoers than the other two nominees," he says.

Staples says he is satisfied with most of this year's nominees in all categories – with one large exception.

"The most obvious omission is Baz Luhrmann not being nominated for Best Director for Moulin Rouge," he says. "I would have liked to see him nominated instead of Ridley Scott for Black Hawk Down. Great motion pictures tell great stories from great directors, and Black Hawk Down was not a very complex story to tell or direct."