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| February 26, 2007 |
| 'The Departed' wins best picture |
LOS ANGELES - The mob saga "The Departed" won the best-picture Academy Award on Sunday, a triumph for a homegrown American film in an evening that featured the most internationally diverse field of nominees in the history of Hollywood's highest honors.
Martin Scorsese finally won the best-director Academy Award that had eluded him throughout his illustrious career, taking the prize for his mob epic "The Departed" after five previous losses.
Forest Whitaker earned the best-actor Oscar for "The Last King of Scotland," in which the soft-spoken actor played an uncharacteristically flamboyant role as Ugandan dictator Idi Amin.
Helen Mirren reigned, winning best actress for her portrayal in "The Queen" of British monarch Elizabeth II facing ebbing loyalty after the death of Princess Diana.
Jennifer Hudson won the supporting-actress Oscar for "Dreamgirls," though her co-star and fellow front-runner Eddie Murphy lost the supporting-actor prize to Alan Arkin of "Little Miss Sunshine."
"More than anything, I'm deeply moved by the open-hearted appreciation our small film has received, which in these fragmented times speaks so openly of the possibility of innocence, growth and connection," said Arkin, who plays a foul-mouthed grandpa with a taste for heroin in the road comedy.
Hudson won an Oscar for her first movie, playing a powerhouse vocalist who falls on hard times after she is booted from a 1960s girl group. The role came barely two years after she shot to celebrity as an "American Idol" finalist.
"Oh my God, I have to just take this moment in. I cannot believe this. Look what God can do. I didn't think I was going to win," Hudson said through tears of joy. "If my grandmother was here to see me now. She was my biggest inspiration."
"Little Miss Sunshine," which came out of the low-budget independent world to become a commercial hit and major player in Hollywood's awards season, also won the original screenplay Oscar for first-time screenwriter Michael Arndt.
The film follows a ghastly but hilarious road trip by an emotionally messed-up family rushing to get their darling girl (10-year-old supporting-actress nominee Abigail Breslin) to her beauty pageant.
"When I was a kid, my family drove 600 miles in a VW bus with a broken clutch," Arndt said, describing a road trip that mirrored the one in the film. "It ended up being one of the funnest things we did together." |
posted by viraks @ 2:23:00 AM  |
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