by Bob Tourtellotte, Reuters
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Oscar wrapped itself in international colors on Sunday -- handing five awards, including best picture, to British funded Gladiator, four honors to a Taiwanese film with English subtitles and four more to a U.S. film with Spanish subtitles.
The Academy Awards, the U.S. film industry's highest honors, cemented the fame of New Zealand-born, Australian- raised Russell Crowe, and sent the career of rising star Benicio del Toro, who hails from Puerto Rico, into orbit. Crowe was named best actor and Del Toro best supporting actor and soon both many carry the title superstar as well.
Julia Roberts was named best actress for her work as the sexy, feisty legal assistant in Erin Brockovich, marking the first time the international superstar has won an Oscar.
The 2001 Oscars varied widely in terms of films they honored from epics like Gladiator to an unconventional film like Traffic, giving an air of inclusion into one of the U.S. film industry's longest running and most visible awards shows.
Backstage, reporters needed translators to answer some of the questions fielded to winners from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, director Ang Lee's Mandarin-language film that took honors for best foreign language film, original score, art direction and cinematography.
Del Toro, winner of best supporting actor for his role as an incorruptible Mexican cop in Traffic thanked people in the United States, Mexico and Puerto Rico. Not to be outdone, Crowe circled the globe with his thank you's.
"God bless America. God save the Queen. God defend New Zealand, and thank Christ for Australia," Crowe told reporters as he fielded questions after winning his award.
If anything, this year's Oscars showed that the world continues to get smaller for the movie industry as Hollywood producers look overseas to fund their cinematic dreams as did Douglas Wick and David Franzoni with Gladiator, and often foreign filmmakers come to the United States to find the seed money for their visions, as did Ang Lee for Crouching Tiger.
"Crouching Tiger is an overture for a new era, all boundaries have been crossed ... I'm just so happy for all culture," said Tan Dun, who won the original score Oscar for his work on the film.
Unlike Peter Pau, who won the cinematographer award for Crouching Tiger and answered several questions in Chinese backstage -- causing some consternation among reporters -- Dun had to pause before answering one question in his native tongue because, he said, he had prepared only in English.
But the notion of a global cinema market is no joking matter to Hollywood, where increasingly sales often dwarf U.S. ticket sales even. Gladiator, for instance, raked in $187 million in U.S. ticket sales and a whopping $263 million overseas.
Moreover, traditionally subtitled films do not play well for American audiences, but both Crouching Tiger, which is fully subtitled in English and Traffic, which has one-third of its story spoken in Spanish and subtitled in English, scored over $100 million in U.S. box office receipts. Indeed, Crouching Tiger, is the highest grossing foreign language film in the United States ever.
As international as this year's Oscars were, they were also open to different types of movies and moviemaking styles. And the filmmakers welcomed the diversity of movies being honored.
"I think any year that a bunch of pictures that don't fit into the conventional grids is good for the movie business," said Wick. "There's a lot of rules to be broken, so I think that's good for everybody."
Audiences, as well as Academy Award voters, want to see Gladiator and Crouching Tiger with their high-octane action as well as sweet, romantic love stories.
Moviegoers also want to see cutting-edge films that explore controversial topics as was done by director Stephen Soderbergh with Traffic, which helped him claim the best director Oscar in a surprise victory over Lee. Traffic also won Oscars for best adapted screenplay and best film editing.
Soderbergh was supposed to have split the vote between Traffic and his other film, Erin Brockovich, but Academy voters rewarded the way he seamlessly wove three disparate stories into the one movie about the drug trafficking wars and drug use in the United States.
Along with the surprise for Soderbergh, little-seen and low-budgeted Pollock about the life of painter Jackson Pollock, helped Marcia Gay Harden earn her Oscar for best supporting actress.
© 2001 Reuters