71st Annual Academy Award® Winners Page 2

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Nicolas Cage then came out to honor Norman Jewison, winner of the Thalberg Award. Jewison's speech was brief, but moving. He told young filmmakers to find great stories and ignore the top ten, bottom ten, grosses and demographics. He said the highest-grossing film is not necessarily the best. The award for Best Visual Effects was then handed out by Star Wars: Episode One star, Liam Neeson. The award went to What Dreams May Come.

Val Kilmer, who did a little cha-cha for us on the red carpet, came out with a horse to introduce a tribute to Roy Rogers and Gene Autry.

Helen Hunt, last year's Best Actress, came out to hand out the award for Best Actor. The winner of the award was Life is Beautiful's Roberto Benigni. He said the award was a big mistake because he had already used up all his English on the last award.

Whoopi then came out in a psychedelic outfit from costume nominee Velvet Goldmine. She then introduced Lisa Kudrow who introduced the song "That'll Do" from Babe: Pig in the City. The song was performed Peter Gabriel and Randy Newman.

Matt Damon and Ben Affleck came out to introduce the winners for documentaries. The winner for Feature Length was The Last Days and the winner for Short Subject was The Personals.

The most controversial part of the awards was next as Robert DeNiro and Martin Scorcese came out to introduce the tribute to Elia Kazan. The segment was controversial because Kazan had once named fellow filmmakers he thought were Communists in front of the McCarthy hearings. Before the awards many filmmakers had said they would refuse to clap or stand for the director. The cameras did show shots of audience members not clapping, like Ed Harris, or those who clapped but did not stand, like Steven Spielberg. Kazan supporter Warren Beatty was one of the people who did give Kazan an ovation.

Whoopi then came out in the final nominated costume design from Shakespeare in Love, which was fitting since they were the winners.

The final nominated best song performance was "The Prayer" from Quest for Camelot. Jennifer Lopez handed the award to "When You Believe" from Prince of Egypt.

Annette Bening came out to introduce the yearly segment of filmmakers who had died in the past year.

MPAA Chairman Jack Valenti came out to introduce General Colin Powell. The General introduced the clips from The Thin Red Line and Saving Private Ryan.

Whoopi then paid tribute to Gene Siskel. She gave him a thumbs up saying he was a critic who really loved movies.

Uma Thurman gave out the award for Best Cinematography to Saving Private Ryan.

Jack Nicholson then came out to award the Best Actress award to Gwyneth Paltrow. As everyone predicted Gwyneth's speech was a tearful one. She said she didn't feel deserving winning the award in front of Meryl Streep, "the greatest ever". She got even more tearful as she thanked her mother, Blythe Danner, and her father, Bruce Paltrow.

Steven Spielberg then came out to pay tribute to Stanley Kubrick.

Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn then handed out the writing awards. The award for Best Screenplay Adaptation went to Bill Condon for Gods and Monsters. The movie's stars, Ian McKellen, Lynn Redgrave and Brendan Fraser were delighted to see him win. The winner of the Best Original Screenplay was Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard for Shakespeare in Love.

Kevin Costner then came out to hand out the Best Director Oscar®. The Best Director was Steven Spielberg for Saving Private Ryan.

Harrison Ford then had the honor of handing out the last award of the century. The winner for Best Picture was Shakespeare in Love. The producers and cast in the audience seemed genuinely surprised to win the award, which last summmer seemed destined to leave in the hands of Steven Spielberg.

The telecast then concluded with Whoopi saying that the movies, as evidenced by tonight's winners, truly were a universal language.

We at Digital Hit Entertainment would like to thank the thousands of you who clicked over to us for your awards info. We'll have the photos from the arrivals line up ASAP, after Ian and Christine go eat a well-deserved meal. We'll also have some notes from the interviews here in the press room. And we'd also like to thank the Academy for honoring us with press credentials this year.