Black and Gold: Academy gives top acting Oscars to African Americans

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History was made at the Academy Award ceremony last night when African-American actors won both lead acting awards.

Halle Berry became the first black woman to win best actress. Denzel Washington, the second black man in history to win best actor, acknowledged the first, Sidney Poitier (who also received an honorary award last night), in a poised and gracious speech. Washington memorably portrayed a corrupt cop in "Training Day."

And an astonished Berry, who won for "Monster's Ball," wept at the podium before she could compose herself somewhat, emotionally acknowledging "every nameless, faceless woman of color for whom a door tonight has been opened."

Also making headlines was "A Beautiful Mind," the loosely fact-based story of schizophrenic mathematician John Nash. The film won best picture and best director for first-time winner Ron Howard, who will now be called "Academy Award winner Ron Howard" at least as often as he's called Opie.

"Mind" had been an early favorite to dominate the Oscars, but its chances looked muddied in recent weeks when controversy whirled over the film's level of factual accuracy. Regardless, it won four major awards, including supporting actress and adapted screenplay.

In one of the evening's biggest surprises, Jim Broadbent won best supporting actor for "Iris," over Ian McKellen ("The Lord of the Rings") and Ben Kingsley ("Sexy Beast"). Broadbent, who also was strong this year in two other non-nominated performances ("Bridget Jones's Diary" and "Moulin Rouge"), graciously called "Iris" a "joyful, wonderful experience."

Jennifer Connelly, looking poised but pale in an unfortunate beige gown, won best supporting actress for her quietly fiery performance in "A Beautiful Mind." Her acceptance speech, alas, lacked fire: it was read from a piece of paper, from which she rarely looked up.

Akiva Goldman, who shook with fear at the podium, won the screenplay award for his adaptation of Sylvia Nasar's biography "A Beautiful Mind." The original screenplay award went to an ecstatic Julian Fellowes for "Gosford Park," who declared, "I feel as if I'm in 'A Star Is Born'!"

"The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" received a near-record 13 nominations, but settled for four Oscars, including cinematography (for Andrew Lesnie), original score (Howard Shore), visual effects and makeup.

"No Man's Land," the moving war film from Bosnia and Herzegovina, upset the popular "Amélie" to win best foreign film. Far less surprising was the winner in the brand-new category of best animated film, "Shrek."

"Moulin Rouge," easily the year's most colorful film, swept the design awards, winning for costume design and art direction.

"Black Hawk Down," which received few major nominations, won in two technical categories, for sound and for film editing.

The evening's happiest winner may well have been composer Randy Newman, who won best song for "If I Didn't Have You" from "Monsters, Inc." — and who's been nominated 15 previous times without a win. Grinning, he said, "I don't want your pity," and concluded his remarks with, "Thanks very much. I'm thrilled."

From a group of little-seen nominees, "Murder on a Sunday Morning," won best documentary, and "Thoth" won best documentary short. The latter provided a nicely unscripted moment, as the subject of "Thoth" — a New York street musician, wearing a red robe and carrying his violin — danced up to the podium with the film's two directors, finally twirling offstage behind them.

Woody Allen, typically a no-show at the Oscars, turned up this year to introduce a film-clip tribute to New York. The nifty montage contained clips from "Manhattan," "West Side Story," "On the Waterfront," "Do the Right Thing," "Sleepless in Seattle," "King Kong" and many more.

Among the year's honorary Oscars were a graceful tribute to Poitier, in which the actor acknowledged the generation of black actors who paved the way for him, and a new generation of black actors spoke of Poitier's role in their dreams.

"Love Story" stars Ryan O'Neal and Ali McGraw reunited to present the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award to their director Arthur Hiller. And Robert Redford, in receiving his honorary Oscar, reflected on the industry, calling for more risk-taking and diversity.

The telecast, which began with an unshaven Tom Cruise talking about "a little bit of magic" and ended more than four hours later, was at times inspiring, at times amusing, and at times deadly — in other words, it was Oscar night.

Host Whoopi Goldberg, making her entrance from the ceiling of the Kodak Theatre à la Nicole Kidman in "Moulin Rouge," worked hard (as did her dresser — I lost track of the number of costume changes) but her one-liners fell flat as often as they amused. The comic highlight of the evening was a filmed costume-design riff from Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson, who get my nomination for Next Year's Potential Hosts.

Innovations during the telecast included the expected dearth of dance numbers — although the Cirque de Soleil showed up instead — and Glenn Close and Donald Sutherland as voice-over hosts, sitting in what looked like some sort of Oscar coat-check area.

One of Oscar-show producer Laura Ziskin's better ideas was the elimination of the traditional presenter banter, replaced by descriptions of the categories written by Oscar-nominated screenwriters, some of which were quite winning (e.g., David Mamet's description of what a film editor does). And, let's face it — just about anything beats scripted banter.

The ceremony was preceded by a typically dippy pre-show, distinguished by its hosts' seeming inability to know what was coming next. ("And now, Leeza Gibbons with Julia Roberts!" Cut to Ms. Gibbons, standing with Russell Crowe, who looks nothing like Julia Roberts.)

And finally, in the category of What Oscar Night Can Teach Us: Just when you think there's nothing more that can be done to the standard tuxedo, along comes Oscar winning makeup artist Peter Owen ("The Lord of the Rings"), all duded up in a black suit covered with fringe. To him, and to all the Oscar-night fashion victims — thank you, for keeping the evening full of surprises.

Moira Macdonald: 206-464-2725 or mmacdonald@seattletimes.com.