It's a knockout for 'Million Dollar Baby'
Foxx wins best actor; Scorsese overtaken by Eastwood
By Todd Leopold
CNN
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 "Million Dollar Baby" won in most of the major categories at the 77th Annual Academy Awards.
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(CNN) -- "The Aviator" had more Oscars, but it was "Million Dollar Baby" that scored the knockout punch at the Academy Awards Sunday night.
The Clint Eastwood-directed film about a female boxer, her crusty trainer and the trainer's ex-boxer right-hand man won four Oscars: best picture, best actress (Hilary Swank), best supporting actor (Morgan Freeman) and best director.
"I saw Sidney Lumet out there, who's 80, and I thought, 'I'm just a kid,' " said the 74-year-old Eastwood, the oldest director to win an Oscar. (Lumet, the director of films including "Network" and "The Verdict," won an honorary Oscar earlier in the evening.)
Producer Albert S. Ruddy, who guided the script into Eastwood's hands, accepted the award by thanking the people involved with the film. It had been 32 years since Ruddy's last win -- which was for the legendary "The Godfather."
Hilary Swank won best actress for "Million Dollar Baby," her second Oscar in five years.
"I don't know what I did in this life to deserve all this," she said, on the verge of tears. "I'm just a girl from a trailer park who had a dream. ... I am eternally grateful for this great honor." She also paid tribute to her fellow best actress nominees, her husband, Chad Lowe -- forgotten when she won for "Boys Don't Cry" in 2000 -- and pretty much everyone who worked on the film.
When the orchestra started tuning up, she said, "You can't do that. I haven't gotten to Clint yet."
"Million Dollar Baby" also featured the best supporting actor winner, Morgan Freeman.
"I want to thank everybody and anybody who ever had anything to do with the making of this picture," Freeman said, singling out Eastwood and Swank in an elegant, understated speech.
Jamie Foxx lived up to expectations -- and gave the speech of the night -- when he won the Oscar for his performance in "Ray."
"I want to thank my daughter, who told me, 'If you don't win, Dad, you're still good,' " said Foxx, who also thanked director Taylor Hackford, his managers, Sidney Poitier (while doing a wicked Poitier impression) and -- finally -- his grandmother, "who taught me how to act."
"She still talks to me, but now she talks to me in my dreams," he said. "And I can't wait to go to sleep tonight because we've got a lot to talk about."
Scorsese in good company
"The Aviator" won five awards, including best supporting actress for Cate Blanchett, but director Martin Scorsese is now 0-for-5 in the best director category. He has good company, including Alfred Hitchcock and Robert Altman.
The film won best art direction, best cinematography and best costume design, as well the trophy for Blanchett. The Australian actress portrayed Katharine Hepburn in the film, a biography of Howard Hughes' Hollywood years.
"When you play someone as terrifyingly well-known as Katharine Hepburn, it's a team effort," Blanchett said of her role in the film.
"Sideways," a critics' favorite, won best adapted screenplay. The two screenwriters, Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor, gave a speech amusing for its briskness, no doubt aware the orchestra could play them off the stage at a glance.
"The Incredibles" took best animated feature and sound editing.
"I don't know what's more frightening, being watched by millions of people, or the hundreds of people that are going to be annoyed with me tomorrow for not mentioning them," said Brad Bird, writer-director of the "The Incredibles," in accepting the best animated feature award.
"Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" writer Charlie Kaufman, perhaps the most famous screenwriter in Hollywood right now, won his first Oscar after previous nominations for "Being John Malkovich" and "Adaptation."
 Cate Blanchett won best supporting actress for "The Aviator." | |
Very conscious of the countdown clock all winners must face, he nervously kept referring back to the time he had left -- somehow emblematic of his very inward-looking, thoughtful screenplays.
'The best job'
In a surprise, the Spanish-language "Al Otro Lado Del Rio," from "The Motorcycle Diaries," won best song. Songwriter Jorge Drexler sang his acceptance speech.
The Spanish film "The Sea Inside" won best foreign-language film.
Documentary awards were taken by "Born into Brothels" (feature) and "Mighty Times: The Children's March" (short subject).
Lumet, who was given an honorary Oscar, brought audience members to tears with his eloquent address.
After noting that he'd want to thank hundreds of people -- including many whom he never worked with, but influenced him greatly with their words and expertise -- the director said, "I just want to thank the movies."
"I've got the best job in the best profession in the world," he added.
Strange presentations
As a show, the Oscars were notable for some new attempts at picking up the pace -- the show came in at 3 hours, 12 minutes, the shortest in years -- but suffered from a strange dynamic.
For some awards, all nominees were invited on stage before the winner was announced. They often stood nervously behind the presenter.
Other awards featured the sight of nominees sitting in the audience as the camera panned down the aisle at each group of candidates. Then, when nominees were announced from the audience for other categories, the winners gave their thank-you speeches from a microphone set up nearby, as if they were asking questions of a CEO at a conference.
At one point, Jeremy Irons gave the award for best live-action short from the audience and was interrupted by a sudden muffled bang.
"I hope they missed," he ad-libbed.
Host Chris Rock put the attempts at changing the Oscar presentation in perspective.
"Next year they're going to give out the Oscars in the parking lot," he said.
Rock rolls
Rock -- a big topic of discussion (and, for some, concern) before the show -- started the Oscar broadcast with a fast-talking monologue.
"Welcome to the 77th and last Academy Awards," he began after a standing ovation.
He took jabs at a number of celebrities, making a distinction between "stars" and everybody else -- including himself.
"After I made 'Pootie Tang,' Cuba Gooding sent me a check for $80," he said, several lines after knocking Gooding for "Boat Trip."
He also noted the two movies that caused the most discussion in 2004 -- "Fahrenheit 9/11" and "The Passion of the Christ" -- and the difficulty the latter faced in getting made.
"They've made six 'Police Academys' and nobody wanted to make 'The Passion of the Christ'?" he asked.
In a taped segment, Rock also went to a local Magic Johnson theater to get the thoughts of everyday black moviegoers. Among the picks: "Alien vs. Predator," "Saw" and "The Chronicles of Riddick."
A kicker: comedian Albert Brooks giving a thumbs-up to "White Chicks."
But if ABC was concerned about Rock -- who was rather restrained -- perhaps the network should have paid more attention to its pre-show hosts.
In between promoting designers and raving about the competition, celebrities had to listen to some very odd -- and even insulting -- questions.
"Before you were a movie star, you were a serious actor," said ABC's Chris Connelly to Orlando Bloom.
Copyright 2005 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
