Okay, now that I've completed my own personal reflections on the year in film that was 2002, it's time to get back to the business of the film awards season. But first up, we have some major news coming from the Academy in the past week, as they announced an Honorary Award that they will be giving at the 75th Oscars, and many would say this is the opportunity to FINALLY honor an actor who has had a track record of having never won a competitive Oscar in his career.
Lawrence himself, Peter O'Toole, will be receiving an Honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement at the 75th Annual Academy Awards. He has been nominated seven times for acting Oscars in the past, but never won. The citation on his honorary Oscar statuette will read: "Peter O'Toole -- whose remarkable talents have provided cinema history with some of its most memorable characters."
O'Toole is definitely a Hollywood legend, most notable for his landmark performance as T.E. Lawrence in David Lean's epic Best Picture winner of 1962, Lawrence of Arabia. He has appeared in some 50 other films, most notably his Oscar nominated roles in The Lion in Winter, Becket, Goodbye Mr. Chips, and My Favorite Year. It will be a great moment to see this wonderful actor finally receive an Oscar.
But now let's get right into it, let's take a look at all the various precursors that took place over the past week. It started two weekends ago, with the presentation of the Broadcast Film Critics Awards. Chicago started to cement its status as the Clear Oscar Frontrunner for Best Picture with those awards, when it took three top awards, including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress-Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Best Acting Ensemble. There was a tie for Best Actor, with both Jack Nicholson and Daniel Day-Lewis winning (lovely to get all these ties between these two great performances, we'll never be able to predict which one will win the Oscar!) Nicholson invited Robin Williams up on stage to accept his award, allowing Williams to do his wonderful impersonation of Jack.
Julianne Moore took another Best Actress honor that night, for her performance in Far From Heaven, and Chris Cooper took yet another honor for Best Supporting Actor for Adaptation. Eminem won the Best Song award for his wonderful song "Lose Yourself" from 8 Mile, and then look who won Best Director ... quite a surprise, but it was Steven Spielberg for directing both Minority Report and Catch Me If You Can. Adaptation won the Broadcast Critics's award for Writing.
