When the Oscars were held against the backdrop of another divisive war
On March 23, 2003, as the rest of the world watched television images of prisoners and corpses identified as American soldiers, limousines carrying fashion-clad celebrities drove up in front of what was then known as the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles.
The United States had invaded Iraq just three days earlier, and until that morning there was still the possibility that the Oscars would not take place.
As A-listers like Nicole Kidman, Halle Berry and Steve Martin – the host – were herded through metal detectors amid a heavy law enforcement presence, a few blocks away, police with batons faced off against demonstrators trying to get closer to the theater. no one did).
There’s another war in the news this year as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences wins another Oscar. Until now, almost no one has spoken out at the precursor awards ceremonies, but in 2003 things were very different.
“It felt weird to dress up and go to this thing when our fellow Americans were all abroad getting involved in something that was very dangerous,” director Chris Sanders recalled in a recent interview. Sanders was nominated for best animated film that year for his direction of “Lilo & Stitch.”
In the weeks leading up to the ceremony, more than a hundred artists, including Matt Damon, Jessica Lange, Helen Hunt, George Clooney and Danny Glover, signed a letter urging President George W. Bush not to attack Iraq. The day before, actors Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins, and Oscar-nominated director Pedro Almodóvar, were among the thousands who marched in Hollywood to protest the war.
And hours after the war began, several presenters, including Cate Blanchett and Jim Carrey, bowed out, citing safety concerns and respect for military families. Peter Jackson, whose film “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” was nominated for best picture, also decided to skip the show.
“It was kind of like, ‘Are they going to happen?’” Sanders said. “And if they do, who will show up?”
The Academy Awards, which will be presented for the 96th time on Sunday, have never been canceled outright. They took place partly remotely during the pandemic, with some nominees and presenters appearing from hubs in London and Paris. During World War II, after an initial cancellation, the Oscars went ahead as usual, but formal attire was banned and the ceremony was labeled a “dinner” instead of a “banquet.”
In 2003, the show’s broadcaster, ABC, implored the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to take a similar course, but the academy declined, in part because the Kodak Theater would later become unavailable. Instead, the academy decided to hold the ceremony as planned, but with a few changes: the upcoming nominees and their guests would not parade down a red carpet – a first – and would instead be asked to wear darker colors and more subdued outfits .
Sanders said he knew “Lilo & Stitch” was a long shot to win. “We had to compete against Miyazaki, for ‘Spirited Away,’” he said. But other nominees had to grapple with whether to address the war if they won.
“Stars used to be more reluctant to say anything that might alienate ticket buyers,” said Jules Dixon-Green, a professor at the University of North Carolina who teaches a course on entertainment public relations. “But as social media platforms have become more vibrant and robust, celebrities are realizing that people are really looking for authentic points of view from the people they admire, respect and follow.”
In 2003, “Chicago” was the frontrunner going into the evening, with 13 nominations, including best picture, best director for Rob Marshall and best actress and supporting actress for Renée Zellweger and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Martin Scorsese’s historical crime story “Gangs of New York” was hot on its heels with 10 nominations, and the psychological drama “The Hours” had nine, including best actress for Nicole Kidman’s fake nose assist as writer Virginia Woolf.
The first prize of the evening went to ‘Spirited Away’. Filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki was not present and provided no explanation at the time. In a 2009 interview with the Los Angeles Timeshe said he had boycotted the prices because of the invasion.
“I didn’t want to visit a country that was bombing Iraq,” he said. “At the time my producer shut me up and wouldn’t let me say that, but I don’t see him anymore today.”
The first winner to reference the war was Chris Cooper, who won best supporting actor for his performance as a nearly toothless orchid thief in “Adaptation.”
“In light of all the problems in this world, I wish us peace,” he said.
Then things went off the rails.
After Zeta-Jones, who was nearly nine months pregnant, won for her performance as the villainous vaudevillian Velma Kelly in “Chicago,” Michael Moore took to the stage to accept best documentary for “Bowling for Columbine.”
As the other documentary nominees joined him on stage, he said they made a joint statement: “We are against this war,” he declared, to a chorus of loud boos. (“Music, music!” Oscars director Louis J. Horvitz was heard shouting.)
“It was so sweet backstage,” Steve Martin said a few minutes later. ‘You should have seen it. The Teamsters help Michael Moore into the trunk of his limousine.
And then came one of the biggest shocks of the evening: Halle Berry announced that Adrien Brody had won the Best Actor award for his role as an unlikely Holocaust survivor in Roman Polanski’s ‘The Pianist,’ beating Nicolas Cage, Michael Caine and Daniel Day-Lewis defeated. and Jack Nicholson.
An exuberant Brody — who at 29 became the youngest actor ever to win the category — walked onto the stage in a daze, kissed a surprised Berry (she later said the episode made her uncomfortable) and used his speech to call for peace and the safe return of American soldiers.
“Whether you believe in Allah or God, may he watch over you and pray for a peaceful and speedy resolution of this war,” he said.
A few minutes later, the Best Actress award went to Kidman, who asked, as she accepted her award, “Why are you coming to the Academy Awards when the world is in such turmoil? Because art is important.”
Momentum seemed to be building for a “Pianist” best picture after Brody won best actor and Ronald Harwood won best adapted screenplay for the film. Subsequently, Polanski, who has not returned to the United States since fleeing while awaiting sentencing for statutory rape, was named best director over favorites Marshall and Scorsese.
However, the evening ended as expected when “Chicago” won its sixth statuette, for best picture, making it the first musical to win since “Oliver!” (1968).
Ratings for the ceremony, which lasted three and a half hours and was the first Academy Awards to be broadcast in high-definition, showed that it attracted 33 million viewers, making it the least-watched and lowest-rated Oscar ceremony to date was on television. A significant number of viewers tuned in instead for coverage of the Iraq War.
The references to Iraq that permeated the night were in stark contrast to the awards ceremonies so far this season, when — after two years of the war in Ukraine being acknowledged at almost every ceremony — the conflict between Israel and Hamas went largely unmentioned.
“It’s too fraught,” a studio executive told The New York Times awards season columnist Kyle Buchanan last week. “People are worried about their careers.”
Outside the United States, however, actors and filmmakers have been more outspoken. At the BAFTA Awards in London last month, producer James Wilson, who took home the award for best non-English language film for his Holocaust film ‘The Zone of Interest’, urged an end to ‘selective empathy’, saying drew parallels between his film and Israel’s bombing and invasion of the Gaza Strip in the past months.
It’s unlikely, Dixon-Green said, that we’ll see such bold rhetoric at the Oscars on Sunday. But she said she expected at least one winner to reference the war or the election.
“There’s just something different about Oscar night,” she said. “The winners – even if they are just a few short mentions – feel a responsibility to say something about what is happening in our country or in the world.”