March 25th is a super-duper Oscary day
Thursday, March 25, 2021 at 8:00AM If today, March 25th, is your birthday please brag about this fact...
Audrey Hepburn & Prince at their Oscar winning ceremonies
More Oscar ceremonies have been held on your birthday than any other day in history with the exception of March 29th, which has had the same amount of Oscar ceremonies: five. (Supposedly in 2022, these two March dates will have to share this peculiar honor in a three way tie with February 27th.)
1954 The 26th annual Academy Awards are held honoring the best of 1953...
From Here to Eternity, recently discussed, is the big winner with 13 nominations and 8 wins, though sadly the great Montgomery Clift loses yet again in Best Actor. This year also marked the debut and win of Audrey Hepburn (Roman Holiday), and the unofficial gay anthem "Secret Love" from Calamity Jane won Best Original Song. Ann Blyth (of Mildred Pierce Joan Crawford slapping fame) performed the Doris Day tune at the ceremony.
1985 The 57th Academy Awards are held honoring the best of 1984. Amadeus wins Best Picture and most agree that it's the best Best picture winner of the 1980s. Other notable things that happened this Oscar season: super brilliant documentary The Times of Harvey Milk won the Oscar in its category despite Oscar's intermittent homophobia; Prince won the very last "Best Original Song Score" Oscar for his immortal score to Purple Rain, a category that had existed infrequently and under several names; Dr Haing S Ngor became the only Asian winner of Best Supporting Actor (for The Killing Fields); this was the only time in history where EVERY nominee for Best Original Song was also a Billboard #1 hit. They were...
- "Against All Odds" - Against All Odds
- "Footloose" - Footloose
- "Ghostbusters" - Ghostbusters
- "I Just Called To Say I Love You" -Woman in Red
- "Let's Hear It For the Boy" - Footloose
1991 The 63rd Academy Awards are held honoring the best of 1990. Kevin Costner's western Dances with Wolves is the undisputed champ of the night winning 7 Oscars from its 12 nominations. But Ghost was the biggest box office hit among the nominees and Goodfellas the film with the best critical reputation to this day.
1996 The 68th Academy Awards were held 25 years ago today, honoring the best of 1995. It's one of yours truly's unhappiest Oscar nights as Braveheart remains the worst winner of my lifetime. The sadistically violent and homophobic epic took the prize that could have gone to a family film masterpiece in Babe or Ang Lee's lovely adaptation of Sense & Sensibility. Ah well. At least we had one of the best Best Actress races of all time that year (which we've discusssed many times).
2001 The 73rd Academy Awards are held honoring the best of 2000. Gladiator wins Best Picture but loses Best Director to Traffic. Meanwhile the best film in the lineup Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, has to settle for Best Foreign Language Film and three craft Oscars (Art Direction, Cinematography, and Score). We'll be discussing this Oscar year in the new season of the Supporting Actress Smackdown in the second week of May so get your rewatching in before then --- see the schedule here.
Happy 74th to Elton John!
Oscar's birthdays today...
Two time Best Original Song winner Elton John ("I'm Gonna Love Me Again" from Rocketman and "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" from The Lion King), Oscar nominated producers Amy Pascal (Little Women, The Post), Robert Fox (The Hours), and Lawrence Gordon (Field of Dreams)
And late greats like... two time Best Director winner David Lean (Bridge on the River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia), nominated screenwriter Penelope Gilliatt (Sunday Bloody Sunday), and Best Actress winner Simone Signoret (Room at the Top) but more on her later today...
Reader Comments (28)
I agree about the 68th awards. Braveheart is simplistic and subpar in every way and there were much better options.
I also can't even look at Costner holding the Oscars that should be Goodfellas.
Will best song ever be relevant again? All the 1984 nominees were actually in the movie, important to the mood of the films and sound great today.
1995's Actress line up one of the best ever and 1995's Best Picture line up one of the worst apart from S and S and 95 was a bumper year for great films any of these would've been better nominees.
The American President
Clueless
Seven
Casino
Mr Holland's Opus
To Die For
Bridges of Madison County
The Usual Suspects
Muriel's Wedding
Safe
Heat
Dead Man Walking
Before Sunrise
The Turner gave the Oscar to Harvey Milk and to Prince so god bless the Turner.
There was some controversy at the 1953 awards because Ann Blyth was pregnant when she sang Secret Love, giving added meaning to the line "And my secret love's no secret any more" but it was allowed to go on anyway.
Completely concur with those From Here to Eternity and Amadeus wins.
I wasn't crazy about any of the nominees in '91. I loved Ghost but it's no Best Picture winner and I know Goodfellas is beloved but I hated it. I'd vote for the unnominated The Grifters.
In '96 I would have been happy with either Apollo 13 or Sense & Sensibility rather than that vile piece of Gibson garbage.
I love Gladiator and since my pick, Wonder Boys, wasn't nominated I'm good with it winning.
Anxious to see the Simone Signoret tribute later today! A brilliant actress.
As to 1995, it seems weird Dead Man Walking wasn't up for Best Picture given its other nominations and more than respectable box office.
My choices:
1953: From Here to Eternity/Clift/Caron
1984: A Passage to India/Abraham/J. Davis
1990: Goodfellas/Harris/Huston
1995: Il Postino/Troisi/Streep
2000: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon/Hanks/Linney (since I think it was too soon for Hanks' 3rd Oscar, I'd've voted for Crowe)
1995's BP nominees were a weak crop, which enabled the unworthy Braveheart win (in this house we refer to it as Bray Fart). But the academy was still in its thrall to BIG EPICS, alas. It's definitely on my list of the 5 worst BP winners ever (only edged out by Crash and neck-and-neck with Gigi).
You can make a) another movie about the mafia, and 2) make a
3 hour
Western
with subtitles
and no other stars
dealing with white guilt
as your directorial debut
and somehow make box office over 300 million dollars.
"Dances with Wolves" deserved the Best Picture.
They really mistreated Ang Lee in his earlier career, didn’t they? Snubbed Best Director for Sense & Sensibility. And then lost Best Director for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Finally, he won Brokeback Mountain but his film lost Best Picture.
Ugh, 1995. I disagreed with many of the nominees and all of the winners in the eight “main” categories except Adapted Screenplay. Ugh.
Everybody shits on the 1990 Oscars because Goodfellas didn't win, but Dances with Wolves is GREAT.
There are plenty of terrible choices the Academy has made throughout the years and Dances with Wolves winning doesn't make my top 20.
Leaving Las Vegas was also from 1995. What a movie!
Bertrand Tavernier R.I.P,
Dances With Wolves is the Ordinary People of its time. It's a perfectly good film on its own but because it beat out another movie for best picture (another Sorcesese movie just like Raging Bull) it's not remembered well. If it lost people would be praising it more.
If Apollo 13 wins for 1995 does that mean the academy doesn't feel the need to reward A Beautiful Mind later? Maybe Baz gets that Oscar nomination after all.
Dances With Wolves was one of my least favorite movies and winners. I remember looking around at my friends in the theater wanting to see if they were seeing what I was seeing. What a bunch of crock. And for me, it capped off the worst three year run of Oscar winners that I can recall. Nothing awful, just all mediocre.
Survey's hair in that picture always looks weird to me. Also 95 also had one of my favorites in Apollo 13, which Ron Howard should have won for but wasn' t even nominated, then he wouldn't have had to win in 2001.
Can someone explain time why Leaving Las Vegas wasn't up for pic. It had both leads, directing, writing nominations, all the big ones but somehow missed out.
I like the 1990 Oscars. It's one of those years that feels like a "my" year, if you know what I mean? Some years feel like a "my" year and others feel like a "not for me" year. I think that Reversal of Fortune should have been nominated for Best Picture. (I'm guessing it was close, given its other nominations.) I do think Dances with Wolves is a good film and a decent enough winner. But I have to say, I would vote for The Godfather Part III. Yes, it's flawed, but I think it's the most thought-provoking and the saddest film of the bunch.
@TomG: I agree with you, except that both Ordinary People and Dances with Wolves both have their passionate fans. Ordinary People (which is a favorite of mine) seems to have really aged particularly well; critics have noted that it was ahead of its time in exploring family dysfunction (see the anniversary piece Vanity Fair did on it about 5-6 years ago). I also have seen many online debates about whether or not Mary Tyler Moore's Beth really does hate her son (I still haven't made up my mind on that burning topic). I've no doubt Raging Bull is a far more innovative and adventurous piece of film, but Ordinary People has my heart. As for Dances with Wolves, I haven't seen it since 1990 and I figure it's about time for a rewatch/reassessment.
I'd rather watch Dances with Wolves again than Braveheart or A Beautiful Mind, so that's something in its favor.
@Cash-I might actually agree with you on that though I do like Braveheart despite its historical inaccuracies.
I just read Jessica Walters died. She was awesome.
That 1984 Original Song lineup is a killer. But the weakest tune in the bunch won. I love Stevie but the only time I want to hear I Just Called to Say I Love You is during his classic appearance on The Cosby Show.
@Rob Indeed. Ordinary People gets better with each passing year. With every screening, there are more layers to peel back, and I no longer seesaw on whether Beth is a villain or victim (yes, she can be both). Out of all the 80s Best Picture winners, it remains the most affecting and transcendent.
And Happy Heavenly Birthday to the one and only Queen of Soul, Miss Aretha Franklin, who almost saves The Blues Brothers movie with her hilarious cameo and awesome rendition of her own hit, "Think."
They really loved Audrey, right? I think she is a unique case, being nominated for romantic comedies three times out of five. While other actresses had to deglam and play dramatic roles. They didn't nominate her for My Fair Lady, her greatest success - which seemed unfair to me -, but soon the love returned and they gave her a new nomination. If she had continued to take her career seriously, with prestigious projects, surely other nominations would have come.
That 1984 Best Original Song lineup is amazing, though I agree with @NewMoonSon, the weakest of the crop won. “I Just Called to Say I Love You is sweet enough, but certainly not Stevie Wonder’s best. The Footloose songs are great, and while Ghostbusters isn’t the greatest song compositionally speaking (Huey Lewis might agree), it’s iconic and well used in the film. My pick is “Against All Odds,” which is one of my go to karaoke songs and would have given Phil his Oscar early on (so he might not have had the career win in 1999 over Randy Newman’s best nominated song, Aimee Mann, or “Blame Canada.”)
Miss these days when We knew the songs even before they were nominated. And they were all good.
Braveheart and Dances With Wolves were the type of film that AMPAS loved then. And they are good / very good depending on the taste of those who watch.
What happened with Marcia Gay Harden? Where's she?
Let's all agree that Susan Sarandon has Sharon Stone's Oscar on her shelf. Rewatched Casino recently and Stone is a tour de force, I wish the film was called "Ginger".
By the way: just love the 2001 winners, Julia's speech is still unbeatable and Gay-Harden surprising win was all the rage.
Babe is my #2 film of the 90s and my #1 Direction of the decade. Total, complete masterpiece and one of the very best films of all time.