MBN: The Monte Bubbles Network: Your news source on the web

 Oscar Coverage and Transcripts

Written by Joyce L Chow & William Hoehne March 5 2006

MBN

Montebubblism: It really is about the award not the honor of being nominated

The 78th Oscars is now on. Theme is Return to Glamour

Box Office down again

EDITORIAL: What is wrong with the feature film industry. 

Red Carpet now underway at 3pm PST

And the Awards go to :  Your list to keep track with.

Pat Tillman death to Be reopened

Opening computer generated bits from old motion pictures.

Then Billy Crystal and Chris Rock in Brokeback Mountain setting and Steve Martin, Whoopie Goldberg, David Letterman, Mel Gibson and finally Jon Stewart in bed with George Clooney being the only one willing to be the host of the show.

Then opening jokes by Stewart.

Film clips taken out of sequence making fun of Gay theme in westerns 

Nicole Kidman presents best supporting actor: Winner George Clooney - SYRIANA

Tom Hanks taped explaination on speaking to long. Music actually comes up behind him and poison darted to get him off stage.

Ben Stiller Visual Effects award comes out dressed in a green suit for green screen joke. KING KONG  WINNER

Reese Witherspoon Best Animated Feature: WALLACE & GROMMIT IN THE CURSE OF THE WERE-RABBIT

Naomi Watts first Best Song introduction  "Traveling Thru"  from TRANSAMERICA with Dolly Parton singing her own composition

Stewart talking like Tom Cruise, bad jokes.

Luke and Owen Wilson: Live Action Film Shorts: SIX SHOOTER

Chicken Little Abby Mallard present Best Animation Shorts:THE MOON AND THE SON:AN IMAGINED CONVERSATION

Jennifer Aniston presents based costume design: MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA

Will Farrell And Steve Corell presnet best make-up: THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA:THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE

Russell Crowe presents film clips on motion picture biographies

Jon Stewart make political jokes

Morgan Freeman Best Supporting Actress: Rachel Weisz -THE CONSTANT GARDENER

Film Noir with Lauren Bacall. Looks very old and having a problem speaking her lines, very sad as she shook on stage but hung in there like the pro she is.

Jon Stewart talk about how great they would have been in color and lobbying about films.

Terrance Howard presents Documentary Short Subjects: A NOTE OF TRIUMPH: THE GOLDEN AGE OF NORMAN CORWIN

Charlize Theron presents Feature Documentary award: MARCH OF THE PENGUINS

Jennifer Lopez presents Best Picture song from Crash "In the Deep"

Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock present Art Direction:  MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA

Samuel L. Jackson presents films that make you think.

Jon Stewart introduces the President of the Academy of Arts and Science talking about the art of story telling.

Selma Hayek music for orginal score: BROKEBACK MOUNTAINCATEGORY: LIVE ACTION SHORT

Jon Stewart pokes fun of music.

Jake Gyllenhaal larger then life motion pictures.

Jon Stewart making fun of clips.

Eric Bana and Jessica Alba present Sound Mixing: KING KONG

Special Award presented by Lilly Tomlim  and Meryl Streep present award to Robert Altman whom thanks everyone for his long and continuing career.

Jon Stewart iintruduces Chris Bridges to introduce the song Hustle and Flow

Queen Latifa presents the award for Best Song:"It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp" -HUSTLE & FLOW

Jon Stewart jokes about Hustle and Flow that they knew how to accept a Oscar and lobbing about sound editing.

Sound editing award presented by a very with child Jennifer Gardner: King Kong

George Clooney introduces those that were lost last year.

Will Smith presents best Foreign Language Film: SOPHIE SCHOLL - THE FINAL DAYS

Jon Stewart pokes fun at directors.

Film Editing award presented by Zhang Ziyi :CRASH

Hillary Swank presents Best Actor Award: Philip Seymour Hoffman - CAPOTE

Jon Stewart Bill Conte and band plug for applause.

John Travolta presents CINEMATOGRAPHY award:MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA

Jamie Fox presents best actress award: Reese Witherspoon - WALK THE LINE

Jon Stewart presents Dustin Hoffman

Dustin Hoffman presents Best Adaption to the Screen: BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN

Uma Thurman presents Best Screenplay: CRASH

Jon Stewart intro Tom Hanks.

Tom Hanks presents Best Director Award: Ang Le BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN

Jack Nicklson presents Best Picture: CRASH

Jon Stewart sign off.

CATEGORY: ACTOR IN SUPPORTING ROLE

INTERVIEW WITH: GEORGE CLOONEY

FILM: SYRIANA

Wow. Wow. All right, so I'm not winning director. It's the funny thing about winning an Academy Award, it will always be synonymous with your name from here on in. It will be Oscar winner, George Clooney. Sexiest Man Alive, 1997. Batman, died today in a freak accident at a -- Listen, I don't quite know how you compare art. You look at these performances this year, of these actors and unless we all did the same role, everybody put on a bat suit, and we'll all try that. Unless we all did the same role, I don't know how you compare it. They are stellar performances and wonderful work, and I'm honored, truly honored to be up here. And finally, I would say that, you know, we are a little bit out of touch in Hollywood every once in a while. I think it's probably a good thing. We're the ones who talk about AIDS when it was just being whispered, and we talked about civil rights when it wasn't really popular. And we, you know, we bring up subjects. This Academy, this group of people gave Hattie McDaniel an Oscar in 1939 when blacks were still sitting in the backs of theaters. I'm proud to be a part of this Academy, proud to be part of this community, and proud to be out of touch. And I thank you so much for this.

CATEGORY: COSTUME DESIGN
INTERVIEW WITH: Colleen Atwood
FILM: "MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA" 


Thank you all very much. Oh, so many people to thank for making this film. It was an effort that circled the globe, and came together here in Los Angeles. Thanks to Sony Pictures who were brave enough to make a movie about a woman. Fantastic. Thank you very much to Rob Marshall, my
fantastic director, whose vision I only share. To my amazing daughters who are with me here tonight. To my team of people who really kept it together for me, Cheryl, Christine, and Colleen. And to the most beautiful cast anybody could ever dream of dressing. And most of all, to the
people of Japan, who gave me so much knowledge and grace. Thank you.
 

CATEGORY: LIVE ACTION SHORT INTERVIEW WITH: Martin McDonagh FILM: "SIX SHOOTER”

Hi. I'd just like to thank everybody who was involved in the film, especially Brendan Gleeson and Ruaidhri Conroy. And Ruaidhri, I'm sorry that you couldn't be here tonight, but I hope next time if they let you into the country. I'd like to say hi to my mom and dad back in Ireland. And, a big hello to everyone involved with Lieutenant of Inishmore in Atlantic, New York. Thanks.

CATEGORY: ACHIEVEMENT IN VISUAL EFFECTS

INTERVIEW WITH: Joe Letteri, Brian Van't Hul, Christian Rivers and Richard Taylor

FILM: "KING KONG"

JOE LETTERI: Thank you. This is tremendous. For those of us who aren't actors it's really a thrill to be able to create a character and a performance like Kong. But I've got to say we had a great actor working with us the whole time to show us how it's done. I've got to thank Andy Serkis for really giving us the heart of Kong, thank you. Peter Jackson, Peter, thank you for continuing to surprise us, and delight us, guide us, and for making films that we all love. Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens thank you for giving us this incredible story, to our producers Carol Cunningham, Jan Blenkin, Eileen Moran, Annette Wullens thank you for keeping it all together. To everyone at WETA, just a fantastic group of artists, we loved working with you, thanks for your dedication and to all of our friends at Universal, thank you for making it all happen.

CATEGORY: ANIMATED SHORT
INTERVIEW WITH: John Canemaker and Peggy Stern
FILM: "THE MOON AND THE SON: AN IMAGINED CONVERSATION" 


John: Peggy and I thank the Academy for this great honor. And also for your faith in hand-drawn animation, which still can pack an emotional wallop. I want to thank my brother and sister Tony and Kathleen Cannizzaro. My talented life partner, Joseph Kennedy. Sheila Nevins, and Jackie
Glover at HBO. Ron Sadoff's music, David Mehlman's wonderful editing. And all my students and colleagues at NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Peg?

Peggy: Thank you to Eli Wallach and John Turturro for your sensitive vocal performances. Thank you to my brother Tom Stern, and my husband Alan Ruskin. And to those of you who are moms and juggle working in this business, you'll understand my tremendous thank you to my children, Ben and Emma, and my mom, Joanne Stern. Thanks.

CATEGORY: ANIMATED FEATURE FILM INTERVIEW WITH: Nick Park and Steve Box FILM: "WALLACE & GROMIT IN THE CURSE OF THE WERE-RABBIT"

Nick: Oh. Actually, we've got a little thing, just to match the old bow ties for coordination. We just happened to bring them along, just in case. Just want to give a great big thank you to Helena Bonham Carter, and particularly to Peter Sallis who has been the voice of Wallace. He's here tonight, ladies and gentlemen at the Oscars. He's been the voice of Wallace for the last 23 years and you've been an absolute gem, Peter and you've sparkled all the way. Also, thank you to Jeffrey Katzenberg and to Dreamworks, who also sparkle, and have been a great support to this very personal film of ours. And the whole crew back in Bristol, England at Aardman Animations thank you so much you're great. And a little message from Steve. Steve: Somebody once said if you make a bad film, you make it alone. If you make a great film, everybody made it with you. We all made it together, guys. Steve & Nick: Cracking cheese, Gromit.

CATEGORY: BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
INTERVIEW WITH: GEORGE CLOONEY
FILM: "Syriana" 

MR. CLOONEY:  Hi everybody. 

Q. Hey, George.  Ted from ETV.  Congratulations? 
A. I know Ted.  Where is the tie? 

Q. [Oh|Owe], you have it.  You stole it last night, right?
A. That's true.

Q. On that note, since this is the night [have|of] gay chic.  If you had to direct yourself in a gay love story, what would it be?  And the world wants to know, are you or are you not dating Teri Hatcher? 
A. Right off the bat.  Thank you for those important [confess|questions|question].  I've been to dinner with you.  Shame, shame on you.  The answers are a sequel to Batman would be the gay thing, and I never talk about my personal life other than that.  How is that?  Is that okay?

Q. Congratulations? 
A. Thanks, bud.

Q. Mr. Clooney, hello.  Listen, I think you touched on this when you made [your|you're] acceptance, but let's be clear about it.  [It's|Its] long been considered that art does not push forward culture, it reflects culture.  Is it possible this year that what we're seeing is really
where [occur|our] nation is going, it's just that the more sensitive artistic people have picked up on it?
A. I don't even know that we're all that ahead [have|of] the curve.  We usually take a couple [have|of] years to do things.  Last year, you know, Rwanda story is a ten year old story.  I think what's important is that we are starting now to reflect two years later some [have|of] the
social and political issues that are, for the first time, probably since Watergate concerning us and we're talking about them.  And then films start to reflect that a couple years later.  It won't last very long, but done this on and off.  We did it in the 30's, we did it in the 50's, we certainly did it in the 60's and 70's and we'll probably continue to do that, which is reflect society, not truly lead it.

Q. Mr. Clooney, back here.  Did you   
A. Mr. Clooney.

Q. Did you intend to be uplifting up there, an uplifting inspirational speech?  Was that sort of a plan or did it come over you?
A. Well, it was a little thing I was working on for the BAFTAs so I saved it up.  When Jon Stewart, who I adore, was making pretty funny jokes    and you know, listen, you all know this, you hear this every day how out of touch Hollywood is and you go, well, maybe, but sometimes that's a
good thing along the way.  No, I didn't really work on anything, except that I thought that [may be|maybe] there were four other actors who were probably going to [within|win].  So [it's|its] strange.

Q. Congratulations? 
A. Thanks.  And you look very nice.

Q. Thank you.  Tuxedos do wonders. 
A. Some people wear ties.

Q. George, you gained a lot [have|of] [weight|wait] for this role.  Do you think that was really a factor, they say that the Academy  
A. Loves fat people, is that what you're saying? 

Q. No, but they like thin actors that get fat for roles.  You made a joke, I guess this means I'm not going to [within|win] best director.  Do you think this is one for three?  It is all settled?  You don't
[have|of] any hope in [your|you're] heart for what's to come?

A. Listen, we all do this.  We all [have|of] these little games where you fill out the things where they say we'll give him this for that and we'll do that and he won't get that because he gets this.  So I just thought I would articulate that moment.  What was the other part of your question?  I don't know.  To me the gentleman that I was playing in the [move|movie], Bob Baer, when I first took the role was sort of pudgy and, you know, out of shape and I thought that was probably a good thing, and then he found out the Hollywood guy was playing him and he got in shape.  So it kind of screwed the whole thing up for me.  So I don't know [when|whether] it matters or not.  I think it's a good part.  I think.

Q. Mr. Clooney, in the unlikely event this is [your|you're] only appearance down here tonight, I would like to ask you about Good Night, and Good Luck in the sense in terms [have|of] distribution there is this theory being promulgated that these films like Good Night, and Good Luck
are out of the mainstream, and what I'm wondering is, do you think that there is any credence to that theory or is it a matter of accessibility and the fact that Good Night, and Good Luck at its peek is playing at 450 theatres perhaps and Big Momma's House II comes out and plays 3,000
theaters all at once, the simple fact that people in the heartland have a hard time getting to some [have|of] these films because they only play in the art houses? 
A. There are films that are designed to [open|ownership] on 3,500 screens and there aren't.  Good Night, and Good Luck would not [have|of] done a huge amount more of business.  It still did over $30 million bucks for a black and white film period piece, which I think is [okay|observing].  Marty won in the 50's.  You know, this is not an industry that says, "Okay, there has to be about big business or big budget."  In fact, I think the beauty [have|of] the Academy is that it finds little
moments to say, let's talk about these films and let's talk about things that maybe the rest of the mainstream doesn't get a chance to see at the time.

Q. So do you think this is a bum rap to say that these are out of the mainstream liberal films?
A. They might be out of the mainstream at times, but mainstream keeps changing.  These two films would [have|of] been the dead center in the middle [have|of] the main stream in 1976.
ACADEMY REP:  I'm sorry he has to go.

Q. ETV from Taiwan, so I have to ask you these [confess|questions|question].  Tell us from [your|you're] professional point [have|of] view what do you think [have|of] Brokeback Mountain and Ang Lee?
A. Is this about Ang Lee? 

Q. Yes?
A. Let me tell you something right now.  I don't like that guy.  I've [scene|seen] him a lot, I've been spent a lot [have|of] time with him.  I caught him stealing at the last awards show.  So you take that home and you tell everyone.  I'm very proud to be even in a game with those
guys.  There's three first time directors on this and then there is Steven Spielberg and Ang Lee.  So I'm just    to put my name on that card. 

Congratulations to him.

CATEGORY: LIVE ACTION SHORT
INTERVIEW WITH: Martin McDonagh
FILM: "SIX SHOOTER" 



Q. Congratulations.  You didn't think you would make it in here.
A. We didn't think we would make it period.

Q. Congratulations. 
A. Thank you.

Q. You're a noted historian and teacher and filmmaker, yet this film is more of a documentary, as was last year's winner, Ryan.  What is your perspective of that as a historian now?  Are you starting a trend?  Is this something that may be continuing?  What impact do you think this
has?
A. I think it's pointing towards the future in which independent visions are going to become more and more prominent as technology is more available to a wider selection of artists.  You're going to see more personal stories, sort of a niche kind of, you know, type of filmmaking done, and I think it's going to bode well for the future of animation.

Q. Are you going to be speed up the process now on going onto your next film?  You said you were going to take a hiatus?
A. I think we would like to do another film.  I'm not sure what it would be, but perhaps another personal story. John and I have working using documentary and animation before so it's really wonderful to see a film like this get recognition because I think more and more people want to use animation in different ways.

Q. Congratulations. 
A. Thank you.

Q. I'm wondering if you're finding with so many cable channels with Cartoon Network and so many outlets now that are looking for programming that your film is being seen more than animated shorts were seen in the past?
A. Definitely.  I mean, we had    especially getting the nomination.  I mean, the nomination opens up doors even without winning.  It's really exciting.  Like Magnolia Films, who really are working to get short films, both the dramatic and the animation has been in theaters all over the country for the past two weeks thanks to Magnolia doing distributions.  So I think that's just a lot more opportunities.  And iTunes is launching the films that way.  So it's incredible what we can hope to see more of in the future. 

CATEGORY: VISUAL EFFECTS
INTERVIEW WITH: JOE LETTERI, BRIAN VAN'T HUL, CHRISTIAN RIVERS
FILM: "KING KONG" 



Q. Hi, guys.  Back here. 
A. Okay.

Q. David Cohen, from Variety. Congratulations. 
A. Thanks. 

Q. For those of us that grew up visual effects fans, looks like the most fun job on the face of the planet. 
A. Yeah.

Q. Is it?  Can you talk about that a little bit?
A. What's great about it is it's sort of like an incredible variety because every time you have to do something, you have to immerse yourself in it.  For Kong, we have to learn the history of New York.  We have to learn all about gorillas in the wild, learn about the history of the film itself.  You sort of take all that and you get to do it in as big a way as possible.  It's hard to ask for anything more.  It's also celebration of the geeks in the world which is a good thing.
 
Q. Christopher Hartz for Visual Effects World Magazine.  Congratulations. 
A. Cheers to you.  Thanks for all the support.

Q. You guys used pre visualization to a great extent to plan everything out very carefully beforehand.  Was there anything real surprising that ran that you ran into or that ran into you? 
A. You know, I think what was most amazing about it was the fact that where in the past visual effects had been considered post  production, now with so much reliance in previews, in planning the film, we're actually there right at the beginning even as the script is being written to
develop the ideas and the story.  Chris, maybe can speak to that a bit. We were there before the script was written.  We were actually there before Peter and Fran actually started pre vissing (sic) and involved Peter, Fran, and Phillipa started writing the script for a lot of key action sequences.  So, it's becoming a lot more of an integrated part of the film making process rather than post production. 

Q. Jackie    Below The Line News you did all this in King Kong.  It was so incredible.  What are we going to see 10 years from now? 
A. You know, it's hard to say because again it's always just driven by the story.  I mean, that    that page gives you the canvas that you get to start with and until you know what the story is, you don't know what you are going to be putting on the screen. As visual effects technicians, all we want is a beautiful and compelling story.  The technique actually places second to it.  So in the case
of King Kong, that gave us that ingredient, but going forward, that's obviously what we are dreaming of for the next project.  In 10 years, I think we will see Peter's directors cut on DVD.

Q. Over here.  Hi, congratulations. 
A. Thank you. 

Q. New Zealand.  Richard, this is your fifth award, and part for the Lord of Rings trilogy.  So, was it good to have another one under the belt and what happens to them now? 
A. They go back to WETA, to be shared with all of the technicians.  None of the awards are at home.  They are all on the shelves so the guys can take them home and have them with their families and enjoy them.  And this is an important Oscar for our company because we were caught up in the phenomenon of Lord of Rings, but this Oscar says we are part of the industry.  We are here to stay, and we have got a lot still to offer, and that's a good thing to be. 

Q. And you are confident the industry is still strong Down Under?
A. I would like to think so.  A lot of really amazing up and coming directors.  We are working on a small splatter movie at the moment called Black Sheep right down to our Brain Dead days, but the industry is sound because there's an amazing community of film makers in New Zealand
that want to keep making an incredible product.

Q. Congratulations. 
A. Thank you.

Q. Hi guys.  Mario here.  Congratulations.  I was actually watching my Two Towers DVD, section on Gallum, and the pre Andy Serkis Gollum as opposed to the post Andy Serkis Gollum gives me a new appreciation for what he must have brought to the role of Kong.  With more and more
characters coming up and major parts, layers in the movies.  How crucial is this going to be to have somebody like Andy or any other actor like that contributing and working with you guys to create these characters? 
A. It's an amazing, you know, asset to have because what an actor brings to it is years of training in their craft in kind of understanding spontaneously how to react to a given situation and just having someone to work with and talk that through.  Andy did a lot of Kong, but he couldn't do all of it.  A lot of it came back to us to figure out on our own, but because Andy set the blueprints for it, we knew what he was thinking, and how he might carry that through that gave us the character. 
It's like writing a character in a novel.  Once you get started, that character takes on a life of his own, and he will really gave us that. Christian. Just to mention, really, Joe and Christian who put Kong together with their team, I think what's worthy of note with this if I am that is certainly worth commenting on is this is the first time a digital character has risen to a level of performance that's    that's got an audience to a point that they cry, that they can empathize with this character,
that means cinema    digital cinema has a bright future.  We can form a relationship with a digital characters on the screen utilize the likes of Andy Serkis, but it's all relative to the performances of the actors around them.  If Naomi hadn't given such a performance,Kong would have
been nothing.  So it's an amazing amalgam of traditional and modern day techniques. 

Q. Hi.  Sara Basely (sic) from Animation World Network.  You did it in Lord Of Rings with the collaboration of the performer and the green screen.  And now in King Kong, do you see this as a growing trend in movies the collaboration of performers and visual effects artists for
upcoming movies?
A. Yes.  If you look at the last four years with the Two Towers and Return Of The King with I,Robot they used an actor in the same mold.  And now with Kong.  I know, it has    it has real validity.  Something has been working to create really great performances it's where you want
that to be.  It's like I was saying earlier, we are so blessed because we can pull from all these different things to make it work.  So if you are creating a character in a performance why not pull from what an actor knows.  I mean that is the heart of it    that's what we are all trying
to learn is to how to tell these stories on the screen.  That's goes back to traditional filmmaking and, you know, we are just sort of learning that craft. 
A. Thank you everyone. 
A. I'm Joe Lettieri.  Brian Van't Hul.  Christian Rivers and Richard
Taylor. 

CATEGORY: MAKEUP
INTERVIEW WITH: Howard Berger and Tami Lane
FILM: "THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE" 


HOWARD BERGER: Well, I'm just glad that Clooney doesn't do makeup. So it worked out well. This is really an amazing life. It all started when I was a little boy and my mother read me "Where the Wild Things Are" by Maurice Sendak and at that point I knew I wanted to go live with the
monsters. Real quick I want to thank Disney, Mark Johnson, Walden Media, Cary Granat, Perry Moore, my partners in crime at K.N.B effects group, Robert Kurtzman and Gregory Nicotero. Everyone that was there with me through the journey a year and a half of this magnificent project. My Aslan, Andrew Adamson, my inspiration, Kelsey Travis and Jake, my best friend, Sandy. Rick Baker, Dick Smith, Stan Winston, Richard Taylor, Danny Striepeke, and I want to dedicate this to my parents Kenneth and Susan Berger, right now I know they're looking down upon me and saying
we're proud of you that you're living with the monsters and running through the forest with the wild things. Thank you. 

CATEGORY: ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
INTERVIEW WITH: Rachel Weisz
FILM: "THE CONSTANT GARDENER" 


Thank you so much to the Academy for this tremendous, tremendous honor. I share it with others, Ralph Fiennes my luminous acting partner. Fernando Meirelles our director who is brimming over with such humanity and our dignified sensitive producer, Simon Channing Williams, and of
course, John le Carré, who wrote this unflinching, angry story. And he really paid tribute to the people who are willing to risk their own lives to fight injustice. And they're greater men and women than I. But thank you, thank you so much. Thank you.

CATEGORY: DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
INTERVIEW WITH: Luc Jacquet and Yves Darondeau
FILM: "MARCH OF THE PENGUINS" 



Luc: [whistles] It means, thank you in penguins. I'd like to dedicate this statuette to all the children in the world who saw that movie. In 2041, they will decide to ruin you or not, the treaty that protects Antartica. I will, maybe, the "March of the Penguins" will inspire them.
Sorry for my English.

Yves: Looking out on these tuxedos tonight, it's like seeing the movie again. Thank you for this homage. Thank you very much. Goodbye. Thank you. Thank you.

CATEGORY: ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
INTERVIEW WITH: RACHEL WEISZ
FILM: "THE CONSTANT GARDENER" 


Q. I'm right here, Rachel.  Congratulations.  I'm from Brazil, Buenos Aires.  I would like to know if you had a second guess of working for a relatively unknown Latin American director or on the other hand if it was a draw for you to work in this movie?  And second question, also, how many awards    how many awards so far?
A. I thought you meant how many months am I.  To answer the first part of the your question, I had seen City of God and I think that's one of the most extraordinary pieces of filmmaking I'd ever seen in my life, so when I knew he was directing The Constant Gardener I chased him for
this role.  I pursued him, and he's an incredible filmmaker and it was an honor to work with him. 

Q. And how many awards?
A. Well, I won the Golden Globe and the Screen Actors Guild for best supporting actress.

Q. Will all of them be lined up?  Where will you keep them?
A. Gosh, I don't know.  I don't know.  I've got  there's many places for them.  Yeah, I don't know.

Q. Congratulations? 
A. Thank you. 

Q. Constant Gardener, Good Night, Brokeback, tough films.  Make the audiences work a lot, great for award seasons, but do they make commercial sense? 
A. Well, none of them cost a lot of money to make and they all made their budgets back and more.  I think I'm right in saying.  So none of them were commercial upsets.  They didn't cost a hundred million dollars and they didn't need to earn back a hundred million dollars.  They were
small to medium budget movies.  So if that answers your question? 

Q. People are saying this is a return to the Golden era of the 1970s?
A. I hope so.

Q. Do you think it's nice to be part of that, if it's true?
A. It's definitely nice to be a part of a moment where fiction is holding a mirror up to contemporary culture and asking questions about what's going on.  In the case of Good Night, and Good Luck it's a historical piece, but it certainly made me think when I watched it what's changed, you know, in a funny way.  Anyway, I won't get into that right now.

Q. Congratulations.  Rachel?
A. Sounds like Baz    I can't see you.

Q. Well done. 
A. Thank you.

Q. Hi, darling.  Tell me, any little kicks in the tummy when you went up on stage?
A. You know, with the lead up to that, the adrenaline, the baby was going crazy.  Poor baby.  It was kicking around, but once I went onto the stage I think it's so overwhelming that I couldn't even    I couldn't even    I couldn't have hardly told you my name.  So I didn't feel anything when I was up on stage.

Q. Well done. 
A. Thank you.

Q. Rachel, congratulations.  Sandy Kenyon for (unintelligible) radio.  What were you thinking the moment they called your name?
A. Gosh, my brain is    I think it's because I'm pregnant my brain is a bit like porridge.  Anyway, I think I was a big blank.  I don't think    I really don't think I was thinking anything at all.  It's a very surreal, strange, strange feeling.  I was just feeling kind of   just very strange.

Q. Has it kicked in that your life has changed yet?
A. No.  No.  Definitely not.  No. 

Q. Rachel, hello.  How are you?
A. Nice to see you.

Q. As the camera took a picture of you, when your name was announced, the gentleman next to you whispered something into your ear.  What did he say to you? 
A. Gosh, I'm not using the pregnant thing as an excuse, but I don't know.  Did he? 

Q. He kissed you and he whispered something right in your ear?
A. When I won you mean? 

Q. Yeah? 
A. Oh, I love you.  He said I love you.  Yeah, that I remember.  He
says it often, but it was    I remember.

Q. Hello Rachel over here?
A. Hello.

Q. I don't know whether you've had any thoughts of naming your child yet, but would there be a possibility of Oscar?
A. There are a few names that we've    we don't know if it's a boy or a girl, so we had to think of a little more, but Oscar isn't amongst them, for sure. 

Q. Can I ask you as well, how will you be celebrating tonight?
A. Going to go to the Governors' Ball afterwards, and then going to the Vanity Fair party.  Let's see how long I last.  I might have to put some flat shoes on.  You know, I'm like the Virgin Mary.

Q. Congratulations? 
A. Hello.  It's very blinding here.

Q. Congratulations.  First of all, and then I'd like to ask you, having this kind of aura that you might be the front runner going into this, did that make you a little more nervous perhaps?
A. Definitely.  Definitely.  Of course I've been told by people that I'm not    I don't know about gambling, but the odds    they didn't make sense to me, the odds, but I was told I had good odds, but no, that makes it    because you just never know I mean Adrian Brody won, and his odds were terrible.  You just never know.  In a way it was probably made it a little more nerve wracking, because everyone kept saying, you have good odds.

Q. Hi, Rachel.  You've done cleanup in the awards season this year.  I'm just curious, is there anything you carry with you as you've kind of gone through this?  Is there something you have to have with you as good luck?  And the other half of this is, where do you go from here when
you've been to the top?  What's next?
A. In answer to your first question, the thing is when you go to the ceremony, it's too late for luck because the votes have been cast, the die is cast, so it's kind of a democratic process.  It's too late for luck.  So I don't have anything that I bring with me to bring good luck, if you see what I mean.  Democracies    anyway, do all sorts of funny things sometimes you never know what way you go and where do you go from here?  I don't know, as I've just got here I don't know I really don't
know how to answer that yet.  I just    I don't know.  I'm next on having a baby, so that's next for me there.

Q. Just to say two things, first of all, is this one in the eye for BAFTA?
A. Absolutely not.  Absolutely not.  As you know, in England, the BAFTAs first of all decided to put me in the best actress category, against Miss Witherspoon, I think, she absolutely deserves the Best Actress prize.  So absolutely not.  And again, it's a democratic process.  It's not luck.  It's a group of people who voted, and they vote for who they think is best.  So I don't think it's    no, I don't think so.

Q. And also, who do you think will win Best Actress tonight?
A. Well, I mean, gosh, I really wouldn't really like to say.  As I mentioned, I think Miss Witherspoon's performance was absolutely tremendous, but I'm not a member of the Academy.  Next year I get to vote, but I haven't been able to vote yet.

Q. Thank you very much and congratulations. 
A. Thank you.



CATEGORY: ANIMATED FEATURE
INTERVIEW WITH: NICK PARK AND STEVE FOX
FILM: "WALLACE & GROMIT IN THE CURSE OF THE WERE RABBIT" 


Q. Best animated feature film of the year.

Q. Hello, guys, over here.  Waving at you.  Hello?
A. Hi.

Q. Okay.  Hello, THIS is Katie Bale (sic) from IRN in the U K.  Guys, you've been coming here and you look good.  You've done these so many times (inaudible). 
A. I mean, you can never really tell.  I mean, we knew we had a one in three chance.  But it's a, this is, the first time actually other three Oscars we've got are for Best Short Animated film.  This is our first one for full length feature, so it's a new one for both of us.

Q. What does it mean, is it special, this first?
A. Absolutely.  You get just as nervous, probably even more.

Q. Thank you. 
A. Thank you.

Q. I'd just like to know.  You had a terrible fire that destroyed your studios.  Can you tell me how you're coming back from that?  And then what are your plans now for the next film? 
A. Well, the great thing was the studio itself was not damaged.  It was a fire that burnt down a lot of memorabilia that we keep in the warehouse.  And it was four and a half million dollars worth of stuff gone (memoriabilia from the short films).  And it was but, and Gromit are and chicken run.  And it was sad but, you know, these things happen.  And it was very touching just to see how the English and the people around the world actually treated us as a great loss.  And I didn't realize it was very valuable to people, so it was very touching.

Q. Hi, (unintellible) from BBC news world? Congratulations.
A. Oh, thank you.

Q. It was really nice to hear.  And what next are you going to do?  What are you filming? 
A. Well, I think, you know, Wallace and Gromit are Nick's children really.  He's the one to answer that question. 

But, you know, Nick has always been generous enough to invite me to work with Wallace and Gromit, and we're forever thinking of new idea so they're going to go on forever.  Soon isn't a word you apply to animation.  You're looking at animation in five years' time.

Q. What do you think your win means for the British film industry?
A. It's a great boost, you know, to be a    just to be treated, you know, in the animated feature category as a proper film.  I think from the earliest days we wanted to make movies.  Short films and feature films (unintelligible) with Wallace and Gromit actually come here and win.  It's just amazing.  You know, I mean, to us, it is movies, all our references are from the real movies and from movie history.

Q. Duncan Kennedy from BBC television news.  What is it about this film so quintessentially British that travels around the world and makes it a success?
A. I think, you know, I think Nick's great invention was Gromit and because he's a character that doesn't speak.  You know, it just translates to any language; it's universal.  And, you know, Nick and I are great fans of silent moments in films and so many films these days seems to be
full of wise cracking comedians desperate to keep their job almost.  So, you know, whether people are, you know, they can experience the film through Gromit eyes on a kind of deeper level almost; it rises above words.

Q. Comedy is comedy?
A. Yeah, I mean, the great thing about animation is timing.  You can be really controlling about the timing.  Yeah, comedy is universal.  You know, Gromit is silent.  He doesn't have a mouth, but he gets all the best lines.

Q. Congratulations.  Hi, Jeanne Wolf from movies.com.  You know what the Oscars are really about.  Like who are you wearing?  We want to hear about the ties.  And soon is not a word you use for animation.  You certainly could go in the tie manufacturing business so we need explanation on the ties and how, you know, the guts to bring those little ties to the Oscars?
A. We didn't know we're going to wear these ties.  We should have called each other first.  The top fashion designer Paul Smith in the U.K.. He designed them for us and made them for us.

Q. And did you have those little guys in your pocket?
A. Yeah.  Actually, my wife made these when we're over here waiting. It was kind of a last minute idea.  We were very nervous about it because we know how sacred the Oscars are.  So we thought, what the heck.

Q. Congratulations, press.  Japanese Inquirer, could you tell us about what you think of fellow nominees, director Miyazaki Hayao, director, Tim Burton and Mr. Bach?
A. Yeah.  I mean, we're really up with the giants this year.  It was really   we couldn't really predict who might get up there tonight.  I mean, we've always been big admirers of Mr. Miyazaki's work.  He's respected in the world let alone Japan.  And so incredibly just privileged to be nominated with them, really.

Q. Congratulations.  Kind of off that question, we all hear about 3D animation these days.  What does it mean to you that the Academy chose to nominate a two dimensional animated film and two stop motion features?
A. You know, I think, I mean, I hope that, you know, what matters most of all is the films that are entertaining and well made.  And but, you know, maybe there is a kind of a message there, you know, the hand crafted, more unique, more unusual kind of [all] films are important, you know, the original one, say I hope there's a message from the Academy there.  The three films it's hard to say yourself are beautiful and very unique.  And maybe the CGI films this year just didn't hit that mark.  I think any technique is fine.  It's just a different tool to use. 
It's how well you use it, really.
A. We're big admirers of CGI films.  I'm glad Pixar didn't have a movie out this year.

Q. Thank you very much, congratulations? 
A. Can you.
A. I'm Nick Park and this is Steve Box.

CATEGORY: ART DIRECTION
INTERVIEW WITH: John Myhe 
FILM: "MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA" 


Q. You made a reference to Gretchen not being here.  Why isn't she here?
A. Gretchen is unfortunately having serious health issues right now, and I'd rather let her family talk about that.  I think that would be more appropriate.

Q. Jack Kegan (sic) with Below the Line. 
A. Hello, Jack.

Q. Tell me how you absorbed Japan.  You had never been there before you started prepping for this movie?
A. Well, it was a dream to go to Japan.  And the moment I got off the plane.  I just completely fell in love.  I loved the book so much. Arthur Goldman's beautiful book is so rich in detail.  And everywhere we would look in Japan would be these fantastic details from small little flowers painted to huge pagodas, so it was a dream come true.  It was a real pleasure.

Q. I was wondering you mentioned in your acceptance speech and we've had some traffic back here, we didn't hear.  But you talked about Gretchen, could you tell us a little bit?
A. Well, Gretchen Rau, our decorator, fantastic, one of the best people in the world.  I've been lucky enough to work with her a couple of times.  She's been having some serious health issues right now.  And as I said before, I think it's probably more appropriate to let her family
speak of that.

Q. Do you think she's watching the show tonight?
A. Oh, I guarantee you, she's watching the show.  Yes.  I'm sure it was very  I hope it was very noisy at her house tonight

CATEGORY: ART DIRECTION
INTERVIEW WITH: John Myhre and Gretchen Rau
FILM: "MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA" 



Well, thank you very, very much. I'm really lucky to share this award tonight with a really lovely, lovely woman, our set decorator, Gretchen Rau, who unfortunately couldn't be with us here tonight. She asked me to read a little note. Gretchen wishes she could be here with all of you. She thanks everyone. In the films she's collaborated with in work and her life. She loves you all. Gretchen, our thoughts and prayers are with you tonight. I'm sure Gretchen would also like to thank our brilliant
director, Rob Marshall, because this really is his movie. Every single frame of it. So thank you for letting us be part of that. And I want to thank my team, my whole crew, led by the team of Tomas Voth, John Hoskins, Clyde Zimmerman, thank you very much. And thank you to my agent,
Sandra Marsh who got me here. Thank you.


CATEGORY: DOCUMENTARY SHORT
INTERVIEW WITH: Corinne Marrinan and Eric Simonson
FILM: "A NOTE OF TRIUMPH: THE GOLDEN AGE OF NORMAN CORWIN" 


Eric: Attention must be paid, indeed. I'd like to dedicate this award to Norman Corwin, I hope you're watching tonight and I hope your words last forever. I'd like to thank Sheila Nevins, I'd like to thank my wife, Susie, and my producing partner here, Corinne Marrinan.

Corinne: Thank you, Eric. We'd also like to thank our families, mothers, fathers, Amy. Mark Herzog, and HBO, thank you very much. And I'd like to thank the Academy for seating me next to George Clooney at the Nominees Luncheon.

CATEGORY: ORIGINAL SCORE
INTERVIEW WITH: GUSTAVO SANTAOLALLA
FILM: "BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN" 


Thank you so much, members of the Academy. I'm so proud to have work in this movie "Brokeback Mountain." A movie that once again showed us that love is what makes us all very similar, in spite that we can be so different. I want to thank a few people. I want to thank Ang Lee for his vision, his support, his guidance. I want to thank Diana Ossana, Larry McMurtry, Annie Proulx for their inspiration. James Schamus, and David Linde, everybody at Focus. Kathy Nelson. Robert Messinger at First Artists, my coproducer and brother Anibal Kerpel. My orchestrater, David
Campbell, Bob Bernstein, Ron Goldstein. I want to thank my family, my wife Alejandra, my kids Anna, Luna and Don Juan, and last but not least, I want to dedicate this to my mother, a mi madre, to my country, Argentina, and to all the latinos. Para todos Latinos, muchas gracias, thank
you.

CATEGORY: DOCUMENTARY FEATURE INTERVIEW WITH: Luc Jacquet and Yves Darondeau FILM: "MARCH OF THE PENGUINS" 

 Luc: [whistles] It means, thank you in penguins. I'd like to dedicate this statuette to all the children in the world who saw that movie. In 2041, they will decide to ruin you or not, the treaty that protects Antartica. I will, maybe, the "March of the Penguins" will inspire them. Sorry for my English. Yves: Looking out on these tuxedos tonight, it's like seeing the movie again. Thank you for this homage. Thank you very much. Goodbye. Thank you. Thank you.

CATEGORY: BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE INTERVIEW WITH: LUC JACQUET, YVES DARONDEAU, CHRISTOFE LIOUD FILM: "MARCH OF THE PENGUINS"

Q. Wonderful penguins. If you do a sequel to this film, considering how cold it is in Antarctica, will you instead use a green screen and computer generated snow? A. I don't think so. We like the cold. We like very much the cold. So if we make maybe one sequel, maybe one day, which will be in real ice.

Q. (French). A. (French). Q. (French). A. (French).

Q. Sorry to be rude and keep quoting French, but (French)? A. (French.)

Q. (French). A. (French).

Q. Those are nice penguins. Did you win them like at a carnival? A. Our distributor in Japan made them for us for good luck and they are right, because we had a lot of good luck tonight.

Q. Congratulations. What do you think it means that one of the most what do you think it means that one of the most successful movies this year didn't involve human beings? What do you think it means about the future of cinema? A. I don't think it's a question of human beings or not. It's a question of interesting good story, I would say refreshing story. And with our films, small documentary, you can touch the hearts of millions of people, and you don't need to have special effects or naked women or violence to do such a thing. So I think that means that people are not stupid, and they look at the film and (untintelligible) and are interested in it.

Q. (French) I'm going to ask the question actually in French and English. So, if you could answer in French and then in English, that would be great. There are many versions of the song. I know American is March of the Penguins. The music has changed. It's not English anymore, but it's Alex Wurman. There's a Japanese version. How did it work to make it such a phenomenon all around the world and have like different version? A. (French). A. In English now. There are only two versions of the film; one is original French version with three voices symbolizing the male penguin, female penguin, baby penguins. Different sound track with music. (Inaudible) National Geographic film to release the film in the U.S. we thought for American audience, it would be better to have one, I would say, classical type of narration. And choose Morgan Freeman, which is great he did a great, great job on this film, and we change the music because maybe the music was a bit risky for the American market I would say, but the rest of the world, Japan, China, India and all Europe, except U.K., it's the original music and three voices. And we and this music won yesterday night in Paris, we were not there, they won the best music for feature film in France.

Q. Congratulations. When you were talking about the two versions then will there ever be a chance for Americans to see the original French version with it and was anything changed visually in the film? Were there cuts made? Is it the exact same length and exact same visual thing. Only the music and narration has been changed? A. The film is only three minutes shorter. They just cut one moment with the predation of the big bird killing the baby penguins, but it is exactly the same edit except three minutes shorter, but we hope, we would love to show the original version to the American public, and I'm sure that some people could like it too. So maybe now we have the Oscar, then we show the film in this original version here in the U.S.

Q. Did you see the version of Brokeback Penguin? And what did you think of it? A. I don't want to make a lecture about the breeding process about Brokeback Penguins. There is not only one model in the nature, there are many, many model of the nature, they do not read the nature of the model with our way of the nature. So don't worry about the Brokeback Penguins.

CATEGORY: SOUND EDITING INTERVIEW WITH: MIKE HOPKINS AND ETHAN VAN DER RYN FILM: "KING KONG"

Q. King Kong has won three awards tonight. You've worked actually your fellow nominees, Oscar winners, were watching you as you won your award and got to kiss Jennifer Garner out here. A. That was fun.

Q. How much do you attribute the fact you guys worked together so much on the Lord of the Rings and so forth to the success you are having now? A. Well I I think it's actually pretty important for the last I think it's quite important. Over the last four films, we were the same team and were a very tight, sort of cohesive unit. We are all respond well to some pressure. It's like a well oiled machine and Ethan and I are incredibly proud of the work our team does. And when something big happens, major changes, whatever, there's no drama. The team knows exactly what to do. We all get like an obligatory three minutes to piss and whine about it, and then we just go on. Q. Is it satisfying after the success of Lord of the Rings, too, to prove it wasn't a one time thing? A. Absolutely. Absolutely. You want to add to this? A. Yeah, no, I mean, I want to basically second everything you said. Want to say that going through the Lord of the Rings experience was tremendous sort of learning experience for us and for our whole crew, and we have gotten to a place now where everyone just knows what needs to happen and does it, and that's fantastic situation to work in. So we feel very fortunate.

Q. This is David Cohen from Variety; congratulations. Does this ever get old? A. No. This is only the second time for us. So it's, you know, probably take another 20 times before it would get old. A. In fact, people at home ask me if it's any easier this time around, and I say actually, no. It's actually much worse because I know what to expect now. So it's been it's been, it's been nervous here. Q. How did you do on Kong's voice? I heard you had a device? A Kong alizer? A. We did have a device that was developed by the crew during production, which allowed Andy Serkis to perform on set for Naomi Watts to act against, and it took his voice and pitched it down in realtime and went out to the whole for everyone to be able to react against. And we ended up incorporating that into the sound design of his actual finished voice.

CATEGORY: FILM EDITING INTERVIEW WITH: HUGHES WINBORNE FILM: "CRASH"

Q. Hi. Sheila Crabtree from the Hollywood Reporter. A. Hi.

 Q. During the course of this award season, you've talked a lot about crying and getting choked up and pulling the car over to cry with your son waiting for A. You're bringing that up now. I see.

Q. Has this been a very emotional experience for you and has your son Wyatt talked at all to you about being a film editor with you? A. You know, it's funny you should ask that. We I guess I don't know. The ACE Awards was two weeks ago, and he was so excited about that. And at one point he turned to me, and he said, "Daddy, I'm so nervous. I think I'm going to throw up." But the next day he wanted me to teach him how to edit, and so he cut a few scenes on the film that I'm working on right now. Has it been emotional? It's been very it's been you know, it's been incredible, but it's been stressful. And I'm happy that it ended in this way.

Q. So does your son know how to use Avid Xpress Pro? A. He does a little bit, yes. Q. Did you make it here okay today, or were there any accidents, and was A. No crashes.

 Q. No crashes at all? A. No crashes. Thank you. Q. ET TV from Taiwan. So sorry for asking this question that might not be relevant to you. A. That's all right.

 Q. But I would like to know how it feels for you to receive an award from Ziyi Zhang? And what do you think about her look today and whether or not you think her English has improved? Because last year she only spoke, the award goes to, and this year it was a little more. So what do you think about that? A. Funny you should ask me that question as well. Because when I walked up, I told her how beautiful she looked. Now, I have no have no idea what her English was like last year but she's extremely lovely and it was an honor to receive it from her, and she's quite beautiful.

 Q. Thank you very much. Congratulations. A. That's it? Not my troubled childhood? No? Okay.

CORRECTION: THIS TRANSCRIPT WAS PREVIOUSLY SENT WITH INCORRECT TITLE (LIVE ACTION SHORT). CATEGORY: ANIMATED SHORT INTERVIEW WITH: JOHN CANEMAKER AND PEGGY STERN FILM: "THE MOON AND THE SON: AN IMAGINED CONVERSATION"

Q. Congratulations. You didn't think you would make it in here. A. We didn't think we would make it period. Q. Congratulations. A. Thank you.

 Q. You're a noted historian and teacher and filmmaker, yet this film is more of a documentary, as was last year's winner, Ryan. What is your perspective of that as a historian now? Are you starting a trend? Is this something that may be continuing? What impact do you think this has? A. I think it's pointing towards the future in which independent visions are going to become more and more prominent as technology is more available to a wider selection of artists. You're going to see more personal stories, sort of a niche kind of, you know, type of filmmaking done, and I think it's going to bode well for the future of animation.

Q. Are you going to be speed up the process now on going onto your next film? You said you were going to take a hiatus? A. I think we would like to do another film. I'm not sure what it would be, but perhaps another personal story. John and I have working using documentary and animation before so it's really wonderful to see a film like this get recognition because I think more and more people want to use animation in different ways.

Q. Congratulations. A. Thank you. Q. I'm wondering if you're finding with so many cable channels with Cartoon Network and so many outlets now that are looking for programming that your film is being seen more than animated shorts were seen in the past? A. Definitely. I mean, we had especially getting the nomination. I mean, the nomination opens up doors even without winning. It's really exciting. Like Magnolia Films, who really are working to get short films, both the dramatic and the animation has been in theaters all over the country for the past two weeks thanks to Magnolia doing distributions. So I think that's just a lot more opportunities. And iTunes is launching the films that way. So it's incredible what we can hope to see more of in the future.

CATEGORY: MAKEUP INTERVIEW WITH: Howard Berger and Tami Lane FILM: "THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE"

Q. And do you feel somewhat A. It's two different Academy Awards rules and BAFTA pulled from the credits, you know. And my co partner at KNB, when it came time for the Oscar nominations, there's only allowed two people in the ticket. So the makeup voting the makeup committee decided that it would be team over Nicky, if there were Nicky Gouli as well. Nicky's fantastic and magnificent, and was a giant team player with us. I mean we all have worked together as one. It's the way it went. I'm really proud to have the team here by my side. She worked as hard as I did on the show, so and are there any other questions? We'll go.

Q. Did you interact with orb work with the electronic effects that is the computer generated effects people? A. Oh, absolutely. I think that's what's revolutionary about this film is that it's a giant combination of both techniques. It's a new magic trick as opposed to going all practical or all digital. It's a great combination. And Dean Wright, who's the visual effects producer and supervisor, really pulled a great team together with Rhythm & Hues and Sony, Image Works and ILM. And we all worked together. It really was a magnificent team effort. And first positive experience I've had working with digital companies just because we were there from the beginning. We figured out how we were going to do it. It wasn't that's my shot; that's your shot. We shared everything. So, to me, I walked away feeling so great and trusting that the characters we had created would then be translated properly and faithfully digitally. And I think it was a huge, huge success. You know, I'm just sad that the guys didn't get to win and Bill and Scott and Dean and Jim. I feel they deserved it. But they know the work they did and it's pretty spectacular. Q. Congratulations. A. Thank you very much.

 Q. Hi? A. Yeah. Q. I wanted to ask you do you feel in a battle between practical makeup effects or digital makeup effects? And the digital makeup effects are actually winning out? A. Well, I think we're coming back to the world of how everything is so digital that many people just expect the digital. And when you can pull something off in a practical realm, it kind of adds a new spice to the movie you're going to [see]. Well, how did that they do that? That doesn't look digital. And so I don't know. They just A. I think also the thing that nowadays directors are wanting more physical creatures or makeups or whatever it is on set for numerous reasons. One I think it really helps the actors. I think if we hadn't built all the Asland puppets we had for the stone table sequence and all that, the girls would have been reacting to a blue ball or something. You just can't pull performance out of a nine year old. So, you know, I felt that that really worked well to have the practical stuff as Andrew did. A lot of directors Jon Favreau is a great director who loves practical stuff. I just think at the end of the day, you can go ahead and go watch your dailies and see a bunch of effects stuff as opposed to waiting six months down the road and going oh, yeah, maybe something's not just right. So there's a huge influx of practical effects wanting to be utilized for filmmaking today.

Q. I just I want to ask you one more time. What did you hear about the I'm a little confused about the Nikki Gooley's question as to who's on the committee that decides Could you just explain that one more time for us? A. Sure. As far as the makeup committee goes, there's it's quite a number of makeup artists that are within this voting committee. Each, you know, category has its own pockets or what have you. Leonard Engleman runs the makeup committee. There was, I know, a lot of battling going on between who should be on and who shouldn't be on it. And it was a decision that it was Tammy or Nikki. And they felt that they were judging the film on prosthetic work, you know, the overall of the film. But mostly about the prosthetics. Be it all the other makeups, the hundreds and hundreds of makeups we did every single day for 150 days in New Zealand. So Tammy was the next person that rightfully deserves to have the nomination.

 Q. Do you feel a little bit sorry for Nikki at all? A. You know, I don't feel sorry for Nikki. I don't think Nikki feels sorry. I think Nikki feels very proud. Nikki received a nomination for Star Wars along with Dave Elsey. I think Nikki is very supportive of Tammy and myself and very supportive of the film. And she's a great sport. And if the decision had to come down that it should be between Tammy and Nikki, then I would probably feel the same way. Q. Thank you very much. Congratulations. A. Thank you very much

CATEGORY: SOUND EDITING
INTERVIEW WITH: Mike Hopkins and Ethan Van der Ryn
FILM: "KING KONG" 


Ethan: We want to thank Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh for their spectacular vision which is matched only by their spectacular generosity of spirit and heart. We are so proud to stand here and accept this award on behalf of our whole crew who continue to prove that with unconditional
creative collaboration, the impossible becomes possible. And in particular, we want to thank the amazing Brent Burge, and the one of a kind Andy Serkis who brought the voice of Kong to life.

Mike: I'd like to especially thank Chris Ward, Martin Kwok, and Pippa Anderson. And the amazing Peter's Park Road, and the guy that paved the way for us, Murray Spivack, the original sound designer for the 1933 vision of "King Kong." Murray, Thank you. Thank you so much.

CATEGORY: ORIGINAL SONG
INTERVIEW WITH: Jordan Houston, Cedric Coleman and Paul Beauregard
FILM: "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp" from "Hustle & Flow"


Oh, my. Hey, we want to thank Keith Young our choreographer. And the
whole Sony Records, Lisa Ellis, our moms, our whole families. Thank you,
Jesus. And for giving us a chance, the Academy. We love the Academy.
You know what I'm saying? Gil Cates. Everybody. I got plenty of time.
Ain't nobody else. I want to thank everybody. Yeah. Donnie Einer. Once
again our families. Ludacris. What's up? Going down. George Clooney, my
favorite man, he showed me love when I first met him. We bringing the
house. We out of here. Memphis, Tennessee!

CATEGORY: CINEMATOGRAPHY
INTERVIEW WITH: DION BEEBE
FILM: "MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA"




Q.Congratulations.  Half South African, half Australian. 
A.Thank you.

Q.You were born in Australia and grew up in South Africa.  How would you say your upbringing has affected the way you approach your cinematography? 

A.I think that everything, and you know, everything that you experience in your life informs who you are and how you see the world I feel very, very proud, and growing up in Capetown and then Australia and Brisbane and Sydney, it does, it creates, you know, everything creates who
you are, so...  it's a big part of, you know, a big part of sort of my, I suppose vision of the world.

Q.You had mentioned that it was going to be terrifying to get on stage
if you won this award.  Was it?  A. It was complete terrifying.  It was    I had a lot of things I
wanted to say, but, I mostly sort of blanked out, but I remembered my mum, my wife, and my son, so... I feel like I did okay.

Q.And anyone back in Australia, the whole country?

A.You know, my family in Brisbane and friends and family in Sydney, you know, a shout out to all of them.

Q.Congratulations. 

A.Thank you.

Q.Jack Egan, Below the Line.  Dion, it's getting to be a habit, but tonight, you as well as Colleen and John all from Geisha have distinguished yourselves.  What is it about the movie that threw this group of crafts people together? 

A.It was Rob Marshall.  I think so much of the credit lies with him, and he has such a unique vision.  We had all collaborated with him before on Chicago, and had had such a wonderful experience.  You know, you become sort of a family.  And it's a creative family.  And Colleen and
John and, you know, and our wonderful crew were sort of that family on this movie.  And I certainly share this with them as well as Rob.  Thank you.

Q.Congratulations, Dion. 

A.Thank you.

Q.Why is it there are so many Australians who end up holding one of those in this category?  And secondly, how validating is it for you to actually win one of these personally?

A.I think it's a little suspicious how many Australians are nominated, but I think there's a strong tradition of cinematography in Australia, and I follow in the footsteps of John Seale and Dean Semler and Russell Boyd, and Andrew Lesnie and just to name a few of the really great
cinematographers out of Australia.  And look, this means    it means a lot.  I think it    it's such sort of a huge acknowledgment.  And, you know, it's hard to really truly sort of comprehend, but I'm sort of trying to with all the lights in my eyes, but it's great.

Q.Dion, Nick (unintelligible) from News 10 in Australia, congratulations. 

A.Thank you.

Q.You mentioned your mother during your speech.  Can you tell us a little bit about why you mentioned her and what sort of an influence or inspiration she was for this moment?

A.I need to sort of go on a little bit after Phillip Seymour Hoffman sort of mentioned raising four.  My mum raised five, five boys, and we all sort of came out okay.  And she's    she's a great woman.  And it's just    for a night like this, which is sort of so crazy and surreal, it helps having your mum in the room to just keep it, keep it a little more down to Earth.  So, she is, as any mother, she's    they're    they are a big influence or your life.

Q.And as the sole Australian winner here tonight, mate, you are carrying the flag, how does that feel?

A.It feels pretty good.  I suppose it's sort of strange to be the one and only Australian.  It's been a great history here at the Academy, and you know, I'm proud to be flying the flag for, you know, for both Australia and South Africa tonight.

Q.I'm going to ask you three questions.  Firstly, what part of the Oscar is Australian and what part is South African, if you had to list those?

A.I am going to split it right down the middle.

Q.Okay.  A.It's, like, which is left and which is right.  Right now, probably Australia is to the right.

Q.Politically correct.  How are you celebrating tonight? 
A.You know, with my mum, with my father in law, and, with my wife.

Q.Will you be partying?
A.I think there will be a little bit of that.  I'm going to try to use this to get my mum into the Governors' party.

Q.And also, what's your next project you're working on?
A.I just finished about 10 months in Miami with Michael Mann doing Miami Vice.  So, I'm currently recovering from that.

Q.Fantastic.  Congratulations.  Thanks.

CATEGORY: Honorary Award INTERVIEW WITH: Robert Altman

Here I am. Bob. A. You all have numbers?

Q. We all have numbers. A. Who's 206?

Q. I'm 241. I'm first. A. What's your name?

Q. Chaffer, Steven. I'm here to your left, right here standing. A. Oh. Hello.

Q. Yes? A. Yes. Q. Okay. Congratulations. A. Thank you.

Q. You said a shocking bit of news nothing we've heard before about a full heart transplant ten years ago. This was A. I'm in my 11th year.

Q. How did you keep that a secret in this town, and why did you decide to reveal it Oscar night to a global audience with a billion people? A. I don't know. It just occurred to me. I kept it secret. I mean I didn't make a big secret out of it, but I thought nobody would hire me again. You know, there's such a stigma about heart transplants, and there's a lot of us out there. And I got to tell you, I have the female heart, I think. It feels like it. And it's about 40 years old now. And it came from Tacoma or someplace in Washington. Usually people fall out of trees and hurt their heads, and so they take the heart out and rush it to wherever they somebody waiting for it, and I was waiting for it.

Q. This is Bridget Burn from U.S.A. Weekend? A. Hello, Bridget Burn.

Q. I'm over here, Bob, to your left. A. Oh, hi, babe.

Q. There was a lot of fun made by Meryl and Lily about, you know, you being a maverick, you being out of, you know, the Hollywood loop, all of that sort of stuff. But could you be succinct about what quality you thought you think you have that have made you lucky and successful all these years?

A. Well, luck, you can't account for. I have been fortunate. But I haven't, you know, I haven't been this anti Hollywood thing that is tagged on me for some reason, it's just apocryphal; it's not true. This is I've been nominated five times, and I've come every time. And I love it, and I plan to be back again.

Q. And can I ask one more succinct question? You talked in your thing about conversation with your actors. But can you recall specifically one very succinct thing you said to one of your stars that brought out a great performance in them? A. No. They give the performance. The performance is in them. I watch it and say, "Wow, isn't that good?" No. I'm a cheerleader. Q. Congratulations, Mr. Altman. A. Thank you.

 Q. Ted from ETV, right in front of you. George Clooney has expressed an interest in being in a gay love story or a gay film if you were to direct him in a gay story or any other actor, what would you like that story to be? A. A gay story?

Q. Yes. A. That's no different than any other story. I mean, you know, let's see. There's males and there's females, and there's plants and vegetation and there's man and woman and man and man and woman and woman. And then there's woman and man and woman. I like that one a lot.

Q. For the man and the man, would you put in as many as sex scenes as you would for a straight film? A. I don't like to put in sex scenes. I don't think that should be shared. That's something to write songs about. Thank you. Q. Bruce Carpenter, the Toronto Sun? A. Had he

Q. Congratulations. A. Thank you.

Q. Over the years you and I've talked as you've talked to many of my colleagues in this room and often the subject has been your sometimes animosity towards the people who run Hollywood? A. Oh, I

Q. And here, you know, you're considered an outsider, a maverick, maybe those are terms we brought to it. But here they are you've maybe even called them on their idiocy over the years in backing certain films and not backing others. And here they are thanking you for it. I'm wondering if you see any paradox or irony or pleasure in that?

A. No, I think that's the way it should be. No, I don't see any you know, this is a tag that someone else puts on me. This isn't the way I feel. I mean the only difference is the reason is that the major studios through the years that I've been involved in the last 20, 30, 40 years they sell shoes and I make gloves, but there's nothing, I don't have we're just in a little different business. That's all. Q. Hi, Mr. Altman, David Carr from the New York Times. Do you look at this crop of movies this year, there's small movies, story driven. . . A. I think they're great.

Q. Do you take any credit for that or do you think Hollywood has come to its senses and learned?

A. No, no. I think everything is a wave. I'm just happy this is the year I'm very happy to be included in that mix because I think these are terrific films. I think Clooney's well, all of them I think they're just terrific. And I'm real happy to be in that at that particular party this time. Q. Mr. Altman. Patrick Stoner of PBS, it's rather parochial of me, I suppose, because Prairie Home Companion is one of ours, but you made it very clear how excited you are to be doing this. It's coming out A. June.

Q. Will you share it with us exactly what it is that excited you about it? A. About Prairie Home Companion. Q. Yes?

 A. Well, Meryl Streep, Lily Tomlin, Kevin Kline. Garrison Keillor. Tommy Lee Jones, Woody Harrelson, John C. Reilly, that's the I mean I'd go to that party anytime. Q. Congratulations. A. Thank you.

Q. I'm back here on your right. I believe. Chris Stanley with KNX radio. Great pleasure and well deserved. Do you have a sense people talk about how your movie making changed movie making. Things that you did, the overlapping dialogue that was first prominent in M*A*S*H and Nashville? A. Did you ever see a Howard Hawks film?

Q. Yes, I did. A. That's where it came from.

Q. You stole that from Howard Hawks? A. I didn't steal it. I just borrowed it. Q. It is an homage, do you acknowledge the fact that you have had an impact on the way the film industry has evolved since M*A*S*H came out? A. I don't think I think I've been in this current. I've been in the wave with everybody but there's hundreds of us that do this and we all progress and ride at the same time. I'm very proud to be involved with these people that do this. It's very hard. It's heartbreaking. And yet it's one of the most gratifying thing I know to do. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Q. Does it seem like yesterday since you learned how to run a filling station in 1953? A. That was a good one. That was a good one. Okay, I can't remember the name of any of the lead actors but Q. Right here. Right here, right down in front, Mr. Altman. Hi how are you. A. Good.

Q. Tonya Hart, American Urban Radio Networks. Congratulations. A. Thank you. Q. You have been such a purveyor of culture for a long time and in looking back over those years, is there a moment that stands out in your mind where you felt that it was like a "wow" moment just like "ooh, that was awesome"? A. Oh, listen, I am so blinded by actors and what they do. And that happens to me every time. There's not one film that I've ever done that I would take any moment of it back, that I would change any of it. It is what it is and it's really the actors that do this. And they, you know, they get a lot of credit but they should get all the credit because I really just stand back and watch. They're the ones that take an idea, a script and take it from two dimensions into three, they give it the third dimension. Not me.

Q. Hello, Mr, Altman? A. Hello, 298.

Q. Gary Sussman from Entertainment Weekly I'm to your left, right here. A. Oh, of course. Hi.

Q. I wonder how you felt when you first heard that you were going to get this award if you said to yourself, something like didn't any of these people watch the Player? A. No. I was very happy. I didn't think I was going to be able to accept it because I didn't think I was going to be here. I was starting to do this play in London and it just timing was such that we open Friday night and I was able to come right over and I got to go back tomorrow. But no I what was the question but no, I I I don't know. Sorry for the incoherent answer. But that's my usual answer.

Q. Thank you

CATEGORY: FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
INTERVIEW WITH: Gavin Hood
FILM: "TSOTSI" (SOUTH AFRICA)


God bless Africa. Wow. I have a speech, it's in my pocket, but that thing says 38 seconds. But mine's way too long. Go to tsotsi.com and there is a huge long list of people. Because I'm accepting this not for myself. This is for best foreign language film. It is sitting right there to
start with. Please stand up Presley Chweneyagae and Terry Pheto. My two fantastic young leads. Put the cameras on them, please. Viva Africa. Viva. I've got ten seconds. Ten seconds I just want to thank my fellow nominees who I've become deep friends with. We may have foreign language
films, but our stories are the same as your stories. They're about the human heart and emotion. It says please wrap. Thank you so much. Thank you to the Academy. Thank you.

CATEGORY: ORIGINAL SONG
INTERVIEW WITH: JORDAN HOUSTON, CEDRIC COLEMAN, PAUL BEAUREGARD
SONG: "IT'S HARD OUT HERE FOR A PIMP"
FILM: "HUSTLE AND FLOW




Q. Hi.  You guys seemed genuinely surprised.  Were you? 
A.I was so, so, so, so, so surprised, because I was actually ready to clap for the winner and go to the dressing room because I didn't think we were going to win, and when they said "Hard Out", I didn't even write an acceptance speech, so that's why I was blah, blah, blah, blah.

Q.What do you think that this is going to mean for your group?
A.This is such a blessing right now.  Let me slow down for a second.  This means, like, more movies to write, write more songs for more movies.  We have some independent movies ourselves.  We're going to try to put out our own movies out ourselves.  This is so huge for the group.  I mean, there's so much stuff.  We make music for other artists, you know, as far as Ludacris and Mike Jones and Powwow, and a lot of production, you know, there is so much I can't even stop.  You know, maybe some commercials, writing music for commercials.  I don't know. 
Congratulations.

A.Thank you.  Thank you.

Q.Hi there.  I wanted to ask first of all, Jon Stewart mentioned on stage how exciting, and excited, you guys were and you certainly made an impression on everyone.  If you can discuss that first, and then I have a second question. 
A.When we ran out?  I just couldn't believe it.  I couldn't stand still.  I had to run somewhere.  My heart was beating so fast, I automatically just ran.  I started to run down stairs and run back and run all over the place.  People probably thought the police were going to be
chasing me.  I was just running.

Q.Do you think you guys are the only award winners to wear diamond grills, or do you expect more to come into the fold of the Oscars, especially with hip hop representation?
A.I know tonight we are obviously the first, and I think there are going to be more after us.  I think so.  I'm hoping.

Q.Hi.  Congratulations.  I was wondering if you thought that your winning an award, an Oscar, would have any profound effect on the respectability of hip hop, and do you think it will change its perception among non hip hop fans?
A.Yes, yes, yes.  Because like right now when you look around and listen to radio and watch television, hip hop is taking over.  I mean, we're doing a Snicker deal now, Ludacris has got a Snicker deal.  Hip hop is taking over.  Clothes, underwear, there is so much going on.  Hip hop
is taking over right now.

Q.Gentlemen, hi.  You sang for us on the red carpet, you sang wonderfully on stage.  Who were you just texting?
A.I was cutting my ringer off, because people are calling me.  I don't know why people would think I would want to talk to them.

Q.Your friends were calling you?
A.Oh, yeah, friends, mom is calling and dad's calling.  We love you.  We'll answer the phones in a few minutes after we get interviewed for this beautiful press.

Q.Where were you guys a year ago?
A.A year ago we were in Memphis, Tennessee.  We still live in Memphis.  We were just putting out albums.

Q.So how big a trip is it from a year ago to right now?
A.That's a big trip.  It's like jumping on a spaceship and going past the moon and going to a planet they haven't even discovered yet.  We're just a small, small little original rap group from Memphis, Tennessee, and we have, like, ten gold records and maybe two platinum albums and a
new one that's going platinum, but this is    come on, man, look how shiny it is.    It smells good too.

Q.Congratulations.  Just to give people an update on what's going musically right now.  What's going on? 
A.A single we brought out last year, which was State Flowers, which was a real big hit for us, it went pop, and we've got a new single out that's called Popping My Collar, and it's blowing the radio charts right now, and I think it's going to cross over to pop radio as well.

Q.Hi.  Bill from USA Today.  Did you know you got bleeped during the song?  Or that's what our editor said. 
A.For real?

Q.Yeah. 
A.On what lyric?  What part?

Q.I don't know.  We're trying to track it. 
A.I didn't know that.

Q.I think it was witches and bitches or something. 
A.No, it wasn't us.  You must be talking about somebody else who was performing.  It couldn't have been us.  We changed the lyrics up completely.

Q.You changed them for the show?
A.Yes.  I had to because my mom was watching.  I didn't want to say any cuss words.  My mom would have been, like, Hey, boy. I told you.

Q.Could each of all of you guys give your names. 
A.My rap name is Juicy J and my real name is Jordan Houston and the rap group I'm in is Three 6 Mafia. Cedric Frazier Boy, Coleman, D.J. Paul, Three 6 Mafia.

Q.Hi.  Jeannie Wolfe from movies.com.  Congratulations. 
A.Thank you.

Q.We're real happy for you, but I can promise you that tomorrow I'm going to get calls going, I saw the one with the word "pimp" in it won.  How is this for our kids?  You know, the whole world is not going to be happy about this, and the signal it sends for artists or for Hollywood.  What do you say to people like that?
A.Well, I mean, when you look at the song, you look at the movie.  That's why they chose it.  You're watching the movie, the characters are making the song and the movie so dramatic    so what?  "Pimp" this, "pimp" that.  It's constantly    they chose the song because it was in the
movie.  You know what I'm saying?  It wasn't really because of the word "pimp".  It was because it went together    it was so dramatic in that scene.  That's why they chose this song to be nominated, and that's why we have these Oscars in our hands. I think I'm going to pray for those
people.  It's just entertainment, on the radio, in the street and in the movies, it's just entertainment.

Q.Are you going to join Itzhak Perlman posse like Jon Stewart suggested, and what does your mom think about some little kid saying the word "pimp"?
A.I don't know.  I need to call and ask her.  Actually, I'm going to call her and ask her, I promise you.

Q.Did you hear Jon Stewart say  
A.I'm sorry.  I didn't  

Q.Jon Stewart said the famous violinist, that you should join his posse?
A.Sure.  Let's do it.  Where's he at?  Do I have to get branded?

CATEGORY: FILM EDITING
INTERVIEW WITH: Hughes Winborne
FILM: "CRASH"


First of all, I'd like to wish my father in North Carolina a happy 83rd birthday. Secondly, Paul Haggis, a force of nature. Thank you, Paul. I would not be here without Paul. I would not be here without Cathy Schulman, and I want to thank both of you from the bottom of my heart.
Thanks to Bob Yari, Lions Gate for seeing a powerful film. Thanks to my assistant Sean Hubbert, 9, Jesus. Thanks to... I have to name some friends of mine who have supported me over the years. Donna, Bruce, Bob, Raq, Leslie, I can't remember any of them. And my girlfriend, Looloo who has
gotten me through the last three weeks, and I've been a bull, believe me. And last but not least, my editing partner. Don't start the music, I can see you. My editing partner, my film partner, my movie buddy, my son who makes my life wonderful every day, Wyatt. And I'd like to dedicate my award to a friend, the memory of a friend, Dan Petrie Sr. who passed away last year. Thank you very much. Thank you

 CATEGORY: LEAD ACTRESS
INTERVIEW WITH: Reese Witherspoon
FILM: "WALK THE LINE"




Q.Reese Witherspoon?  Reese, congratulations. 
A.Thank you.

Q.If you could sum up this win with a June Carter or Johnny Cash song which one would it be?
A.Gosh, I don't know.  None of their songs were celebratory enough, I don't think.

Q.Which one comes to mind, then?
A.Oh, gosh, I don't know my whole mind is blank.  I just found out my husband's movie won the big award.  So that's exciting.

Q.Forgive us the frivolous question but we've all been admiring your gown, and I'd like to know about it?
A.Okay.  It's an original Christian Dior from 1955.  And I found it in a vintage store in Paris, and it's mine.  I'm so happy about that.

Q.What did you do today to prepare?
A.What did I do?  Oh, so much.  Well, I woke up and fed the kids and changed a lot of diapers and chased them around the house.  And got my hair done and I got my nails done and got my make up done and then I was out the door.

Q.Hi, Reese.  I want to know a little bit more about your gown because you look very elegant. 
A.Thank you.

Q.And with this old Hollywood theme and I think the dress kind of suits the evening.  Do you really get to keep it, and did anybody wear this dress before you that you know of?
A.Not that I know of.  And, no, I worked with wonderful people, and they helped me find this wonderful dress, and they helped repair it and bring it back to its original condition.  And it has a lot of love in it.  And it really only had one original owner, and she's passed now.  And so I feel very lucky to be able to wear this dress.  It's very special to me from the moment I saw it.  It had a lot of love in it.

Q.Can I ask you one more follow up about the dress?  Is it heavy?  It looks so beaded. 
A.No it actually isn't.  It's so light.  It's very nice.

Q.To your right.  Channel One News, we go into high schools across the country.  You mentioned June says she's just trying to matter.  What would you say to teens that just want to matter or maybe want to pursue a career in this industry?
A.I think it's important to follow your heart and follow your dreams and have dreams.  And I think a lot of the movies this year sort of had that theme in them, but it's so important to believe in yourself.  And I've been really, really lucky to have such a wonderful family support me and believe in me so much.  I really feel like that's the reason I'm here.

Q.Anyone in particular who inspired you?
A.Particularly my mother and my grandmother.  I mean, really they taught me a lot and a lot of characteristics that a woman should have in life and how tough women are and how strong we are.  And I feel like it really helped my performance with June, because I sort of came in with an innate knowledge of who she was as a woman.

Q.I wonder, does this mean we can see more dramatic work or maybe a Legally Blonde 4? 
A.Well, there's not even a three yet.  Lucky me.  I    I don't know.  Ted got that.  I don't know what I'll do next.  I actually have no idea.  I have no work.  I'm completely unemployed.  So I'm looking actively for a job and hoping this isn't the end of the line.

Q.And you spoke a lot about your grandmother.  Do you think she'd be particularly proud of you?
A.Yeah, you know, she's a real important lady to me, and she sort of taught me how to say, excuse me ma'am, and pardon me, sir, and never to chew gum in public.  And she was one of those very wonderful feminine women that just was so warm but also very strong.

Q.I just wanted to ask you at that very moment you just had this look on your face just before your name was called, I'm wondering what did you feel when you did hear your name?
A.Oh, no.  Oh, no.  Oh, no I hope I don't have to say anything.  I just    you know, it's really hard for me.  One of the hardest things about this movie was talking in front of a large group of people or singing in front of a large group of people.  Because I'm used to the filmmaking experience for me has always been very small and very intimate.  It's never more than 50 people watching your performance.  They're all busy doing more important things, like lighting, the set.  So, for me, this
was    it was a great sort of accomplishment to just learn to stand in my own shoes and in my own self and be proud of myself which is, you know, it's different for me.


Q.A lot of great artists overcome a lot of hard knocks and adversity in life.  And you seem just like you came from a loving well adjusted family.  Has that always been a liability for you, or did it actually help you in ways that maybe it wouldn't have and if you had a different experience?
A.Well, you haven't met them yet, so    no.  I came from a wonderful family; very intelligent people, very eccentric people, wonderful southern family.  I've been very lucky and blessed that there was a lot of love in my family, no matter what else was going on.  We all love each
other very much so it really is a gift and I think that's a huge part of how I was able to achieve what I did tonight.

Q.I wanted to ask you    five or six years ago probably people would think of you as a very beautiful woman with a good comedic talent.  Now you're considered a good singer, a very serious actress, an Oscar winner, and probably the highest grossing actress in Hollywood and do you
even begin to fathom the change in your life?
A.I have no idea.  Just keep working hard, man, I usually don't come up for air very much, and this is a wonderful moment where I finally actually got to stand back for a couple of months and go, wow did I really do that?  It's hard for me to even think about that.  I do feel it's sort of in my life right now.  It's sort of forcing me to look at what I've achieved and, you know, I'm very happy.

Q.From the moment I saw this    and I'm not alone.  I think that everybody felt it    they saw you in this movie, and they said you're going to win the Oscar for it.  Why do you think there was such a connection at this time in your life and at this time in your career with June Carter Cash that this became this defining Oscar winning role?
A.I have no idea.  I think it's a wonderful community of artists that, you know, I've been able to work with for a long time now, it's been 16 years since I've been in this business.  It's just nice to have this opportunity to play this character.  Just getting the job was a huge part of it.  This woman was just an amazing person to portray so, I think that was more than a lot of it and just having the opportunity.  I was lucky that I just didn't blow it. 

CATEGORY: LEAD ACTOR
INTERVIEW WITH: Philip Seymour Hoffman
FILM: "CAPOTE"


Wow, I'm in a category with some great, great, great actors. Fantastic actors, and I'm overwhelmed. I'm really overwhelmed. I'd like to thank Bill Vince and Caroline Baron. And Danny Rosett, the film wouldn't have happened without them. I'd like to thank Sarah Fargo, I'd like to thank Sara Murphy. I'd like to thank Emily Ziff, my friends, my friends, my friends. I'd like to thank Bennett Miller, and Danny Futterman, who I love, I love, I love, I love. You know, the Van Morrison song, I love, I
love, I love, and he keeps repeating it like that. And I'd like to thank Tom Bernard, and Michael Barker. Thank you so much. And my mom's name is Marilyn O'Connor, and she's here tonight. And I'd like if you see her tonight to congratulate her. Because she brought up four kids alone,
and she deserves a congratulations for that. Oh, I'm at the party, mom, you know? And she took me to my first play, and she stayed up with me and watched the NCAA final four. And my passions, her passions became my passions. And, you know, be proud, mom, because I'm proud of you, and we're here tonight, and it's so good. Thank you.

CATEGORY: CINEMATOGRAPHY
INTERVIEW WITH: Dion Beebe
FILM: "MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA"

Oh, God, what an amazing feeling. Terrifying but amazing. Mom, I know you're up there somewhere. I think. Rob Marshall, I know you're here, too. I want to thank you for, you know, like we said earlier, this was your vision, and we feel like we were part of it. And you know, I hope we
made you proud, and you know, to Sony Pictures for being brave enough to make this movie. And our great producers. My beautiful wife, who is over there, who is my inspiration, and my muse. To our beautiful boy at home, Axel, who was born during the making of this movie, and it will
be a beautiful part of my life forever. Thank you.

CATEGORY: ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
INTERVIEW WITH: LARRY McMURTRY AND DIANA OSSANA
FILM: "BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN"

Q.David Cohen, from Variety.  Congratulations. 
A.Hi, thank you.

Q.Diana, Larry said a lot of nice things about you up there, and I just want to know if you have any reaction? 
A.I was startled.
A.I was going say half of them at the Globes but I forgot.  So you got two for the price of one tonight.

Q.As a follow up, I have friends in the business, actors, and I was shocked because they didn't want to see the movie.  Men, who were just, like, too uncomfortable with it. 
A.Really? 
Q.Yeah.  You had the same reaction I did.  "Really?" 
A.Yeah.

Q.I am just wondering if you have anything to say to people that are having that reluctance to see the film?
A.That's just silly, you know...
A.It's a movie.  Go see it.
A.Yeah.  It's a movie.  I don't know what they are so afraid of.
A.It's not going to threaten anybody's manhood going to see a movie in which there is gay sex. 
A.Well, or it's    you know, I mean, the fact is, we'll say the same thing we said to everybody:  Whatever preconceived notions you have, you need to set those aside; go see the film.  The film will shatter those notions.  It really isn't what people are    are imagining it is in their heads.
A.Or encompassing in a human way.
A.It's much more encompassing in a human way.  And also, you know, there are a lot of jokes about the film, which don't bother us at all. They really don't have anything to do with the movie.  The movie is separate and apart from that.  They should just give it a chance.

Q.Congratulations.  Over here. 
A.Oh, hi.

Q.Congratulations to you two.  I wonder if it is kind of half sour because the movie didn't win.  Are you, like, half happy, half disappointed? 
A.Yeah. 
A.I mean, it's bittersweet certainly, because, you know, it's wonderful that we won for the screen play, but...
A.And the song.
A.Yes, and the song and the directing.  It's wonderful.  But, you know, this was a journey of nearly nine years for me getting this to the screen.  So, it's bittersweet for me certainly.  I was just going to say  and the picture honors everyone who worked on the film.  So, of course it's bittersweet.

Q.Do you think it might be kind of a compromise, the Academy didn't want to give such a subject the main award, so they gave the rest   the other awards instead?
A.I don't know.  They are individual votes.  I'm not quite sure.
A.I do have an opinion, because I have had four movies nominated for Best Picture and the three that were rural lost.  The one that was urban, Terms of Endearment, won.
A.I don't think a lot of people know that Larry    films derived from Larry's works have garnered now 13 Oscars and 34 Oscar nominations. 
A.But members of the Academy are mostly urban people.  We are an urban nation.  We're not a rural nation.  It's not easy even to get a rural story made.  And in the four instances that I have had, Hud, The Last Picture Show, Brokeback Mountain and Terms of Endearment, the urban story won, and the three rural stories didn't.

Q.I remember you said earlier that you were a nervous wreck.  You actually look very composed right now, so I commend you for that. 
A.Thank you.

Q.And I want to know these are big wins for this movie.  And do you think these wins will open doors for gay themed films in terms of critical acceptance or acceptance in the middle of the country for instance? 
A.Well, you know, I don't think, if it    you know, if the movies tell good stories with strong characters, I think that's what opens doors ultimately.  If it's a good story. 
A.Talking about the opening of doors, seeing a lot of movies over a lot of years and perhaps Brokeback produced a little softening, or, perhaps, the truth, it really is:  Americans don't want cowboys to be gay.

Q.Get back to your urban theme.  Put it another way, do you believe that Crash benefited from the fact it was a Los Angeles based movie?
A.Yeah.  Home town movie.

Q.I've asked April this question before:  What's the first reaction when they know that Ang Lee is picking up the movie?  And Annie said she's scared. 

So what's your first reaction when you know that Ang Lee was the one directing the movie?  I know you also said it took you nine years to get the movie done.  It took Ang Lee X amount of years and after the Hulk too to get this done, so what took so long? 
A.You know, they say all films take an average of seven years to be made but each one has specific obstacles.  The obstacle for this one was casting.  It was difficult to get a cast.  We had at various times directors and studios involved and money, but we couldn't get the film cast.  Actors wouldn't commit and it's Larry's belief that it was their representatives dissuading them from it.  Ang, we wanted Ang. 
A.We wanted him a lot.  We were happy when he came on. 
A.I was a fan of Ang's since the Ice Storm and when Crouching Tiger came out, I saw this amazing film, a large landscape with these intimate stories of repressed love taking place in this film, and I said, Larry, you need to see this.  We wanted Ang.  We were sure he could do this film and do it brilliantly.

Q.First, congratulations.  I guess we'll end on sort of a trivial note but one of curiosity.  Diana, your gown is gorgeous.  Larry, what made you decide to wear jeans tonight? 
A.I always wear jeans.  My native costume.  Why should I change?  I just put on a bespoke tuxedo top.

Q.Went for the top but couldn't bear to part with the jeans on the bottom?
A.That's right.  They go with my boots.

Q.Goes with the Brokeback theme, right? 
A.I always wear jeans.

Q.Thank you, congratulations.

CATEGORY: LEAD ACTRESS
INTERVIEW WITH: Reese Witherspoon
FILM: "WALK THE LINE"


Oh, my goodness. I never thought I'd be here my whole life growing up in Tennessee. I want to say Johnny Cash and June Carter had a wonderful tradition of honoring other artists and musicians and singers, and I really feel that tradition tonight. It is very important, and I really feel it. So I want to thank the Academy for this incredible honor. I want to say thank you to so many people who helped me create this role. Everyone at Fox, Cathy Konrad, James Keach, for producing the film. A very special thank you to Jim Mangold who directed the film and also wrote this character. Who is a real woman. Who has dignity and honor, and fear, and courage, and she's a real woman. And I really appreciate that. It was an incredible gift that you gave me. So thank you. And T-Bone
Burnett for helping me realize my lifelong dream of being a country music singer. Thank you T-Bone. And I want to say thank you to Joaquin Phoenix who just put his heart and soul into this performance. His commitment and passion for this character and for this performance was just
remarkable, and I feel so lucky to have gone on this journey with you.

I am so blessed to have my family here tonight. My mother and my father are here. And I just want to say thank you so much for everything, for being so proud of me. It didn't matter if I was making my bed or making a movie. They never hesitated to say how proud they were of me. And
that means so very much to a child. So thank you, Mom and Dad. I want to say thank you to my wonderful husband and my two children who should be going to bed. And thank you for loving me so much and supporting me. And I want to say that, my grandmother was one of the biggest
inspirations in my life. She taught me how to be a real woman, to have strength and self respect, and to never give those things away. And those are a lot of qualities I saw in June Carter. People used to ask June how she was doing, and she used to say -- "I'm just trying to matter." And I know what she means. You know, I'm just trying to matter, and live a good life and make work that means something to somebody. And you have all made me feel that I might have accomplished that tonight. So thank you so much for this honor.

CATEGORY: DIRECTING
INTERVIEW WITH: ANG LEE
FILM: "BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN"


Wow. I wish I knew how to quit you. First of all, I want to thank two people who don't even exist. Or I should say, they do exist, because of the imagination of Annie Proulx and the artistry of Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana. Their names are Ennis and Jack. And they taught all of us who made "Brokeback Mountain" so much about not just all the gay men and women whose love is denied by society, but just as important, the greatness of love itself. Thank you. Thank you members of the Academy for this tremendous honor. And to everyone at Focus Features, in particular, David Linde, James Schamus, thank you for your love and support. To Bill Pohlad, Tory Metzger, Ira Schreck, Joe Dapello, many thanks, and a special thanks to David Lee. And thanks to my wife, Jane Lin, and my boys, Han and Mason. I love you. On "Brokeback Mountain," I felt you with me every day. I just did this movie after my father passed away. More than any other, I made this for him. And finally, to my mother and family, and everybody in Taiwan, Hong Kong and China. Thank you.

CATEGORY: Foreign Language Film INTERVIEW WITH: GAVIN HOOD FILM: "TSOTSI" (South Africa)

 Q. Congratulation. We were crying. We were so emotional. How do you think this is going to change the way that Hollywood views South African movie making in general? A. I think it's going to change the way South Africans view their moviemaking. In the sense that we're the second film nominated. Last year, Yesterday was nominated but we're the first film to win, and I feel very, very proud to hold this because it tells me, and all of us at home, that we can do it. And that hopefully it means that people will keep investing in our local stories, because this gives investors a little more confidence and what we want more than anything else is that people and human emotion is universal and we're more alike than we think we are around the world, and we grew up watching American films and I hope that Americans will watch our stories and just as we 've learned about Americans and the rest of the world people will know more about us from our stories, and find that we're actually so similar as human beings inside. So thanks, South Africa.

Q. How are you doing? Good to see you. A. I'm sweating and terrified. But I'm holding this.

Q. I was just wondering, you just saluted the whole continent of Africa. How is African film? And where is South Africa within the African cinema community? A. Well, I think we're priveliged in South Africa to have possibly the strongest economy, so we have an enormous amount of foreign production that has come to our country over the last 20 years, so we have, so you can rent any kind of gear you want, a huge amount. I mean, lots of Hollywood movies are shooting in South Africa now, huge amounts of European films and commercials, so we have a very solid base and commercials, so we have a very solid base, we're very fortunate in that sense. We have that infrastructure. And what has started to happen is now we're beginning to use that infrastructure to tell our own stories. I shouldn't say now we're beginning; we have been doing so, some very brave filmmakers like Anant Singh and Darrell Roodt they have been doing it for years, but we used to do one or two films a year. If we're lucky, now we're making ten or twelve and hopefully that will just keep growing and it encourages more young South African filmmakers to just keep telling their story, then I feel very proud. I really do, and I'm very proud of the whole cast and crew. Let me tell you now no kidding it's 4:00, 5:00 in the morning at home, and I know they're going crazy, I know where all the parties are. We have all the (unintelligible) before, there is so much celebrating. It's like a sports team, guys. It's like having a sports team. It's like if you're a Yankee fan. You know, people at home, we just won something that we've never won before, and I know that makes people at home very happy, so thanks.

Q. Alan Silverman, we're on on Cape Talk. A. We're live?

Q. Well, we're going to be in a few minutes. A. Wow. Q. Don't worry, we can edit it all out. A. Okay.

Q. You mentioned before that there was a sense of relief. Did that sense pass over you as you were waiting for your name to be announced? A. You know, I've said before, the film has been fortunate enough to win a number of festivals over the last six to eight months, and a lot of times I felt relieved instead of fully overjoyed. I felt relieved because there were so many expectations for the film and I knew so many people, my producers, my investors, our actors, our country had expectations and as the director sometimes you carry a bit too much pressure because you think you might be the guy that screwed it up. So a lot of time I felt relief but tonight, tonight I don't feel relief, mate, I feel damn great. I feel truly overjoyed. It doesn't get better than this. This is the Olympics of filmmaking and I I'm so proud of everyone in South Africa that worked on this film. I really am. Go to Tsotsi.com and read the credits. Every person put their best into this movie. It's really good.

Q. I don't think we've heard "Amandla" (sic) before. A. Buy a donkey, buy a donkey, buy a donkey. (In Afrikaan) Q. Your two stars are complete unknowns in South Africa. A. Yeah.

Q. What do you think that means for acting in South Africa? We have had Charlize win, but she had to come here. Now, we get an Oscar won by two indigenous South Africans speaking A. In their own language? Q. In their own language.

Q. I think I think that the fact that the actors were able to work in their own language we're so used to seeing stories told about our country but not always by our own people and some of those stories have been good and some have not, but as a matter of dignity story telling is important for people. It's not just not about learning about other people it's also about how we learn about ourselves and I hope we will do it more and more and it also reveals our common humanity to the rest of the world. And our struggles. But deep down inside people are more similar than we think. So, I hope South Africans keep telling all kinds of stories. I really do. Thank you.

Q. Congratulations. A. Thank you. You were confident on that red carpet and you made me even more nervous.

Q. Good for you. You know (unintelligible) you have extraordinary actors as the young lady was just saying. Is there a lot of other people like this in South Africa. What about the acting community in South Africa will we see other people? A. I hope so, yes, absolutely. I'll tell you the thing: Let me tell you the films cost money even a film like Tsotsi costs $3 million is $3 million that people want back and we have a relatively small market at home for films. So we need our films to travel. We need to have people see them outside of our country because our local market is not huge. Although I have to say Tsotsi is breaking box office records at home too. So maybe it it will help change that too. But we do have great actors and great story tellers it's just that film has been an expensive media for us. Our theater tradition as you know is very strong. The book on which this film is based is by Athol Fugard and Fugard is known all over the world for his great plays. He's won many, many awards and many Tony Awards. And so we've always had great story tellers. We've had great novelists, great musicians. We have Miriam Makeba and Hugh Masekela who came to America during the apartheid years. They went into exile. But we've had many, many great artists. But our film is such an expensive medium. And it requires the talents of so many individuals. All of whom have to be so very good in their own departments that it's the industry that is coming up last. And the fact that it's coming up in South Africa to take its place with the other art forms that are already is very. Exciting. Thank you, everyone

CATEGORY: BEST PICTURE INTERVIEW WITH: Paul Haggis and Cathy Schulman FILM: "CRASH"

Cathy: Thank you. Oh, my gosh. Oh, thank you so, so much. What an amazing night. Thank you to all of the members of the Academy for embracing. Paul: Can you mention them by name? Every single one. Cathy: For embracing our film, about love and about tolerance, about truth. Thank you to the people all around the world who have been touched by this message. And we are humbled by the other nominees in this category. You have made this year one of the most breathtaking, and stunning, maverick years in American cinema, thank you. We'd like to thank Lions Gate. Boy, did you do a job. Jon Feltheimer, and everyone in every office of that building, and we would not be here today if it were not for Tom Ortenberg, and for Sarah Greenberg, thank you. Thank you also to our financiers Andy Reimer, Jan Korbelin, Marina Grasic, Bob Yari. To our producers, our partners, Mark Harris, and Bob Yari, and Don Cheadle, and Bobby Moresco. Thank you. Don Cheadle, our partner, we wish he could be here with us tonight. Thank you everybody. Thank you to my husband, to my wife, to all of our families

CATEGORY: ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
INTERVIEW WITH: Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana
FILM: "BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN"



Diana: Thank you to the Academy. The duty of art is to send light into the darkness of men's hearts. Thank you Annie Proulx, she's right over there, for trusting us with your brilliant short story. Thank you to Ang Lee, and our brilliant cast for breathing life into our words. Thank you to Universal, Focus Features, Bill Pohlad, Michael Costigan, my dear friend. My good friend Mark Poirier, for giving me "The New Yorker" that had that short story in it. And thank you to my writing partner, Larry. And thank you for giving him this award as well. Larry: Since somehow I unaccountably failed to thank my brilliant partner Diana at the Golden Globes, I'm going to rattle off all the attributes I was going to thank her for at the Golden Globes. Smarts, guts, drive, good judgment, tenacity, loyalty, and generosity. That's the kind of virtues you need in the rough strife of movie making. I'd like to thank also James and Curtis, my son and grandson, with love and pride. I thank our loyal lawyers, Robert Thorne and Greg Redlitz. And finally I'm going to thank all the booksellers of the world. Remember, "Brokeback Mountain" was a book before it was a movie. From the humblest paperback exchange to the masters of the great bookshops of the world. All are contributors to the survival of the culture of the book. A wonderful culture, which we mustn't lose. Thank you.

CATEGORY: LEAD ACTOR INTERVIEW WITH: Philip Seymour Hoffman FILM: "CAPOTE"

MR. HOFFMAN: This is like an auction. $10,000 for the Oscar? Q. Did you for any moment consider barking as you had promised your friends? A. You know, I literally lost all control of my bowels up there. The bark I did think, like maybe I'll bark at the end for my friend or something a quick ooh, you know, something but, I couldn't think. I was swimming in my head. So I was lucky to get out what I got out.

Q. You know, they say they're really going to go after you. I think the quote was they were going to be on you like horseradish on gefilte fish. A. That's Steve Shub [sic]. That's my friend, yes.

Q. What are they going to do with you? A. And it's not they. It's one guy, and I went to college with him. So it's like I think he's going to give me a big fat hug, is what I think he's going to do.

Q. What was it like for you shooting this movie in Manitoba Canada? A. Cold. It was perfect. It was a perfect place for the film. That's what I have to say. Actually, the town treated me very well. And I'm not just saying that. I actually have fond memories of being dealt with very well and I had a couple hangouts and I couldn't remember the titles of them, so don't ask me. But just kind of places on my day off I could sit and talk to the people and just kind of relax and but it was cold. Cold.

Q. How did it help you focus, because you stayed in character both on and off the screen, so how did the isolation of Manitoba help? A. Well, you know, I grew up in Rochester, New York, it's not small anymore but it was somewhat small when I grew up outside of Rochester, New York, so isolations not something foreign to, you know.

Q. You're such a great character actor. Will you be looking to take more lead roles now after this win? A. I hope all the roles I take are character roles. That's just kind of how I look at it. So lead, supporting, gaffer. You know what I'm saying? I don't think a character role is a supporting role. Thank you.

Q. Steve Schaefer. A. Nice to see, thank you. Q. You seem, you know, in the nicest way to say this temperamentally unsuited for this kind of thing? A. Does it show?

Q. You seem like a shy guy and you've been going through this whole awards season winning. Has it changed you in any way? Have you become a different person? By what we hear sometimes, is it an ordeal for actors A. Yeah.

Q. being the front runner, or did that make it easier? A. You know what made it easier? And I'm not just saying this and when I said, you know, like a crude, crazy person tonight at the top of the speech was this category is full of great actors, great actors, great actors and everybody, they all know, because anytime I've won, I've made a point of saying that really what helped me through it and hopefully what helped us all through it was each other. And I don't know if I said that before, but that's really how I felt. We all really had a great time together. And we really like each other. And the other nominees, not just for my category, but the other categories throughout, were very giving, compassionate, friendly, fun and it made it an easier thing.

Q. Hello? I'm from Montreal, where it's also cold like Manitoba. A. Oh, yeah, cold.

Q. You managed to stay very cool, calm and collected when you got your other awards; Golden Globes, SAG, BAFTA. What A. Golden Globes, I was not I don't remember that. I was like I think I was I walked off.

Q. True. Very true. But tonight you look like you were almost going to lose it. What is it about tonight? Your mother in the room or A. Oh, God. Why do you even ask? It's a no brainer. It's not the most comfortable environment. I don't know what else to say. You know, you're trying to do your best. It's very nervewracking, very exciting, various mix of a lot of things.

Q. It's obviously the very high point of someone's career? A. It has nothing to do with that. It has to do with the fact that millions of people are watching you. That is what it has to do with. I'm not because it's like the high point. No, I've had high points in my career that have been all the way along and those are high points for personal reasons.

Q. Hi, Phillip. Congratulations. I wanted to ask you what do you think what would you think Truman would think of your winning tonight? What would he say? A. I have no idea. I really have no idea. He's a pretty elusive guy, so I don't know. I don't know. It depends on if he liked me or not and I don't know if he would.

Q. You've had such extraordinary roles, Love Liza, one of the best performances I've ever seen. When you were doing this film, did you think this is the role this is the one that's going to win me something, or this one stands out for me? A. No. I never thought of a role as an "award" role. If I thought that way I'd be a pretty miserable person I think. If I was making choices based on a role that was going to bring me something. You can't make choices in life like that. I don't think you can. Not when you're in an art form. That's how I see it. So I just saw the roles and opportunity that was going to be a great one, it was going to be a challenge.

Q. Once you did the picture, once you had already done the performance was there ever a time A. Same thing. You're still caught in a world of, you know, watching it and scrutinizing it and everything like that.

Q. Harry Hamlin told me playing gay ended his career. How do you account for, what has changed since then and is this is gay chic something that you think will continue? A. Gay chic? Q. It's a gay chic year. A. No, I know it's the way you put it.

Q. You want something butch er? A. No, no, I don't. I played maybe three or four roles of men that are gay or one role of a man who is transsexual. I've never really thought about it that way. It's the person you're playing. I don't know how to answer that question. It's the person you're playing. If you're playing the role just because of their sexual preference and that's why you want to play it, I think that's not a good idea. And it's got to be about the person. If that person has sexual preference of straight or gay or any other, it's the heart you're getting at, the soul you're getting at and if the heart and the soul are singing in the part and in the film, it works. And I think that's what happened this year, I think you had a lot of great roles for characters that, you know, are gay and transsexual, Felicity, they were great roles and actors embraced them and brought the heart and the soul to them. And that's it.

Q. Do you have any comment on what happened to Hamlin, that he was sort of left out in the cold back then? A. No.

CATEGORY: Foreign Language Film INTERVIEW WITH: GAVIN HOOD FILM: "TSOTSI" (South Africa)

Q. Congratulation. We were crying. We were so emotional. How do you think this is going to change the way that Hollywood views South African movie making in general? A. I think it's going to change the way South Africans view their moviemaking. In the sense that we're the second film nominated. Last year, Yesterday was nominated but we're the first film to win, and I feel very, very proud to hold this because it tells me, and all of us at home, that we can do it. And that hopefully it means that people will keep investing in our local stories, because this gives investors a little more confidence and what we want more than anything else is that people and human emotion is universal and we're more alike than we think we are around the world, and we grew up watching American films and I hope that Americans will watch our stories and just as we 've learned about Americans and the rest of the world people will know more about us from our stories, and find that we're actually so similar as human beings inside. So thanks, South Africa.

Q. How are you doing? Good to see you. A. I'm sweating and terrified. But I'm holding this.

Q. I was just wondering, you just saluted the whole continent of Africa. How is African film? And where is South Africa within the African cinema community? A. Well, I think we're priveliged in South Africa to have possibly the strongest economy, so we have an enormous amount of foreign production that has come to our country over the last 20 years, so we have, so you can rent any kind of gear you want, a huge amount. I mean, lots of Hollywood movies are shooting in South Africa now, huge amounts of European films and commercials, so we have a very solid base and commercials, so we have a very solid base, we're very fortunate in that sense. We have that infrastructure. And what has started to happen is now we're beginning to use that infrastructure to tell our own stories. I shouldn't say now we're beginning; we have been doing so, some very brave filmmakers like Anant Singh and Darrell Roodt they have been doing it for years, but we used to do one or two films a year. If we're lucky, now we're making ten or twelve and hopefully that will just keep growing and it encourages more young South African filmmakers to just keep telling their story, then I feel very proud. I really do, and I'm very proud of the whole cast and crew. Let me tell you now no kidding it's 4:00, 5:00 in the morning at home, and I know they're going crazy, I know where all the parties are. We have all the (unintelligible) before, there is so much celebrating. It's like a sports team, guys. It's like having a sports team. It's like if you're a Yankee fan. You know, people at home, we just won something that we've never won before, and I know that makes people at home very happy, so thanks.

Q. Alan Silverman, we're on on Cape Talk. A. We're live?

Q. Well, we're going to be in a few minutes. A. Wow. Q. Don't worry, we can edit it all out. A. Okay.

Q. You mentioned before that there was a sense of relief. Did that sense pass over you as you were waiting for your name to be announced? A. You know, I've said before, the film has been fortunate enough to win a number of festivals over the last six to eight months, and a lot of times I felt relieved instead of fully overjoyed. I felt relieved because there were so many expectations for the film and I knew so many people, my producers, my investors, our actors, our country had expectations and as the director sometimes you carry a bit too much pressure because you think you might be the guy that screwed it up. So a lot of time I felt relief but tonight, tonight I don't feel relief, mate, I feel damn great. I feel truly overjoyed. It doesn't get better than this. This is the Olympics of filmmaking and I I'm so proud of everyone in South Africa that worked on this film. I really am. Go to Tsotsi.com and read the credits. Every person put their best into this movie. It's really good.

Q. I don't think we've heard "Amandla" (sic) before. A. Buy a donkey, buy a donkey, buy a donkey. (In Afrikaan)

Q. Your two stars are complete unknowns in South Africa. A. Yeah. Q. What do you think that means for acting in South Africa? We have had Charlize win, but she had to come here. Now, we get an Oscar won by two indigenous South Africans speaking A. In their own language? Q. In their own language.

Q. I think I think that the fact that the actors were able to work in their own language we're so used to seeing stories told about our country but not always by our own people and some of those stories have been good and some have not, but as a matter of dignity story telling is important for people. It's not just not about learning about other people it's also about how we learn about ourselves and I hope we will do it more and more and it also reveals our common humanity to the rest of the world. And our struggles. But deep down inside people are more similar than we think. So, I hope South Africans keep telling all kinds of stories. I really do. Thank you.

Q. Congratulations. A. Thank you. You were confident on that red carpet and you made me even more nervous.

Q. Good for you. You know (unintelligible) you have extraordinary actors as the young lady was just saying. Is there a lot of other people like this in South Africa. What about the acting community in South Africa will we see other people? A. I hope so, yes, absolutely. I'll tell you the thing: Let me tell you the films cost money even a film like Tsotsi costs $3 million is $3 million that people want back and we have a relatively small market at home for films. So we need our films to travel. We need to have people see them outside of our country because our local market is not huge. Although I have to say Tsotsi is breaking box office records at home too. So maybe it it will help change that too. But we do have great actors and great story tellers it's just that film has been an expensive media for us. Our theater tradition as you know is very strong. The book on which this film is based is by Athol Fugard and Fugard is known all over the world for his great plays. He's won many, many awards and many Tony Awards. And so we've always had great story tellers. We've had great novelists, great musicians. We have Miriam Makeba and Hugh Masekela who came to America during the apartheid years. They went into exile. But we've had many, many great artists. But our film is such an expensive medium. And it requires the talents of so many individuals. All of whom have to be so very good in their own departments that it's the industry that is coming up last. And the fact that it's coming up in South Africa to take its place with the other art forms that are already is very. Exciting. Thank you, everyone

CATEGORY: BEST PICTURE INTERVIEW WITH: Paul Haggis and Cathy Schulman FILM: "CRASH"

Cathy: Thank you. Oh, my gosh. Oh, thank you so, so much. What an amazing night. Thank you to all of the members of the Academy for embracing. Paul: Can you mention them by name? Every single one. Cathy: For embracing our film, about love and about tolerance, about truth. Thank you to the people all around the world who have been touched by this message. And we are humbled by the other nominees in this category. You have made this year one of the most breathtaking, and stunning, maverick years in American cinema, thank you. We'd like to thank Lions Gate. Boy, did you do a job. Jon Feltheimer, and everyone in every office of that building, and we would not be here today if it were not for Tom Ortenberg, and for Sarah Greenberg, thank you. Thank you also to our financiers Andy Reimer, Jan Korbelin, Marina Grasic, Bob Yari. To our producers, our partners, Mark Harris, and Bob Yari, and Don Cheadle, and Bobby Moresco. Thank you. Don Cheadle, our partner, we wish he could be here with us tonight. Thank you everybody. Thank you to my husband, to my wife, to all of our families

CATEGORY: DIRECTING INTERVIEW WITH: ANG LEE FILM: "BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN"

Q. Congratulations for winning. A. Thank you.

Q. I know you won Best Director but there must be some disappointment in the fact that you didn't win the best film, and do you think looking back on it that it was hard to get enough people in the Academy to actually watch your film, and if you had to do it again, what would you do differently? A. I would do exactly the same. I'm so proud of the movie. They didn't vote for it. I don't know. You asked me one question, and I don't know the answer. I was backstage enjoying kind of the buildup I was familiar with, get writers and me and then there was a surprise this year for me, frankly, but congratulations to the Crash filmmakers; it seems to be very enjoyable.

Q. A lot of the movies this year were about tolerance and love in some ways. When you were putting this movie together at the very beginning from now to the moment where you are, do you think that you've seen some changes in society, people's attitudes, tolerance in general? A. Not at the time when I made the movie. All of us we spend many, many years trying to get our movies made, but for our project, it was eight years; some, I think, even longer. So it happened not just for accident. I think we sense that there's some calling, there's some need to do certain movies about how we felt three, two years ago, and somehow this year the society catches up I think. That means it happens. I don't think we planned it. We speak through our heart. I'm just glad the audience embraced it. I think the society is the audience is very hungry for love, for understanding, for respect, for complexity, for maturity. I think that's what we need.

Q. Congratulations. Nick Papst here from News Limited in Australia. Over the awards season, Heath Ledger has been up for so many awards and has left them all pretty well empty handed. Can you tell us how he's feeling now if you've spoken to him and also how you feel for him after, I guess, what must be a few disappointments? A. I think his performance is not only outstanding in the history in film history, when you look back, there is something that's rememberable (sic). I think it's not only remarkable, it's almost like a miracle. A lot of people told me that his performance remind them of a young Brando. It's just outstanding. The movie awards over the years, there's a tide. You know, Seymour Hoffman, he did a brilliant job also. It's award, but in my mind, it is no less of what I think of him. I think he did a marvelous, marvelous, miraculous performance, so original. It would stand by itself; that's in my mind. I cannot tell you what the superficial value about his value.

Q. So have you spoken to him at all down how he's feeling? A. No. I haven't got a chance. I was coming from backstage. In the past, I didn't really talked to him about that. I will hug him; I will praise him; I will tell him what he meant in my mind. I think that's all I can say.

Q. Thank you. Q. High. I'm so happy for your award. Tonight you encouraged so many Asian filmmakers, they try to follow you. Could you give the message to them and also the advice to them. A. I think it's important to be honest and be loyal and treasure your own culture root and do your best, because that's your best: Where your root is. That's how I did it, and then you'll find a way. You'll find something to move your heart. But being honest and being brave and be proud of your culture I think I cannot say anything more valuable than that, but that's how it worked for me.

Q. Thank you.

Q. This Melissa, National Public Radio. I'm wondering if you feel that Brokeback Mountain was slighted this evening for Best Picture because of its subject matter? A. I don't know. I really don't know. Actually, in box office, we did the best of all five movies, and we've been winning, sweeping, whatever, and it just happened this way. I really don't know.

Q. (Foreign Language) (Unintelligible) Intelligence Bureau and sorority sending their congratulations. Would you care to share how you're feeling with the entire population of Taiwan in Mandarin, please, and also which part of the Oscar is America and which part of it is Taiwan? A. I don't make that distinction. Oscar is Oscar; it's for filmmakers. Very proud that they share it with any color, any background. As long as they do a job and make a movie that moves people, they award them and they're very appreciative [answer in Chinese].

Q. How do you feel about the whole Oscar show try to ignore the Brokeback? A. I think it's funny in a very good way.

Q. Why? A. Well, it poked fun of authority, of something. It's provocative and it's funny. I think that's what an award show should be. Especially with the gay cowboy sequence. That was hilarious. That was quite genius (sic). It's been going on for a long time. I think it (unintelligible) the whole way of thinking. It's right there, and if somebody pushes it over, it's not easy once somebody starts it.

Q. Congratulations. How did you did it? You were born in a very very far away country and now you're standing in the middle of America between two Oscars in front of a lot of press and holding one Oscar in your hand. This time it's the Oscar, not the foreign language Oscar. How did you do it? A. I don't know. I work hard. I think I'm a talented filmmaker; there's no false modesty about that, and I think I'm used to adapt because I've been here for a long time and my parents from China, so I adapted Taiwanese way of life, so I'm always adapting. And I grew up watching Hollywood movies like everybody, most part of the world, so that's like nothing, and then I worked for (unintelligible) and somehow my Chinese film let me to do things like Sense & Sensibility, and gradually, I learned how to be more sure about portraying the Western world by details and how I did period piece and I pick up quicker I guess I work hard, and I'm sensitive and when I do foreign language film for me I'm more careful in smelling around to see if I did the right thing on set a lot of consulting, a lot of learning, there is no shortcut. I think that really explained that a movie is really sight and sound, the language doesn't really get in the way if you really get into it. Q. What's the thing that you do best? A. Drama. I would say, something deal with repression. Q. Chinese A. Answer Chinese.

Q. Congratulations on winning Best Director. You are the first Asian director to get this honor. How do you think the film will be perceived in Asia? And the second question is, it's been said that younger generations doesn't really care about the Oscar nominated film. What did your children say about your film? A. My children loved my film. You know, in the past, they like John Woo's movie, they don't care about my movie, making women cry pretty much, and they think they're boring, but this is the first time, they're very proud of me. They're proud of the movie; they'll watch it again and again. It's really bringing my family together again and all my efforts in leaving them really worthwhile. They both talk to me in depth about the movie. And there here in Oscar I'm sure they're having a great time I think that the movie, the movie in Asia is already opened, most of the places, Japan opened, I think, two days ago very well. I think not only Oscar, will be in the Oscar running for a some time, so that's free publicity. Something I want to point out, in both Asia and Japan, in Hong Kong and Taiwan, and it's rated PG and it's R rated here, they really liked the movie and they're doing great.

Q. Hi. Jeannie Wolf from movies.com. Congratulations. You said that this movie spoke to you. How did it change you in the process of fighting for it to be made and the process of adapting to understand the hearts of these people, and I have to tell you to make it fast because people are waiting. A. It certainly changed me. Before I get into making this movie, I was very tired from two very ambitious work, The Hulk and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. I almost wanted to retire. I felt I had enough, I hit the bottom, sort of like my mid life crisis or something, and this movie teach me how to look at myself, how to manage myself in movie making again, enjoying making them, and the movie was shot very simple, nothing special, but most important, it taught me again, it's about human emotions, drama and acting. So I feel like I had a rejump start. In ways, it remind me of me making my first little movie. There is a certain freshness to it, actually, coming from tiredness ironically. Of course, the Western world.

CATEGORY: BEST PICTURE AND ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY INTERVIEW WITH: PAUL HAGGIS, BOBBY MORESCO AND CATHY SCHULMAN FILM: "CRASH"

Q. Question for Paul Haggis. Congratulations. Obviously Canada feels pretty good tonight, having hometown winning this, but it's a very urban L.A. film, but it's also been marked by a lot of controversy among the producers, as has been documented this week. I'm curious if that mutes somewhat the joy that you may all feel tonight in regards to winning this? A. Do we look muted? Do our reactions come off as muted? Because we're pretty fuckin' happy. And, you know, a lot of people made this film, and we owe being here to a lot of people and those people who are listed as producers on this, Bob and Mark and Don and Bobby here, you know, are the reasons we're here, Cathy and I are here. We're here representing them. So we're, very, very proud to represent them.

Q. Did you ever think that the momentum, the so called momentum, for Brokeback was, in fact, something that Crash would overcome in the end? A. I didn't believe that for a second. I didn't believe any of that nonsense. In fact, we were so shocked. I mean, shocked I mean we're still trying to figure out if we got this. A. Or if we're actually even here. A. No, it's lovely. Thank you.

Q. Congratulations to all of you. Now, through this whole award season, Paul in particular, has been cool, calm and collected every step of the way. A. Now I fall apart. Thank you. When millions of people are watching. Thanks for noticing.

Q. What made you fall apart in this moment? A. Well, my mom's ring was the thing that just got me. My sister Jess gave me that during the commercial break and I just went... She said, she knows you're here, and this is so you know it. And I was going, oh Jesus, why did you do that to me? And it just threw off everything I was going to say. And, yeah, I miss my mom very, very much.

Q. Hi, Paul. I just want to say Crash explores race relations in America? A. That's what you want to say?

Q. No, but yet you tell stories through a Canadian sort of view. How does being Canadian influence the way you tell stories? A. Well, I think it's the same thing with Bobby, I would answer this as being an outsider in this town is a good thing. Being an outsider as an artist anywhere is a good thing. Even though we've lived in Los Angeles for, I don't know, 25 years how long have you lived here, Bobby? A. 1993. A. Yeah, so it's been a long time. So even though we're here and we look like we're Americans well, Bobby, in fact, looks more like an American than I do A. I'm actually not. I'm from New York. A. That's good. You know, you're just a half step back from everybody else, I've said this before, but I notice things, just on the studio lot, things people would take for granted, and I would take it for granted, and I would say hold it, what just happened here? And they would say, no, that was nothing, that was nothing. And I'd go, something just happened. I'm pretty sure something happened. So they would tell me that I was crazy, and I would go write it down.

Q. What would you tell your friends and colleagues back in Canada? A. What would I tell my friends and colleagues back in Canada? I don't know. Let me think about that, okay? Q. A lot has been said about A. I love your accent by the way. It's fabulous.

Q. 13 years and it's still there. A lot has been said about the social and political issues of the films nominated this year, and others have been made throughout the show tonight as well. And I'm wondering if you had a comment about that and if you think that (unintelligible) themes that are important today? A. I think it's pretty obvious that it is. When you look at films like Good Night, and Good Luck and Brokeback and Munich and Capote, these are important films. These are films that are telling very human stories, but risky human stories and we're so proud to be listed among them. This is a hell of a year to be nominated.

Q. So many movies in this era are made to may seem to close the week after they open, and Crash on the other hand is a movie that keeps getting bigger and bigger. So I'm wondering what you think are the reasons for, again, the sort of resonant, spreading ripples of Crash, and also I'm wondering if looking at the films that have been nominated this year if Hollywood's finally getting the message that a lot of people want movies that they can think about and talk about in the car on the way home and so on?

Q. My favorite kind of films are the films when you walk outside and you argue about something outside and you break up with your date, because she disagreed with your opinion. So that's what we wanted to make here, and I think good stories will always well, I'm mumbling. You go ahead. No, next question. Please?

Q. Cathy, I wanted to ask you, you said on stage I want to thank my husband and my wife. Can you elaborate a little bit about what that meant? A. Did I really say that? I meant my husband and my daughter Leah. If I said that, it proves how nervous I was. Oh my God. Did I really say that? A. I was sitting with her husband, and he said to me, "who's her wife?" A. Mistake, sorry.

Q. Hi. Congratulations on your win. I'm just wondering, with the win if your win opens up ensemble cast? Is that something you would want to do again? Is the win with the ensemble cast A. No. I think we're all just selling out and going for the big budget blockbuster picture now. A. Oh, no. I will.

Q. Do you think your win sends the message about substance and movies with substance? A. Yeah, I think it does. I think we're in a time when a lot of stuff is going on in the world and people are interested in what's happening to the person that's standing next to them. That's opening up the doors to hear a bunch of different stories about a bunch of different ways of living your life.

Q. Congratulations to the three of you. A. Thank you.

Q. To Paul. Tell us what was going through your mind the minute they said Crash for Best Picture, and tell us how you did it? How did you upset and beat the favored picture for Best Picture? A. Oh, that's easy. I have no idea. Were you watching here? Because I don't think I had a mind when they called that. It was just mush. So I don't think none of us expected this and I mean you hope, but no, we had a tiny picture. We opened at the wrong time. You know, but thank God for Lion's Gate because they did in doing everything wrong, they did everything right. And they were so smart the way they did this. They broke all the rules, and I guess this is the year that Hollywood rewarded rule breakers.

Q. Mr. Haggis, a few years ago you were still working for television? A. Yes. Q. Last year you missed the Oscar for Best Screenplay? A. Yes.

Q. And this year you both Best Screenplay and Best Film. Do you think the things are going very fast for you, soon? A. You mean

Q. suddenly? A. You mean that I wrote the last two Best Pictures, right? And are you asking me if it's a good thing? Yeah, it's a really good thing. I would really recommend it as a career move. Anybody who's thinking about, you know, going out and writing the next two Best Pictures, and I think it's a good thing. A. It's a good thing, three is better. A. It's a pretty amazing 13 months, I'll tell you that. A. Yeah, Clint's just finished shooting Flags of Our Fathers, which I wrote for him, and Steven Spielberg is producing, and I have something I'm doing this summer, and Bobby and I are doing a TV show. We love TV, so we're going back to do that.

Q. And is your next thing already written? A. You know, that's the problem. I've been hiding away and trying to write during all this madness, and I actually went to France to write, and it's almost impossible to do so at this time of year, but no, I got a draft done and I read it and said this is really bad and so I'm re writing it, yeah.

Q. Mr. Haggis in Crash, Sandra Bullock's character talks about how she's angry every day. Do you think even her mood would be lightened by today's events, and how much do you think the Oprah show, where she had where she did it with the DVD release, how much do you think that affected momentum for the show? A. Who knows? I mean, at the time, Sandy's character, yeah, I think she would be a little happier with this, Sandy is wasn't she marvelous in this? She was really marvelous. What was the question? Oprah. You know, I thought we did this huge bump after Oprah and I charted the I looked at the DVD sales and they didn't actually go up that much after that but I think the awareness went up a lot. Yeah, I think it's obviously not Oprah or any one thing Lion's Gate was so, so smart in the way they did this, and I'm not just saying this because they're our distributor, if they had done a shitty job, I'd be telling you, but they did a great job, and Oprah was one part of that.

Q. Paul over here. A. Over here means nothing. To your right, to you left, these are good things.

Q. Steve Futterman, CBS. A. Hey, Steve.

Q. I'd like to ask you, can you just talk about what you hope, now that this film has received worldwide publicity, national publicity; what you hope people will learn when they see this film, because obviously, you're going to get a much larger audience now. A. You know I don't think filmmakers should tell you what their film should how they should inform the audience. I think filmmakers, the best of them, the best of them this year, asked really important questions and I think our film asked some questions that, things that were in our hearts, you know, when Bobby and I were writing it, things that troubled us. And so hopefully the audience will draw their own conclusions because when you speak to people, I don't know, with your experience, or, well, actually I do. Everyone you talk to draws something different from the film. So I'd hate to try and dictate what that was for anybody.

Q. At the same time can you give a general idea of what you want people to learn about tolerance, you want people to learn about what other people are thinking, understanding? A. I think we we're all deeply I know what I am A. Exactly. A. I'm the villain and the hero of my own life. We all embody these contradictions. I think if there was one thing I would like to say, is we as Americans tend to judge things, judge people really quickly and one of the it was for Bobby and I writing this, we wanted people to just step back, just wait five seconds before condemning someone or before blaming, someone or pointing a finger at a country and saying evil. Q. You and George Clooney both won Oscars tonight, you both worked on "Facts of Life" and Cloris Leachman was an Oscar winner, also from "Facts of Life." A. You know the secret hidden connection; you got it, no one else has and I've been very surprised.

Q. So what is it about "Facts of Life" that has made it such a breeding ground for Oscar winners? A. I wish I had a really good answer for that.

Q. You're a writer. A. I know. I'll write it down and send it to you, okay? Sorry, I have no idea, but it's a great question.

Q. Well, congratulations to all of you. I'm Jonathan Mumm with News 10 in Sacramento, and Bobby, after our chat in the pizza parlor there A. Hi, Jonathan.

Q. I told you that night I thought we would see you backstage and congratulations. It's great to see you. A. Thank you. You were right. Thank you for these guys right here.

Q. And I'll tell you what and I'm sure we were all wondering, what were you about to say when they played the music and we didn't get to hear from you? A. That's very sweet for you to ask but I'll keep that to myself, but I appreciate you asking that. Thank you very much.

Another weak box office week-in.

It was a yet another bad weekend performance for Hollywood, where attention was focused on the Academy Awards on Sunday and not on turning out movies that anyone wishes to see in the theaters. The top 12 movies took in $83.8 million, down 23 percent from the same weekend last year. 

EDITORIAL: Whats wrong with the feature film industry. 

Maybe part of the problem with films today, as was pointed out at the Razzies that only 19 feature films made the magic 100 million dollar mark this past year, is that no only does the industry turn out really bad movies today they no longer know how to promote them.

Maybe Tom Cruise was over the top with his pronounced love for Katie Holmes on couches all over America but it helped the box office of both his and her films. 

The INTERNET which should be viewed as a weapon to help make a movie profitable is in most cases viewed as a enemy just as television, cable and movies rentals once were.

Showest which is the largest gathering in this country dealing with the business of feature films limits reporters to the event when if you had one reporter there for every individual coming to the event you would be better off.

Go no further then the Razzies which had every legal inch of the IVAR Theater filled with reporters to get the message out.

The press is the main sales force of the industry. The more coverage the better and the more areas that can give coverage to the business the better.

We are not the enemy of feature films but just another tool to be used to help make them money.

Red Carpet now underway at 3pm PST

The first reviews of women and how they are dressed are starting to come in. Retro back to old Hollywood fashion seems to be in.

Jack Nicholson shows up without his standard dark sun glasses on.

Alive or taped? Actors and actresses that were interviewed as much as a hour ago on E or Tv Guide being interviewed by local stations, Live or Tape?

Philip Seymour Hoffman - CAPOTE

Terrence Howard - HUSTLE & FLOW

Heath Ledger - BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN

Joaquin Phoenix - WALK THE LINE

David Strathairn - GOOD NIGHT,AND GOOD LUCK.

ACTOR -- SUPPORTING

George Clooney - SYRIANA WINNER

Matt Dillon - CRASH

Paul Giamatti - CINDERELLA MAN

Jake Gyllenhaal -BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN

William Hurt - A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE

Judi Dench -

MRS. HENDERSON PRESENTS

Felicity Huffman - TRANSAMERICA

Keira Knightley - PRIDE & PREJUDICE

Charlize Theron - NORTH COUNTRY

Reese Witherspoon - WALK THE LINE

Amy Adams - JUNEBUG

Catherine Keener - CAPOTE

Frances McDormand - NORTH COUNTRY

Rachel Weisz -THE CONSTANT GARDENER

Michelle Williams -

BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN

HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE

TIM BURTON’S CORPSE BRIDE

WALLACE & GROMIT IN THE CURSE OF THE WERE-RABBIT

BATMAN BEGINS

BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN

GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK.

MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA

THE NEW WORLD

CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY

MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA

MRS. HENDERSON PRESENTS

PRIDE & PREJUDICE

WALK THE LINE

BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN

CAPOTE

CRASH

GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK.

MUNICH

DARWIN’S NIGHTMARE

ENRON: THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM

MARCH OF THE PENGUINS

MURDERBALL

STREET FIGHT

DON’T TELL

JOYEUX NOËL

PARADISE NOW

SOPHIE SCHOLL - THE FINAL DAYS

TSOTSI

BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN

THE CONSTANT GARDENER

MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA

MUNICH

PRIDE & PREJUDICE

"In the Deep" - CRASH

"It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp" -HUSTLE & FLOW

"Travelin’ Thru" - TRANSAMERICA

THE DEATH OF KEVIN CARTER:

CASUALTY OF THE BANG BANG CLUB

GOD SLEEPS IN RWANDA

THE MUSHROOM CLUB

A NOTE OF TRIUMPH: THE GOLDEN AGE OF NORMAN CORWIN

GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK.

HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE

KING KONG

MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA

PRIDE & PREJUDICE

THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA:THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE

CINDERELLA MAN

STAR WARS: EPISODE III

REVENGE OF THE SITH

CINDERELLA MAN

THE CONSTANT GARDENER

CRASH

MUNICH

WALK THE LINE

THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE

KING KONG  WINNER

WAR OF THE WORLDS

KING KONG

MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA

WAR OF THE WORLDS

BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN

CAPOTE

THE CONSTANT GARDENER

A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE

MUNICH

CRASH

GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK.

MATCH POINT

THE SQUID AND THE WHALE

SYRIANA

THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA:THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE

KING KONG

MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA

WALK THE LINE

WAR OF THE WORLDS

AUSREISSER (THE RUNAWAY)

CASHBACK

THE LAST FARM

OUR TIME IS UP

SIX SHOOTER

BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN

CAPOTE

CRASH

GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK.

MUNICH

BADGERED

THE MOON AND THE SON:AN IMAGINED CONVERSATION

THE MYSTERIOUS GEOGRAPHIC EXPLORATIONS OF JASPER MORELLO

9

ONE MAN BAND

Pat Tillman Death to reopened

The Defense Department has asked the U.S. Army to launch a criminal investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death of Cpl. Pat Tillman, who was killed in the spring of 2004
during a combat operation in Afghanistan.

On March 3, the DoD inspector general's office notified the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command at Fort Belvoir, Va., of the need to reexamine the details of Tillman's death to determine if he died as the result of a possible criminal act, a U.S. Army spokesman said here today.

Tillman, who'd been a National Football League player with the Arizona Cardinals before he enlisted in 2001, was killed April 22, 2004 in Afghanistan. He was 27 years old. Tillman and his brother enlisted in the Army after the terrorist attacks on the United States.

Tillman was a member of the 75th Ranger Regiment from Fort Lewis, Wash., when he was killed.

Today on NBC's "Meet the Press," host Tim Russert asked Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, why previous investigations apparently haven't answered all questions on the Tillman's death.

"First of all, the Tillman family has gone through enormous anguish, and the fact that that has happened to them is really regrettable," Pace said.

And, each of the previous investigations was performed as thoroughly as possible by the investigating officers at the time, Pace said. "But, in the review process it was determined that some other factor needed to be looked at to ensure that we had a complete picture," Pace said.

For example, previous investigations into Tillman's death had concluded there was no apparent evidence of wrongdoing.

However, "the investigators did not specifically look at whether or not there was criminal activity" involved in Tillman's death," Pace said.The Army conducted three investigations into Tillman's death - two at unit level and one by U.S. Army Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg, N.C. The inquiries concluded that friendly fire killed Tillman, the Army spokesman said.

The service disciplined seven soldiers in Tillman's unit. Three received reprimands for failing to "provide adequate command and control" during the incident and four received article 15 non-judicial punishment for "failure to exercise sound judgment and fire discipline," according
to Army officials.

"The U.S. Army remains committed to thoroughly investigating each battlefield death case," Army spokesman Paul Boyce said today. "We owe this to the families and to the American public and we take this seriously."

Boyce extended the Army's condolences to Tillman's family, "and to every family who has lost a loved one in the war on terrorism."

Boyce said that reopening a death investigation is not a rare occurrence.

Posted by mbn at 11:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

options

March 04, 2006

March 03, 2006

March 02, 2006

March 01, 2006