75th Academy Awards

• 1. Introduction

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  The 75th Academy Awards ceremony aired on the 23rd of March 2003. For the first time, an Oscars broadcast reached American television in high definition.

  Steve Martin hosted for the second time, having presided over the 73rd ceremony in 2001.

  The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences staged the event at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles. It handed out honors in 24 categories to films released in 2002.

  Gilbert Cates produced the broadcast and Louis J. Horvitz directed it, with ABC carrying the telecast nationwide.

  Three weeks earlier, on the 1st of March, a separate ceremony took place at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills. There, the Academy Awards for Technical Achievement were presented, with Kate Hudson hosting.

  None of that context hinted at what the night would actually become. Within days, world events far outside the Kodak Theatre would reach onto its stage. They would reshape who showed up, what got said, and how many people were watching at all.

• 2. Chicago's Record-Breaking Night

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  Chicago collected six Academy Awards, more than any other nominee, including Best Picture. Catherine Zeta-Jones won Best Supporting Actress for playing Velma Kelly in the film. The film also took prizes for sound, art direction, costume design, and film editing. That sweep made Chicago the first musical to win Best Picture since Oliver! in 1968.

  The Pianist trailed with three awards, including Best Director for Roman Polanski. Adrien Brody won Best Actor for playing Władysław Szpilman in that same film. At 29 years old, Brody became the youngest performer ever to win Best Actor.

  Frida and The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers each picked up two awards. Frida's wins covered its score and its makeup work. The Two Towers won for sound editing and visual effects.

  Meryl Streep's nomination for Adaptation was her 13th, the most of any actor in Academy history. Jack Nicholson's nomination for About Schmidt was his 12th, extending his own record among male performers. Julianne Moore was nominated for both The Hours and Far from Heaven. She became only the ninth performer to earn two acting nominations in a single year.

  Eminem's "Lose Yourself" from 8 Mile won Best Original Song. It was the first hip hop song to take that award.

• 3. Choosing a Host

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  In November 2002, the Academy hired producer Gilbert Cates to oversee the telecast for the eleventh time. Academy president Frank Pierson praised the choice in a press release, saying, "With ten shows under his belt, no other living producer even comes close to the depth of his experience." Pierson added, "Gil practically invented the awards show as a stylistic genre. We're privileged to have him present a very special event to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Oscars."

  A few days later, Cates settled on Steve Martin to emcee the telecast. He explained his choice by describing the qualities he wanted: "A host who's witty, clever, sharp, intelligent, quick on his feet and always on top of the unfolding action. Wait, I've forgotten something. Oh yeah, and outrageously funny."

  According to the Los Angeles Times, Cates had first approached Billy Crystal, a veteran Oscar host himself, about the job. Crystal remained undecided as time passed, so Cates turned to Martin instead.

  Martin accepted with a joke of his own: "I'm very pleased to be hosting the Oscars again, because fear and nausea always make me lose weight."

• 4. War Arrives at the Ceremony

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  Hours after news broke that the American-led invasion of Iraq had begun, several actors withdrew from the ceremony. Cate Blanchett, Jim Carrey, and Will Smith all resigned from their presenting roles, citing safety concerns and respect for military families.

  ABC pressed the Academy to postpone the show by as much as a week. AMPAS president Frank Pierson and producer Gilbert Cates refused, pointing to the Kodak Theatre's unavailability on any other date. Pierson also said moving the ceremony to a different venue would cost the Academy too much.

  The bleacher seats along Hollywood Boulevard were dismantled entirely, and red carpet festivities were severely curtailed as well. Ticket holders for those seats received rain checks good toward the following year's ceremony.

  Inside the broadcast, ABC News anchor Peter Jennings delivered brief updates on the war during commercial breaks.

• 5. Michael Moore's Speech

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  Michael Moore stepped onstage after Bowling for Columbine won Best Documentary Feature. He used the moment to attack President George W. Bush and the Iraq War, which had started three days earlier. He told the audience, "We live in a time where we have fictitious election results that elects a fictitious president. We live in a time where we have a man sending us to war for fictitious reasons."

  The theater answered with a mix of boos, applause, and standing ovations all at once.

  Moments later, host Steve Martin broke the tension with a line of his own: "The Teamsters are helping Michael Moore into the trunk of his limo."

• 6. Critics Take Sides

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  USA Today television critic Robert Bianco praised Steve Martin's performance, writing, "Luckily for viewers, Martin has two other qualities that are essential to a good Academy Awards host: wit and insider status. He used both to his and our advantage, winning the crowd's confidence and then gleefully mocking them all night." Bianco also noted that the political remarks from presenters and speeches added "a touch of tension to what is so often a dull evening."

  Pittsburgh Post-Gazette columnist Rob Owen was equally impressed, writing that "Martin radiates class and wit, something often lacking in awards show hosts. From jokes about the allegedly scaled-down ceremony to reaction to his return to the Oscar stage, Martin entertained consistently." Owen added that even the segments honoring Oscar history "seemed tighter and less tedious."

  Tom Shales of The Washington Post gave Martin high marks too, calling him "a welcome sardonic voice amid all the usual piousness and self-adulation."

  Other reviewers were harsher. Entertainment Weekly's Ken Tucker complained that Martin "looked as though he'd thrown in the towel backstage and let comedy writer Bruce Vilanch come up with a batch of gormless ain't-Hollywood-goofy lines."

  Chicago Tribune columnist Steve Johnson wrote that Martin was "slightly off-key," adding that except for his line about Moore, Martin was not able to perform what he called an impossible task: "putting people at ease about attending, or watching, a party as a war raged, visible to anyone who flipped over to CNN."

  David Zurawik of The Baltimore Sun was the most pointed critic. He wrote, "As the rest of the world saw televised images of captives and corpses identified as American soldiers, we watched host Steve Martin and a theater full of celebrities celebrating their self importance." He added, "Try as they might last night in the capital of Fantasy Land to create a program that would transport us beyond current events, they never came close."

• 7. Ratings in Wartime

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  The American telecast drew an average of 33.04 million viewers across its run, a 21 percent drop from the previous year's ceremony. An estimated 62.55 million people watched all or part of the broadcast at some point.

  Nielsen measured 20.58 percent of households tuning in, over a 40.34 share. Among viewers aged 18 to 49, the show earned a 12.55 rating over a 35.37 share, also lower than the year before.

  Many outlets pointed to cable news coverage of the Iraq War as the reason viewers stayed away. At the time, it was the least-watched Academy Awards telecast since records began with the 46th ceremony in 1974. It was also the lowest-rated broadcast since Nielsen started tracking the show with the 33rd ceremony in 1961.

  In July 2003, the ceremony's production earned eight nominations at the 55th Primetime Emmys. Two months later, it won three of those nominations. Roy Christopher won for Outstanding Art Direction. Robert Barnhart, Robert A. Dickinson, and Andy O'Reilly won for Outstanding Lighting Direction. Bill Conti won for Outstanding Music Direction.

• 8. Box Office Underdogs

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  By the 11th of February 2003, when nominations were announced, the five Best Picture nominees had earned a combined $486 million at the US box office. That averaged out to $97.3 million per film.

  The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers was by far the biggest earner among them, with $321 million in domestic receipts. Gangs of New York followed with $70.1 million, then Chicago with $64.5 million, The Hours with $21.8 million, and The Pianist with just $9.1 million.

  Among the top 50 grossing movies of the year, 47 nominations went to just 14 films. The Two Towers ranked 2nd on that list, followed by My Big Fat Greek Wedding at 5th, Ice Age at 9th, Catch Me If You Can at 11th, Lilo & Stitch at 13th, Road to Perdition at 23rd, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron at 35th, Gangs of New York at 37th, and Chicago at 41st.

  Spider-Man topped the year's chart at number one, followed by Star Wars: Episode II: Attack of the Clones at 3rd. Minority Report placed 16th, 8 Mile 22nd, and The Time Machine 44th. Each had earned its nomination in a technical or craft category rather than the night's top prizes.