Defying convention, the Oscars go `global'

LOS ANGELES, MARCH 26. Oscar wrapped itself in international colours - handing five awards, including Best Picture, to the British funded ``Gladiator,'' four honours to a Taiwanese film with English subtitles and four more to a U.S. film with Spanish subtitles.

The Academy Awards last night cemented the fame of New Zealand- born, Australian-raised Russell Crowe, and sent the career of rising star Benicio del Toro, who hails from Puerto Rico, into orbit. Crowe was named Best Actor and Del Toro Best Supporting Actor and soon both may carry the title superstar as well.

The 2001 Oscars varied widely in terms of films they honoured from epics like ``Gladiator'' to an unconventional film like ``Traffic,'' giving an air of inclusion into one of the U.S. film industry's longest running and most visible awards shows.

Backstage, reporters needed translators to answer some of the questions fielded to winners from ``Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon'' director Ang Lee's Mandarin-language film that took honours for Best Foreign Language Film, Original Score, Art Direction and Cinematography.

Del Toro, winner of best supporting actor for his role as an incorruptible Mexican cop in ``Traffic'' thanked people in the U.S., Mexico and Puerto Rico. Not to be outdone, Crowe circled the globe with his thank you's.

``God bless America. God save the Queen. God defend New Zealand, and thank Christ for Australia,'' Crowe told reporters as he fielded questions after winning his award.

If anything, this year's Oscars showed that the world continues to get smaller for the movie industry as Hollywood producers look overseas to fund their cinematic dreams as did Douglas Wick and David Franzoni with ``Gladiator,'' and often foreign filmmakers come to the U.S. to find the seed money for their visions, as did Ang Lee for ``Crouching Tiger.''

But the notion of a global cinema market is no joking matter to Hollywood, where increasingly sales often dwarf U.S. ticket sales. ``Gladiator,'' for instance, raked in $187 millions in U.S. ticket sales and a whopping $263 millions overseas.

Moreover, traditionally subtitled films do not play well for American audiences, but both ``Crouching Tiger,'' which is fully subtitled in English and ``Traffic,'' which has one-third of its story spoken in Spanish and subtitled in English, scored over $100 millions in U.S. box office receipts. Indeed, ``Crouching Tiger,'' is the highest grossing foreign language film in the U.S. ever. As international as this year's Oscars were, they were also open to different types of movies and moviemaking styles. And the filmmakers welcomed the diversity of movies being honoured.

Audiences, as well as Academy Award voters, want to see ``Gladiator'' and ``Crouching Tiger'' with their high-octane action as well as sweet, romantic love stories.

Moviegoers also want to see cutting-edge films that explore controversial topics as was done by director Stephen Soderbergh with ``Traffic,'' which helped him claim the Best Director Oscar in a surprise victory over Lee. ``Traffic'' also won Oscars for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Film Editing.

Soderbergh was supposed to have split the vote between ``Traffic'' and his other film, ``Erin Brockovich,'' but Academy voters rewarded the way he seamlessly wove three disparate stories into the one movie about the drug trafficking wars and drug use in the U.S.

- Reuters

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Section  : International
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