“Gangs of New York” loses all ten Oscar nominations. Ouch!
Despite being nominated TEN times (more than any other movie this year except “Chicago”), Martin Scorsese’s historical epic “Gangs of New York” did not win a single Oscar yesterday at the 75th Academy Awards. Only “The Turning Point” (1977) and Steven Spielberg’s “The Color Purple” (1985) have garnered more nominations (eleven) without any wins. “Gangs of New York” is now part of that fraternity of films with nominations but no wins, alongside “Dr. Strangelove,” “The Conversation,” “The Insider,” “Psycho,” “In the Bedroom,” “The Maltese Falcon,” “The Birds,” “Blade Runner,” “A Clockwork Orange,” “The Thin Red Line,” “Blue Velvet,” “The Magnificent Andersons,” “Do the Right Thing,” “Memento,” “Das Boot,” “Easy Rider,” “A Hard Day’s Night,” “Hoop Dreams,” “Strangers on a Train,” “The Man Who Would Be King,” “Manhattan,” “The Manchurian Candidate,” “Double Indemnity,” "Full Metal Jacket," “Deliverance,” “The Talented Mr. Ripley,” “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” “Serpico,” “North by Northwest,” “Five Easy Pieces,” “The Wild Bunch,” and Scorsese’s own “Taxi Driver.”
Scorsese remains in that brotherhood that has never won an Oscar for directing, alongside Orson Welles, Stanley Kubrick, Akira Kurosawa, Fritz Lang, Sam Peckinpah, Federico Fellini, Robert Altman, Terence Malick, Sidney Lumet, Ingmar Bergman, Brian De Palma, Charlie Chaplin, Ridley Scott, David Lynch, F.W. Murnau, Michael Mann, George Lucas, John Frankenheimer, and Sir Alfred Hitchcock
One could argue that this is better company than many movies that have won best picture, and many directors with Oscars on their mantles.
Anyway, “Chicago,” here the results from last night. The F&SN Critic and His Beautiful and Talented Wife made predictions yesterday morning concerning the outcome of the twenty categories open to full-length, non-documentary feature films. Within two guesses they were able to predict more than half of the winners.
Best Picture
Supporting Actress – Catherine Zeta-Jones
Art Direction
Sound
Film Editing
Costume Design
“The Pianist” – 3 awards
Best Director – Roman Polanski (no, he did not pick up his trophy)
Actor – Adrien Brody
Adapted Screenplay
“Frida” – 2 awards
Original Score
Makeup
“The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” – 2 awards
Visual Effects
Sound Effects Editing
Supporting Actor – Chris Cooper
“8 Mile”
Original Song
“The Hours”
Actress – Nicole Kidman
“Nowhere in Africa”
Foreign Language Film
“Road to Perdition”
Cinematography
“Spirited Away”
Animated Feature
“Talk to Her”
Original Screenplay
March 24th, 2003