Best picture or for any award?
How do you define horror or comedy?
Silence of the Lambs won the Oscar for Best Picture in 1991, although I think most people would put it farther away from the “horror” genre and label it a “drama/thriller.”
I think comedy is even harder to define.
Rain Man won an Academy award, and there’s something comedic going on almost throughout the entire movie, yet the movie itself isn’t actually a comedic one, at least I don’t think.
Sort of the same thing with Forrest Gump which won best picture. There’s a lot of comedy in it but both Forrest Gump and Rain Man seem to be more designed as dramas with comedic elements than as comedies.
Around the World in Eighty Days (1956 best picture winner) however I think actually can be classified as a genuine bonafide comedy.
It Happened One Night
Going My Way
Gigi
The Apartment
Tom Jones
The Sting
Annie Hall
Shakespeare in Love
All won Best Picture. There are some musicals which could perhaps be classed as comedies also, and then you have a picture like All About Eve which is amazingly funny and witty but probably wouldn’t be classified as a comedy.
Best Actor
Clark Gable (It Happened One Night)
James Stewart (The Philadelphia Story)
Bing Crosby (Going My Way)
Richard Dreyfuss (The Goodbye Girl)
Jack Nicholson (As Good As It Gets)
Best Actress
Claudette Colbert (It Happened One Night)
Judy Holliday (Born Yesterday)
Audrey Hepburn (Roman Holiday)
Diane Keaton (Annie Hall)
Cher (Moonstruck)
Helen Hunt (As Good As It Gets)
Gwyneth Paltrow (Shakespeare in Love)
I think Tom Jones (Best Picture, 1963) and Around the World in Eighty Days (1957) both count as “genuine comedy”. Annie Hall (1977) and You Can’t Take It with You (1939) might, too.
Going through the entire list of the other “major” awards (Actor/Actress/Director):
Best Director (1931) - Norman Taurog for Skippy
Best Director (1937) - Frank Capra for Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
Best Director (1938) - Leo McCarey for The Awful Truth
Best Actress (1954) - Audrey Hepburn for Roman Holiday
Best Director (1967) - Mike Nicholls for The Graduate
Best Actress (1988) - Cher for Moonstruck
For horror - if we’re excluding “Silence of the Lambs” (1991) we have to exclude “Rebecca” (1941), unfortunately, and we have to open the list for “other” awards to get any serious hits:
Best Actor (1932) - Frederic March for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Best Supporting Actress (1969) - Ruth Gordon for Rosemary’s Baby
Best Screenplay (1974) - William Blatty for The Exorcist
Best Visual Effects (1987) - Aliens
Best Actress (1991) - Kathy Bates for Misery
Best Costume Design (1993) - Dracula (Coppola)
Kevin Kline won Best Supporting Actor for *A Fish Called Wanda * - probably one of the goofiest movies ever to sport an Oscar win. And I use goofy in the most sublime sense possible.
Whoo-hoo! One I know! Tootsie! Won for best actress for Jessica Lange. Nominated for a host of Oscars, best picture among them. But didn’t win best picture, like I originally thought.
In what universe is SILENCE OF THE LAMBS not a horror movie?
Marisa Tomei for* My Cousin Vinnie*. Of course she didn’t actually win…
Lange won Best Supporting Actress for her role in Tootsie. She was nominated the same year in the Best Actress category for the title role in Frances, but didn’t win.
Am I being whooshed? Marisa Tomei won an Oscar (Best Supporting Actress) for her role in My Cousin Vinny.
It’s a reference to the myth that Jack Palance gave the award to Tomei by mistake
[Arthur] It’s just a little joke![/Arthur]
I had the same thought this year when Crash was announced. I looked down at my laptop just before Jack said the name and I never saw him open the envelope. I thought he gave the award to the movie he liked best without reading it. Since no one else had this reaction I assumed I just missed the opening on the envelope.
Now Jack Palance I’m not so sure about…
Speaking of which, John Gielgud won Best Supporting Actor for his role in Arthur.
Best Supporting Actors who won their awards for comedies or pseudo-comedies:
Charles Coburn-1943-The More The Merrier
Barry Fitzgerald-1944-Going My Way
Jack Lemmon-1955-Mister Roberts
Martin Balsam-1965-A Thousand Clowns
Walter Matthau-1966-The Fortune Cookie
George Burns-1975-The Sunshine Boys
John Gielgud-1981-Arthur
Don Ameche-1985-Cocoon
Michael Caine-1986-Hannah and Her Sisters
Jack Palance-1991-City Slickers
Chris Cooper-2002-Adaptation
Any that I missed?
Yes, how could you forget Lee Marvin winning an oscar for -1965-Cat Ballou? :eek:
Marvin was Best Actor, however, not Best Supporting Actor.
[QUOTE=Loach]
I had the same thought this year when Crash was announced. I looked down at my laptop just before Jack said the name and I never saw him open the envelope. I thought he gave the award to the movie he liked best without reading it. Since no one else had this reaction I assumed I just missed the opening on the envelope.QUOTE]
I thought the exact same thing. Jack must’ve opened the envelope while no one was looking (ie, while reading the nominees).
Horror movie purists insist that horror movies must at least have an element of the supernatural or fantastic to qualify. Films like Silence of the Lambs, Psycho, and Se7en, despite their horrific aspects, are firmly rooted in the “normal” world. The audience knows the awful things depicted can–and do–happen in real life.
Oh, like I’m supposed to read the posts I respond too! :smack: