20 years ago, the most bizarre Oscars ever took place

O Oscar 2003 accumulated controversy. the slap of Will Smith in Chris Rock at the 2022 edition and the error in announcing the top category winner in 2017 represent just a fraction of the tension that the ceremony 20 years ago brought.

Held on March 23, the event celebrated the 75th anniversary of the oscar. Steve Martin was the presenter, and Chicago (2002) was the main highlight, with 13 nominations. That year, Meryl Streep became the actress with the most nominations in history, also with 13.

Harvey Weinstein (then executive of Miramaxlater convicted of sex crimes) has had 46 nominations for his films, including four of the five nominees for Best movie: gangs of new york (2002), The hours (2002), Chicago (2002) and The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002).

In some of the films, his participation was clear and direct. In others, however, as in Lord of the Ringshis credit as a producer is a little more complicated – and it comes from the fact that Miramax has started to develop the franchise. weinstein sought to combine the three volumes of the work of Tolkien in just one film and threatened to replace the director peter jackson per Quentin Tarantino if he doesn’t accept.

jackson ended up with the movie. In exchange, weinstein received $10 million and a share of the profits. The director took his idea to the production company New Line, which he produced in the format of three films. In a last message to Harvey, jackson modeled one of the orcs in his image.

Chicago took six statuettes, including the main one of the night. frida (2002), biopic of Frida Kahlo with Salma Hayek (another film by weinstein), won two Oscars. Later, the actress revealed that weinstein tried to sabotage the feature film after she turned down several sexual advances. “I’m going to kill you, don’t think I’m not capable,” the filmmaker reportedly told Hayek. One of the scenes, with frontal nudity of the actress, would have been made after the insistence of weinsteinwho denied the allegations.

Harvey he was even publicly accused of rape by more than 80 women. He was sentenced to 23 years in jail in New York, while the state of California sentenced him to 16 years in prison.

The controversies of oscar from 2003 do not stop there. Michal Mooreafter his victory in the category of Best Documentary with shots atcolumbine (2002), made a speech against the then president George W. Bush and the Iraq war: “We live in a period where we have fictitious election results to elect a fictitious president. We live in a period where we have a man sending us to war for fictitious reasons.” Moore was booed by the audience.

Adrien Brodywho became the youngest winner of the oscar in Best Actoraged 29, by The pianist (2002), kissed the presenter Halle Berrywho expressed his displeasure with the situation afterwards.

Finally, there was the presence of Roman Polanskiby the movie The pianist. After his victory in the category of Best Directorannounced with a smile on her face by Harrison Fordthe filmmaker was applauded by the audience – despite Roman had already faced a complaint of sexual violence in court – which had names like Martin Scorsese, Meryl Streep, Jack Nicholson It is Harvey Weinstein.