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2000 was the year in which such eagerly awaited films as All the Pretty Horses; Pay It Forward; Unbreakable and The Legend of Bagger Vance disappointed critics and fizzled at the box office, causing studios to scramble for titles to promote for the year’s top Oscars.

It might have been the perfect year for a foreign language film to take the top prize and Edward Yang’s family drama, Yi Yi,might have been the perfect winner, but the independent producers behind the Taiwan-Japan co-production failed to file the appropriate paperwork with the Academy and were left in the cold. Reminiscent of Yazujiro Ozu’s 1953 masterpiece, Tokyo Story, which was also ineligible for Oscar consideration in its day, the film lives on thanks to its discovery by audiences on DVD.

A Taiwanese film did, however, make the list of nominees. Ang Lee’s high-flying Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon co-produced by Hong Kong, China and the U.S., and distributed by the more savvy Sony Classics, was a box office hit as well as a critical favorite. It received ten Oscar nominations, a record for a foreign language film, and won four. Lee won his first Directors Guild award for the film and took home the Best Foreign Film Oscar, but failed to win the Best Director Oscar in competition with Seven Soderbergh, who achieved the rare feat of being nominated in the Best Director category for two separate films in the same year.

Soderbergh’s Oscar came for the ensemble drug drama, Traffic, the independently distributed film over the whistle-blowing Erin Brockovich which had been distributed by Universal. Soderbergh also had the distinction of directing two of he year’s winning performers to Oscars in two different films. Benico Del Toro won the Best Supporting Actor award for his conflicted Mexican cop in Traffic and Julia Roberts won the Best Actress award for her portrayal for real life legal assistant whistle-blower Eric Brockovich.

While both Traffic and Erin Brockovich received five nominations each, Traffic walked away with four wins whereas Roberts’ win was Brockovich’s sole honor. Albert Finney, who had a small role in Traffic received his fifth nomination, the first in the supporting category, for his lively portrayal of Roberts’ often exasperated boss in Erin Brockovich.

Dreamworks’ early hope was on Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous which left the Toronto Film Festival with great expectations but underperformed at the box office, forcing the studio to re-think its Oscar strategy. While Almost Famous was nominated for four Oscars including supporting nominees Kate Hudson and Frances McDormand, it won just one for Crowe’s screenplay.

Dreamworks’ re-engineered campaign focused on summer box office hit Gladiator, a throwback to the sword and sandal epics of the 1950 and early 1960s, which benefitted from a big year-end DVD release. The film went into the race with a whopping twelve nominations and came out with five wins including Best Picture and Actor Russell Crowe as the Roman general who becomes a gladiator. Joaquin Phoenix received his first nomination as the corrupt prince, Commodus.

Oscar guru Harvey Weinstein’s Miramax took the fifth Best Picture slot with the sugary sweet Chocolat, which received a total of five nominations including Best Actress Juliette Binoche and Best Supporting Actress Judi Dench.

Other films Oscar granted nominations this year included Billy Elliot; Cast Away; Quills; Wonder Boys; Requiem for a Dream; You Can Count on Me; The Contender and Pollock.

Stephen Daldry received the first of his thus far three nominations as Best Director for the British family in turmoil drama, Billy Elliot. The film also received nominations for Best Original Screenplay and Supporting Actress Julie Walters as a no-nonsense dance teacher, but nothing for Jamie Bell for his star-making portrayal of the working class boy who secretly takes ballet lessons.

Tom Hanks received his fifth and last to date nomination for his portrayal of a modern Robinson Crusoe in Robert Zemeckis’ Cast Away, which was also nominated for Best Sound.

Geoffrey Rush added to his on-screen versatility as the Marquis de Sade in Quills, picking up the third of his four nominations to date in the process. The film was also nominated for Best Art Direction and Costume Design.

Michael Douglas received some of the best notices of his career as an English professor in Curtis Hanson’s Wonder Boys, but failed to pick up an Oscar nomination for his efforts. The film did receive nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay and Editing and won for Best Song, Bob Dylan’s “Things Have Changed”.

Ellen Burstyn received her sixth and final nomination to date for her portrayal of the pill popping matron in Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream, while Laura Linney received the first of her three nominations to date as a single mother in Kenneth Lonergan’s You Can Count on Me. Lonergan was himself nominated for Best Original Screenplay.

Joan Allen received her third and last nomination to date for her portrayal of a Vice Presidential candidate in Rod Lurie’s The Contender while Jeff Bridges received the fourth of his six nominations to date as the sitting president in the same film.

The year’s biggest surprise had to be Marica Gay Harden’s come from behind win for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of artist Lee Krasner in Pollock. Ed Harris was also nominated for playing her husband, artist Jackson Pollock.

All films discussed have been released on DVD in the U.S.

This is a big week for new DVD releases with the 70th anniversary edition of Citizen Kane and the second season of TV’s Glee topping Tuesday’s releases and the Blu-ray release of all six Star War films hitting stores on Friday.

Amazon’s exclusive Special Edition Blu-ray includes the first U.S. DVD release of The Magnificent Ambersons.

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