Everybody’s favorite child actor of the early 1960s, little Ronny Howard directed his first theatrical film, a short, at the age of 15. By his late twenties and now known as “Ron” Howard, he had become an accomplished A-list director. By the time of 1995’s Apollo 13 he was already a seasoned veteran in his early forties, so much so that his failure to be nominated for an Oscar for that film shocked most awards watchers. By the time of 2001’s A Beautiful Mind, he was considered overdue. Although his biographical film about the brilliant, but schizophrenic, Nobel prize-winning mathematician John Nash met with mixed reviews from the critics, Howard had enough personal support to overcome even the most negative reviews and easily rode his popularity to an Oscar nomination and win for his film which also took home Oscars for Best Picture, Adapted Screenplay and Supporting Actress Jennifer Connolly as Nash’s long-suffering wife. The film had been nominated for four additional Oscars including a third consecutive Best Actor nomination for Russell Crowe.

The Best Picture win for A Beautiful Mind came at the expense of the year’s most anticipated and ultimately most successful film, Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, the first film in his trilogy based on the J.R.R. Tolkien novels. Although fantasy films had never won a Best Picture Oscar, this one about the battle for a mythic Middle Earth was thought to have a chance even though most prognosticators thought the Academy would take a wait and see approach, saving a win for the third installment, which it ultimately did.

Although nominated for a whopping thirteen Oscars, Fellowship took home only four, all in the technical categories, for Cinematography; Visual Effects; Makeup and for its majestic symphonic Score, composed by Howard Shore. The one major category where it was thought to have a strong shot at winning was Best Supporting Actor, but Ian McKellen’s grandly played wizard, Gandalf the Grey, went down to defeat at the hands of another British actor.

Howard’s toughest competition for Best Director was probably Robert Altman, the veteran director whose career went back even further than Howard’s, albeit barely. After an eight year absence from awards glory, Altman was back with his sixth and seventh career nominations for producing and directing Gosford Park, a stylish murder mystery set against the background a late 1920s British estate with upstairs and downstairs intrigue. Two of his ensemble, Helen Mirren and two-time Oscar winner Maggie Smith were nominated for their performances and the film won for Best Original Screenplay. It had received a total of seven nominations.

Audiences were so hungry for movie musicals after a long drought that they eagerly embraced Baz Luhmann’s Moulin Rouge!, a curious unacknowledged rip-off of La Boheme which used 20th century music to propel forward the story of the courtesan and poor writer set in the 19th. Those who liked it, loved it, and it was nominated for a total of eight Oscars including Best Picture and Actress Nicole Kidman. It won two for its Art Direction and Costume Design.

Little known actor and TV director Todd Field hit the big time with his first writing/directing for a major film, In the Bedroom, which he also produced. Nominated for Best Picture and Director, the film also received nominations for its three principal players, Sissy Spacek and Tom Wilkinson as the grieving parents of a murdered son and Marisa Tomei as the older woman with children with whom his son was involved.

Other films Oscar liked this year included Mulholland Drive; Black Hawk Down; Training Day; Ali; Monster’s Ball; Iris; Sexy Beast; Memento; Ghost World; A.I.: Artificial Intelligence and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.

David Lynch’s bizarre Los Angeles set thriller, Mulholland Drivestarted out awards season on a high note, winning the New York Film critics award for Best Film and the Los Angeles Film critics award for Best Director, but by the time the Oscar nominations came around, Lynch’s nod for Best Direction was the only one it got. The film apparently suffered from the backlash of industry insiders who accused critics’ group of thinking the film must be great because it was too complex for them to understand.

Ridley Scott received his third nomination for Best Director for Black Hawk Down, his war film about the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu. The film was nominated for a total of four Oscars and won two, for Editing and Sound.

Denzel Washington won his second Oscar, his first in the lead category for his portrayal of a bad cop in Antoine Fugua’s Training Day, which also received a supporting nod for Ethan Hawke’s portrayal of a naïve rookie.

Former TV star Will Smith received his first nomination for his portrayal of boxing legend Mohammed Ali in Michael Mann’s Ali, while veteran Jon Voight received his fourth nomination, his first in support, for portraying sportscaster Howard Cosell.

Halle Berry became the first African-American to win the Best Actress award for Marc Foster’s Monster’s Ball in which she plays the widow of an executed criminal who has an affair with her husband’s executioner.

Judi Dench received her fourth consecutive Oscar nomination and Kate Winslet her third career nomination for playing older and younger versions of novelist Iris Murdoch who died of Alzheimer’s disease in Richard Eyre’s Iris, but it was Jim Broadbent receiving his first nod as the elderly Iris’ husband who went home with Oscar.

Ben Kinsgley, a long way from Gandhi, received his third Oscar nomination for essaying a brutal gangster in Jonathan Glazer’s Sexy Beast while Christopher Nolan picked up a Best Original Screenplay nod for his breakthrough film, Memento.

The quirky comedy Ghost World picked up a Best Original Screenplay nomination, but there was nothing for early awards favorite Steve Buscemi in the supporting actor category.

Steven Spielberg took over the production reigns from the late Stanley Kubrick, but A.I.: Artificial Intelligence was not the awards magnet many of the director’s previous films had been. It was nominated only for Visual Effects and Score.

The Harry Potter series made its bow this year, securing three nominations for the first of the seven books to be filmed. Directed by Chris Columbus, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone was nominated for Best Art Direction; Costume Design and Score.

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

This week’s new releases include the Blu-ray debuts of Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Dumbo.