1999 is remembered as the year the suburban expose, American Beauty,won the Oscar, but the film’s road to victory was an uncertain path.

The National Board of Review began awards season with Sam Mendes’ film at the top of their list, but gave their Best Director prize to Anthony Minghella for their no. 2 film, the suspense filled The Talented Mr. Ripley. They gave their Best Actor prize to Russell Crowe as the tobacco industry whistle-blower in their no. 4 film, Michael Mann’s The Insider and their supporting awards to Philip Seymour Hoffman and Julianne Moore for multiple roles including those in their no. 3 film, Paul Thomas Anderson’s relationship drama, Magnolia. Janet McTeer was named Best Actress as a free-spirited mother in the now forgotten Tumbleweeds.

The L.A. Film Critics went with The Insider for Best Picture, but named American Beauty’s Sam Mendes Best Director. Their acting awards were split between The Insider’s Russelll Crowe and Christopher Plummer who played 60 Minutes reporter Mike Wallace and Boys Don’t Cry’s Hilary Swank and Chloe Sevigny as a real life transgendered teen who was murdered and the object of his/her affection.

The New York Film Critics went in yet another direction in giving their award to Mike Leigh’s Topsy-Turvy about the fragile reunion of Gilbert and Sullivan who come back together to write The Mikado. Leigh also won their Best Director prize, while veteran character actor Richard Farnsworth won their Best Actor prize for his portrayal of a real-life senior citizen who rides his tractor on a journey to visit his estranged, dying brother. Swank was named Best Actress while Spike Jonze’s quirky Being John Malkovich nabbed supporting awards for Catherine Keener as a bitchy boss and John Malkovich as himself.

The National Society of Film Critics confounded matters by splitting their Best Picture honors between Topsy-Turvy and Being John Malkovich while supporting the prior wins of Leigh, Crowe, Plummer and Sevigny. Their Best Actress choice, however, was another new name – Reese Witherspoon as the conniving high school student in Alexander Payne’s Election.

The Golden Globes restored American Beauty’s front-runner status with its Best Picture-Drama award. The film’s director, Sam Mendes, was also honored while acting awards went to Denzel Washington, Best Actor-Drama as Hurricane Carter in the real-life prison drama, The Hurricane; Jim Carrey, Best Actor-Comedy as the late comedian Andy Kaufman in Man on the Moon; critics’ winners Swank as Best Actress-Drama for Boys Don’t Cry and McTeeer as Best Actress-Comedy for Tumbleweeds and popular favorites Tom Cruise as a TV shyster in Magnolia and Angelina Jolie as a suicidal mental patient in Girl, Interrupted.

By the time the Oscar nominations were announced in mid-February, the only previous awards winners in the Best Picture race were American Beauty and The Insider with Lassse Hallstrom’s film of John Irving’s The Cider House Rules; Frank Darabont’s film of Stephen King’s The Green Mile and M. Night Syamalan’s box office smash, The Sixth Sense filling the remaining slots.

In the end American Beauty won five of the eight Oscars it was nominated for including Best Picture; Director; Actor (Kevin Spacey); Original Screenplay and Cinematography. It had also been nominated for Best Actress (Annette Being); Editing and Score.

Michael Caine picked up his second career Oscar as the drug addicted doctor who mentors Tobey Maguire in The Cider House Rules, which also won Best Adapted Screenplay. The other three nominees ended up with nothing, with The Sider going zero for seven; The Sixth Sense zero for six and The Green Mile zero for four.

Early favorite The Talented Mr. Ripley went zero for five; Being John Malkovich and Magnolia each went zero for three while Topsy-Turvy won two of the four Oscars it was nominated for – for Costume Design and Makeup.

Spacey’s second win in five years came at the expense of early critics’ favorites Russell Crowe (The Insider); Richard Farnsworth (The Straight Story) and Denzel Washington (The Hurricane) as well as surprise nominee Sean Penn as a fictitious jazz musician in Woody Allen’s Sweet and Lowdown.

Hilary Swank’s Best Actress win, though anticipated, was not a sure bet as pundits predicted a tight race between her and Bening, but the former TV actress prevailed as she had earlier in awards season and would again in her second face-off with Bening five years hence. Others in the race included Julianne Moore as the passionate Englishwoman in Neil Jordan’s remake of Graham Green’s The End of the Affair; Meryl Streep in what is generally regarded as her least impressive nominated performance as a real life music teacher in Music of the Heart and early critics favorite Janet McTeer in Tumblewweds.

Early favorite Christopher Plummer was shockingly left out the Best Supporting Actor race for The Insider. Caine’s competition, instead, included eleven year-old Haley Joel Osment as the boy who could see dead people in The Sixth Sense; Jude Law as Matt Damon’s victim in The Talented Mr. Ripley and Michael Clarke Duncan as the faith-healing prisoner on death row in The Green Mile.

The supporting actress award in the end was expected to go to rising star Angelina Jolie in Girl, Interrupted and it did. Her toughest competition was generally regarded to have been early critics’ favorite Chloe Sevigny in Boys Don’t Cry. Also in the race were Toni Collette as Haley Joel Osment’s mom in The Sixth Sense; Samantha Morton as a mute in Sweet and Lowdown and another early critics’ favorite, Catherine Keener as the boss from hell in Being John Malkovich.

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

This week’s new DVD releases include the Saoirse Ronan-Cate Blanchett starrer, Hanna and the Blu-ray release of the 9/11 film, United 93.