Academy Award Winners 2005

Gustavo Santaolalla holds his Oscar

GUSTAVO GETS THE GOLD

5 March 2006 – Argentine composer Gustavo Santaolalla has won the Academy Award for Best Original Score for his work on the film BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN. The 55-year old won the Award on his first nomination, having previously worked on films such as 21 GRAMS, THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES and NORTH COUNTRY. The film stars Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal as two young men – a ranch hand and a rodeo cowboy - who meet in the summer of 1963 while working on a sheep farm in rural Wyoming, and unexpectedly embark on a passionate homosexual encounter with each other which lasts over 20 years – and has repercussions which shakes their families, their lives, and reveals the depth of the hatred and bigotry that still exists in certain communities throughout the world today.

In accepting his award, the composer said “Thank you so much, members of the Academy. I'm so proud to have worked on this movie, Brokeback Mountain, a movie that once again showed us that love is what makes us all very similar, in spite that we can be so different. I want to thank a few people. I want to thank Ang Lee for his vision, his support, his guidance. I want to thank Diana Ossana, Larry McMurtry, Annie Proulx for their inspiration. James Schamus, and David Linde, everybody at Focus. Kathy Nelson. Robert Messinger at First Artists, my co-producer and brother Anibal Kerpel. My orchestrator David Campbell, Bob Bernstein, Ron Goldstein. I want to thank my family, my wife Alejandra, my kids Anna, Luna and Don Juan, and last but not least, I want to dedicate this to my mother, a mi madre, to my country, Argentina, and to all the Latinos. Para todos Latinos, muchas gracias, thank you”. The other nominees in the Best Score category were Alberto Iglesias for THE CONSTANT GARDENER, Dario Marianelli for PRIDE & PREJUDICE, and John Williams for both MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA and MUNICH.


Three 6 Mafia In the category Best Original Song, the award unexpectedly went to hip-hop musicians Jordan ‘Juicy J’ Houston, Cedric Coleman and Paul ‘DJ Paul’ Beauregard of the rap ensemble Three 6 Mafia for the song “It’s Hard Out Here For a Pimp”, from the critically acclaimed musical drama HUSTLE & FLOW. Somewhat controversially, the song was the first rap song performed at the Oscars, and marked the second time a song from the genre had taken home the Award, after Eminem’s win in 2002 for his song from 8 Mile (which was not performed on the night). The other Best Song nominees were Dolly Parton for “Travelin’ Thru” from TRANSAMERICA, Kathleen “Bird” York and Michael Becker for "In the Deep" from CRASH, both of which were also performed on the night by Parton and York respectively.


In the other major categories, the non-linear racial drama CRASH, which tells interlocking stories about bigotry, intolerance and social upheaval in modern day Los Angeles pulled off something of a shock by winning Best Picture, beating out the long-standing favourite Brokeback Mountain. The film also took home the awards for Best Original Screenplay for Paul Haggis and Cathy Schulman, and Best Editor for Hughes Winborne. Ang Lee won Best Director for BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, which also won the awards for Best Adapted Screenplay, but certainly did not walk off with the “clean sweep” as many had anticipated.

Philip Seymour Hoffman won the coveted Best Actor award for his portrayal of novelist and journalist Truman Capote in director Bennet Miller’s CAPOTE, beating out strong competition from Heath Ledger, David Strathairn, Terrence Howard and Joaquin Phoenix. Reece Witherspoon picked up the Best Actress award for her performance as country star June Carter Cash in the biopic of Johnny Cash, WALK THE LINE, taking home the award ahead of Judi Dench, Charlize Theron, Keira Knightley and Felicity Huffman. The supporting performance winners were George Clooney for SYRIANA and Rachel Weisz for the Africa set political thriller THE CONSTANT GARDENER.

MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA and KING KONG dominated the smaller technical awards, the former winning the awards for Cinematography, Art Direction, Costume Design; the latter winning the awards for Visual Effects, Sound and Sound Editing. WALLACE IN GROMIT: THE CURSE OF THE WERE-RABBIT won the hotly-contested award for Best Animated Feature, and THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA won the technical awards for Best Make-Up. Director Gavin Hood’s searing racial drama TSOTSI won the award for Best Foreign Language Film for South Africa; MARCH OF THE PENGUINS, won the Documentary Feature Oscar; and an honorary awards was given to director Robert Altman.

Sadly, Best Picture nominees GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK and MUNICH, as well as the critically acclaimed films such as PRIDE & PREJUDICE, CINDERELLA MAN, A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE and WAR OF THE WORLDS all went home empty-handed.

For a Movie Music UK’s commentary on the Oscar nominations, please click here.

For a coverage of the 2005 Academy Awards, please visit the official website.


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