Hollywood holds its breath
2005-02-23 12:54
Holllywood - Hollywood held its breath yesterday as the race for the Oscars entered its final stage with the closure of voting for cinema's top prize, leaving the fate of the golden statuettes in the hands of auditors.
The 5 808 voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences had until 17:00 on Tuesday to select the names of their favourite stars and movies to influence the outcome of Sunday's awards.
"It's over," said Academy communications director John Pavlik. "Those ballots that were not received by (auditors) PriceWaterHouse Coopers by 17:00 will be set aside and will not be counted.
"All of the campaigning and the hopes of the nominees is in those ballots. Now all we have to do is wait five days to find out who the winners are," he said.
The secret ballots
The secret ballots will be stored in a secure area where three auditors will begin tallying the votes, determining the winners and preparing the famed envelopes to be opened on stage during the Oscars ceremony.
Veteran PriceWaterHouse Cooper's Oscar auditor, Greg Garrison and colleagues Brad Oltmanns and Rick Rosas will have to harbour a golden secret as they will be the only people on earth to know the results of the Oscars before the show.
After tabulating the results, the trio with place the winners names in sealed foil-lined envelopes to be opened by the all-star cast of Oscar presenters on stage at Hollywood's Kodak Theatre on cinema's biggest night.
The winners of the 77th annual Academy Awards in 24 categories will be announced at a glittering show starting at 17:00 on Sunday night (03:00 South African time).
Around 116 people, including actors, producers, directors, writers and make-up artists, are nominated this year for the awards that have the power to make or break Hollywood careers.
Who's up for an Oscar?
This year's Oscars competition features close-call dogfights between nominees in key categories, including Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress.
Legendary director Martin Scorsese's movie The Aviator, the life story of US billionaire Howard Hughes, goes into the awards armed with a leading 11 nominations including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor for Leonardo DiCaprio.
But while the spectacular film started out as the favourite to win the coveted best picture and best director awards, as well as several other statuettes, awards pundits say it has suffered a last-minute set-back.
It is locked in a ruthless bout with Hollywood legend Clint Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby, about a determined female boxer played by Hilary Swank, which has punched its way to the front of the competition for the best picture, best actress and best director, they say.
Previous Oscar-winner Eastwood and Scorsese, who has never won an Academy Award, are also duking it out for the coveted best director's statuette.
Swank or Bening?
Swank is heavily-tipped as the favourite for Best Actress, but she faces intense competition from Hollywood queen Annette Bening for her role in Being Julia.
Awards watchers predict that both "Aviator" and "Baby" could snag around five Oscars each, but say that Eastwood's film is likely to be the focus of attention at Sunday's show.
The Oscars will be attended by 3 300 people including Hollywood's top stars and powerbrokers and will be watched live across the globe by up to a billion people, organisers say.
Rain threatens Oscars
But while security is a perennial top priority for Oscars organisers, they are faced with another major worry this year ? torrential rain that has pounded Los Angeles for six straight days, flooding suburbs and triggering mudslides and accidents that have killed at least three people.
"The last time it rained on Oscars night was in the mid to late 1980s," Pavlik said, crossing his fingers that the forecasts of cool weather but no rain for Sunday would prove accurate.
"We have had rain up until the day before the show many times, but for some reason the Oscar gods always shine on Sunday and we hope they will do so again this year," he said.