SHREK Takes Oscar Gold

On March 24, 2002 at the brand new Kodak Theater in
Hollywood, California, the Academy of Motion Picture
Arts and Sciences announced the winners of this
year's Oscars. For the very first time, an award was
given in the category Best Animated Feature, and the
winner was DreamWorks’ SHREK. Taking home the prize
for Best Animated Short was Pixar’s FOR THE BIRDS. Another animated film was represented when Randy Newman won the Oscar for Best Original
Song for the MONSTERS, INC. theme “If I Didn’t Have
You.”

While A BEAUTIFUL MIND won four of the big awards of the
night -- Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actress and Best
Adapted Screenplay -- the first installment of the film
adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy epic THE LORD
OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING [1] took home
four Oscars as well, winning for Best Visual Effects, Best
Make-Up, Best Cinematography and Best Original
Score. Congratulations to all the winners!

In addition, the results are in for Animation World
Network's Oscar Review reader poll. We hope you
visited each nominee that was featured in The 2002 AWN
Oscar Showcase. If you didn't then take a few moments
to see them "http://www.awn.com/oscars">now [2]!

For the fifth year running, Animation World Network's
voters have chosen the same short film winner as the
Academy!

An overwhelming 65% of all AWN voters predicted FOR
THE BIRDS would take home the Oscar, while 14% voted
for FIFTY PERCENT GREY, followed by 8% for STRANGE
INVADERS, 7% for STUBBLE TROUBLE and 6% for GIVE UP
YER AUL SINS.

Unlike the animated short category, all Academy
members are eligible to vote in the new category of
Best Animated Feature. Perhaps this is why our readers
did not predict a win by last summer's blockbuster hit
SHREK. With 35% of the vote, the Oscar winner came in
second in our unofficial poll. 55% of AWN voters
picked MONSTERS, INC. to be the winner with JIMMY
NEUTRON: BOY GENIUS in third with 10%.