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'American Beauty' wins 5 Academy Awards

Associated Press

LOS ANGELES- ''American Beauty,'' a dark comedy about suburban alienation and family dysfunction, won five Academy Awards Sunday night, including for best picture, director Sam Mendes, and actor Kevin Spacey.

''This is the highlight of my day. I hope it is not all downhill from here,'' Spacey said jokingly, a racy reference to the film's opening. It was his second Oscar: He won for best supporting actor of 1995 for ''The Usual Suspects.''

Alan Ball picked up the Oscar for original screenplay, and Conrad L. Hall won as the film's cinematographer.

Hilary Swank, who portrayed a woman passing as a man in ''Boys Don't Cry,'' won as best actress. ''Everyone put their heart and their soul into this movie,'' Swank said.

She thanked the real-life inspiration for her role, Brandon Teena, saying: ''His legacy lives on through our movie to remind us to always be ourselves, to follow our hearts, to not conform. I pray for the day when we not only accept our differences but we actually celebrate our diversity.''

Michael Caine, the kindly orphanage headmaster in ''The Cider House Rules,'' won his second best supporting actor Oscar. Angelina Jolie, the disruptive mental patient in ''Girl, Interrupted,'' won for supporting actress - a generation after her father, Jon Voight, took home an Oscar.

''The Matrix,'' the story of a computer hacker who discovers life is a big illusion, won four Oscars - for film editing, sound, sound effects editing and visual effects.

''The Cider House Rules'' also won the adapted screenplay Oscar for John Irving, who wrote the novel.

Irving offered thanks for recognition of a film that deals with abortion and concluded by thanking ''everyone at Planned Parenthood and the National Abortion Rights League'' - which got thunderous applause.

Caine, 67, who previously won as supporting actor for ''Hannah and Her Sisters'' in 1986, seemed overwhelmed by the applause that greeted the announcement by Judi Dench and he saluted his fellow nominees.

''I'm basically up here guys to represent you as what I hope you will all be - a survivor,'' Caine told the star-studded Shrine Auditorium audience.

The 24-year-old Jolie thanked her father, a best actor winner for 1978's ''Coming Home'' and a nominee for 1969's ''Midnight Cowboy,'' saying: ''You're a great actor, but a better father.''

Pop star Phil Collins scored the best original song award for his sentimental ''You'll be in My Heart'' from the animated Disney film ''Tarzan.'' It was his first win in three nominations.

Collins thanked his three children who, he said, ''really wrote this song for me.''

The award followed a rousing performance of the bawdy ''Blame Canada'' from ''South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut.'' Robin Williams led the chorus in a production number, even though the show's producers swore there would be none.

Best original score went to John Corigliano for ''The Red Violin.'' The art direction trophy went to ''Sleepy Hollow.''

''Topsy-Turvy,'' a drama about the creation of the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta ''The Mikado,'' won two awards - for makeup and costume design.

The live action short award went to ''My Mother Dreams the Satan's Disciples in New York'' and animated short Oscar went to ''The Old Man and the Sea.'' Documentary honors went to the short ''King Gimp'' and the feature ''One Day in September.''

Spain's ''All About My Mother'' won best foreign film, prompting one of the night's humorous moments. When director Pedro Almodovar's acceptance speech began to run long, presenter Antonio Banderas pretended to pull him off the stage.

''American Beauty'' topped most critic lists going into the ceremony, and it was named best picture in Friday's controversial Wall Street Journal poll of 356 of the 5,607 voting Academy members.

Scientific or not, the survey was ''American Beauty's'' clincher for best buzz going into the Oscar show, broadcast on ABC with Billy Crystal as host.

The awards show capped one of the most bizarre Oscar seasons.

First, a large number of the ballots were delayed in the mail, and the academy had to print new ballots. The academy also extended the voting deadline a few days to last Thursday, meaning the accountants had to work overtime on awards weekend.

Then a shipment of 55 shiny new Oscar statuettes from the Chicago manufacturer disappeared from a loading dock at Roadway Express on March 8. Salvage man Willie Fulgear stumbled across 52 of the missing awards while rummaging through a trash container. Three Oscars remain missing.

Fulgear, 61, became an instant celebrity. He was given a $50,000 reward by the shipping company and two tickets to Sunday's show.

''Willie got $50,000 for finding the 52 Oscars. That's not a lot of money when you realize that Miramax and DreamWorks are spending millions of dollars just to get one,'' Crystal quipped as he pointed out the Oscar hero during the program's opening number.

A Roadway Express trucker was charged with stealing the statuettes.

The academy earlier announced the evening's special awards: Warren Beatty was named for the Irving Thalberg Award for a high level of producing, and Andrzej Wajda, premier director of Poland, won an honorary award ''for showing both the loftiest heights and the darkest depths of the European soul.''