The ballots are in from local residents who participated in The Malibu Times’ Oscar predictions, and keeping with the theme of the Feb. 29 Academy Awards, Malibu residents overwhelmingly handed “The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King” Oscar after Oscar.
This made figuring out who won the Oscar prediction contest a bit difficult, but the title of The Malibu Times Movie Guru goes to not one, but three Malibu residents. Robert T. Fraser, Kristine Clark and Raymond Mar missed only three categories each in their ballot picks. The three winners will receive 10 free passes to the New Malibu Theater at the Cross Creek Shopping Center.
On Sunday night, in an unprecedented event, “The Lord of the Rings” took home the Academy Award in all 11 categories that it was nominated in, which included best picture, director, visual effects, film editing, original score, original song, costume design, makeup, sound editing, art direction and adapted screenplay.
Before “The Lord of the Rings,” the record for a film winning all its nominations was nine, set by “Gigi” (1958) and “The Last Emperor” (1988). “The Lord of the Rings” tied both “Ben-Hur” (1959) and “Titanic” (1997) with its 11 awards, and was also the first fantasy film to win best picture.
An overwhelming majority of participating residents in The Malibu Times’ race, more than 70 percent in all relevant categories, correctly anticipated “The Lord of the Rings” as the clear winner in all but two categories: costume design and adapted screenplay. “The Last Samurai” was the predicted winner for costume design with 43 percent of the vote, compared to the 39 percent for “The Lord of the Rings.” Adapted screenplay was a three-way tie between “The Lord of the Rings,” “Seabiscuit” and “Mystic River,” all holding 32 percent of the vote.
The only other category in which Malibu residents’ ballots did not coincide with those of the Academy was the animated short. While the Oscar went to “Harvie Krumpet,” more than 50 percent of the participants chose “Destino” as the winner, giving only 15 percent of their vote to the Academy’s choice.
Best actress winner Charlize Theron was Malibu’s favorite as well, receiving almost 90 percent of the votes. The best actor category did not have as clear a winner for residents, but the most votes still went to the Academy’s choice, Sean Penn. Supporting actor and actress winners Tim Robbins and Renee Zellweger were also chosen by Malibu residents, who gave them both close to 70 percent of the vote.
Other categories in which participants’ opinions matched those of Academy winners were “Lost in Translation” for original screenplay, “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World” for sound editing and cinematography, and “The Barbarian Invasions” for foreign film.