Best Picture: Gladiator
Gladiator also won Academy Awards for Best Actor (Russell Crowe), Costume Design (Janty Yates), Sound (Scott Millan, Bob Beemer, and Ken Weston), and Visual Effects (John Nelson, Neil Corbould, Tim Burke, and Rob Harvey).
Steven Soderbergh received two of the five directing category nominations, for “Erin Brockovich” and “Traffic,” both of which were also Best Picture nominees. This had happened only once before, in 1938, when Michael Curtiz was nominated for directing Angels with Dirty Faces and Four Daughters. Gladiator was the first film since 1949’s All the King’s Men to win Best Picture without winning for either Directing or Writing.
Taiwan’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon won the Oscar for Foreign Language Film. It earned 10 nominations in all and also won for Art Direction, Cinematography and Original Score. The four awards tied it with Fanny & Alexander (1983) as the foreign language film with the most wins.
Dino De Laurentiis received the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award.
Steve Martin was the host.
In January 2000, AOL announced plans to buy Time Warner, Inc. for roughly $165 billion, the largest corporate merger to date.
On February 6, 2000, Tarja Halonen was elected the first female president of Finland.
On February 13, 2000, the day after the death of cartoonist Charles M. Schulz, the final original “Peanuts” Sunday comic strip appeared in newspapers around the world
On April 22, 2000, federal agents seized six-year-old Elián González from his relatives' home in Miami, Florida, and brought him to his Cuban father in Washington, D.C., ending one of the most publicized custody battles in U.S. history. Father and son returned to Cuba in June.
In May 2000, the Tate Modern opened in London.
On August 23, 2000, the season one finale of “Survivor” attracted more than 50 million viewers, who watched as Richard Hatch, a 39-year-old corporate trainer from Rhode Island, won the $1 million prize.
On November 7, 2000, Hillary Rodham Clinton was elected to the U.S. Senate, becoming the first former First Lady to win public office.
On December 12, 2000, after five weeks of bitter legal wrangling over the election of the 43rd U.S. president, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that manual recounts of disputed ballots in Florida must cease. The decision resulted in Florida’s 25 electoral votes being awarded to George W. Bush, thereby giving him victory over Vice President Al Gore.
In December 2000, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was officially shut down.
Honorary Award
To Jack Cardiff, master of light and color.
Honorary Award
To Ernest Lehman, in appreciation of a body of varied and enduring work.
Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award
To producer Dino De Laurentiis.