Best Picture: A Beautiful Mind
A Beautiful Mind also won Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actress (Jennifer Connelly), Directing (Ron Howard), and Writing – Screenplay based on material previously produced or published (Akiva Goldsman).
The ceremony took place for the first time at the Kodak Theatre, which had opened just a few months earlier and had been built with input from the Academy to serve as the home of Oscar presentations.
Denzel Washington became the second African-American actor to win the Oscar for Best Actor (Training Day), and the first African-American actor to have won Oscars for both Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor.
Halle Berry became the first African-American actress to win the Oscar for Best Actress (Monster’s Ball).
Songwriter-composer Randy Newman, with 15 previous nominations but no wins, won for his original song “If I Didn’t Have You,” from Monsters, Inc. He thanked the Music Branch of the Academy for “giving me so many chances to be humiliated.”
Whoopi Goldberg was the host.
In May 2001, DreamWorks released “Shrek.” It went on to win the Best Animated Feature Film award in the category’s inaugural year.
In November 2001, the first Harry Potter film, “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” opened in theaters across the U.S. Based on the mega-bestselling fantasy novel of the same name, the film went on to become one of the highest-grossing movies in history.
Honorary Award
To Sidney Poitier in recognition of his remarkable accomplishments as an artist and as a human being.
Honorary Award
To Robert Redford: Actor, director, producer, creator of Sundance, inspiration to independent and innovative filmmakers everywhere.
Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award
To director Arthur Hiller.