Halle Berry, Denzel Washington Take Home Oscars

The 74th Annual Academy Awards were held Sunday night at the Kodak Theater, the first time in 42 years the Oscars were held in Hollywood. The Kodak Theater is located just across the street from where the first awards show was held at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in 1929. The Oscars have also been held in other arenas such as the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, the Pantages Theater, the Shrine Auditorium, the Ambassador Hotel, the Biltmore Hotel and Grauman’s Chinese Theater. Whoopi Goldberg, in her fourth hosting role, descended from the ceiling on a Moulin Rouge-like "swing" wearing sequins and feathers a la Nicole Kidman.

A Beautiful Mind walked away with the Best Picture award, beating Moulin Rouge, Gosford Park, In the Bedroom and The Lord of the Rings. Denzel Washington won Best Actor for his role as a corrupt cop in Training Day. He dedicated his Oscar to the only other black actor to win an award for Best Actor, Sidney Poitier for 1963’s Lilies of the Field. "Groundbreaking African-American actor" Poitier was presented with an honorary Oscar. Halle Berry won an Oscar for Best Actress for her performance as a death-row widow who becomes romantically involved with a prison warden in Monster’s Ball. Berry became the first African-American woman ever to win the Best Actress award. During her emotional acceptance speech she said, "This moment is for Dorothy Dandridge, Lena Horne, Diahann Carroll. It’s for the women that stand beside me, Jada Pinkett, Angela Bassett, Vivica Fox…and it’s for every nameless, faceless woman of color that now has a chance because the door tonight has been opened."

Ron Howard won his first Oscar for Best Director for A Beautiful Mind and Jennifer Connelly won for Best Supporting Actress for her work opposite Oscar-nominated Russell Crowe. Best Supporting Actor went to Jim Broadbent for his role in Iris. The Academy presented Robert Redford with an honorary Oscar for his achievement as an actor, producer, director and the creator of the Sundance Film Festival. This was also the longest Academy Awards telecast – four hours and 17 minutes.