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Chicago celebrates at war-ravaged Oscars

Movie musical Chicago has taken six Oscars at the 75th Academy Awards, becoming the first musical to win best film since Oliver! in 1968.

Roman Polanski was the surprise winner of the best director award for The Pianist, while his lead actor Adrien Brody, 29, became the youngest ever winner of the best actor award.

Nicole Kidman took the best actress Oscar for her performance as Virginia Woolf in Stephen Daldry’s The Hours.

A heavily pregnant Catherine Zeta Jones won best supporting actress, the UK’s only major award of the 75th Oscars for her role in the hit musical Chicago.

“Oh my God - it’s a Scotsman giving a Welsh girl an Oscar,” she said as she collected her prize from former James Bond star Sean Connery.

The Oscars had been toned down due to the Iraq conflict, with scaled-down red carpet entrances amid the ceremony’s tightest security. Thousands of anti-war protesters gathered outside the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, along with several hundred pro-war demonstrators, using the global event as a platform for their views.

Several big-name winners including Michael Moore, Pedro Almodovar and Chris Cooper also made their feelings about war known in their speeches. The strongest comments during the ceremony came from Moore, whose film exploring US gun culture won the best documentary Oscar.

“We live in fictitious times,” he said when picking up the award for his anti-gun film “Bowling for Columbine.”

“We live in a time with fictitious election results that elect fictitious presidents,” he said referring to Bush’s contest 2000 election victory. “We live in a time when we have a man sending us to war for fictitious reasons.

“We are against this war Mr Bush. Shame on you. Shame on you!,” he said to loud boos from an audience of 3,500, including most of Hollywood’s top stars.

Polanski’s win caused a stir even though he was not at the ceremony. He beat favourite Martin Scorsese, but has not set foot in the US since 1977 as he still faces charges for having sex with a 13-year-old girl.

Brody snatched the Oscar from under the noses of movie greats and Oscar winners Jack Nicholson, Daniel Day-Lewis, Michael Caine and Nicholas Cage.

Kidman, 35, defied the odds by snatching the best actress trophy for her role as Virginia Woolf, in the fraught drama “The Hours,” despite bookie and expert predictions that “Chicago’s” Renee Zellweger would win.

Kidman and Brody both made reference to their sadness at war in Iraq in their acceptance speeches.

Kidman cried and said: “There are a lot of problems in the world since 9/11 and there’s been a lot of pain and with the war families losing people - and God bless them.”

Brody received a standing ovation when he said: “Whatever you believe in whether it’s God or Allah may he watch over you and we pray for a swift resolution.”

First-time winner Brody, who played a Polish pianist who survived the Holocaust, beat four previous Oscar winners.

Spanish director Pedro Almodovar, who won best original screenplay for Talk To Her, added that his Oscar was for those “raising their voices in respect of peace democracy and international legality - all of which are essential qualities to live”.

And actor Chris Cooper also made reference to the conflict with a plea for world peace as he won best supporting actor for his role in the film Adaptation.

Peter O’Toole, who won a lifetime achievement Oscar, joked as he said: “Always a bridesmaid never a bride, my foot - I now have my own Oscar now until death do us part.”

Rapper Eminem, who is also known for hitting headlines, won an Oscar for best original song for the film 8 Mile, but was not at the ceremony to collect his prize.

Best foreign film was won by Germany’s Nowhere in Africa, a film directed by Caroline Link about the challenges faced by a German Jewish family who flee from the Nazis to Kenya.

And hit Japanese cartoon Spirited Away won the Oscar for best animated feature.

The awards began with host comic Steve Martin joking about the glamour at this year’s event, and making jokes at the expense of several stars at the ceremony, including Jack Nicholson and Nicole Kidman.

“I’m glad they cut back on all the glitz - you probably noticed there was no fancy red carpet tonight. That’ll send them a message,” he said, referring to anti- and pro-war protests outside the ceremony. The ceremony was being broadcast live in the US on TV network ABC, but it also broke off from the event to relay the latest news on the war in Iraq. —Agencies

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