1993 Academy Awards® Winners and History
The Remains of the Day (1993, UK)
Actor:
TOM HANKS in "Philadelphia", Daniel Day-Lewis in "In                 the Name of the Father", Laurence Fishburne in "What's                 Love Got to Do With It", Anthony Hopkins in "The Remains                 of the Day", Liam Neeson in
"Schindler's                   List"
Actress:
HOLLY HUNTER in "The Piano", Angela Bassett in "What's                 Love Got to Do With It", Stockard Channing in "Six                 Degrees of Separation", Emma Thompson in "The Remains                 of the Day", Debra Winger in "Shadowlands"
Supporting Actor:
TOMMY LEE JONES in "The Fugitive", Leonardo DiCaprio                 in "What's Eating Gilbert Grape", Ralph Fiennes in
"Schindler's                   List" , John Malkovich in "In the Line of Fire",                 Pete Postlethwaite in "In the Name of the Father"
Supporting Actress:
ANNA PAQUIN in "The Piano", Holly Hunter in "The                 Firm", Rosie Perez in "Fearless", Winona Ryder                 in "The Age of Innocence", Emma Thompson in "In                 the Name of the Father"
Director:
STEVEN SPIELBERG for
"Schindler's                   List" , Robert Altman for "Short Cuts", Jane                 Campion for "The Piano", James Ivory for "The                 Remains of the Day", Jim Sheridan for "In the Name of the Father"
Finally,                   after many years of dubious treatment and neglect, producer/director                   Steven Spielberg (with his sixth directorial and seventh Best                   Picture nomination) won the Best Picture Oscar (and Best Director                   Oscar) for his monumental, mature masterpiece
Schindler's                     List . [The film - although mostly black and white -                   contained a few segments in color, thereby disqualifying it                   from being the most recent completely black and white film                   to win the Best Picture Oscar. That honor still applied to The                   Apartment (1960) .]
Spielberg won his first competitive Oscars                   for the powerful, documentary-style, 'historical' dramatization                   of Thomas Keneally's 1982 book (from a screenplay by Steven                   Zaillian) about the Third Reich's Holocaust, and the role of                   one complex man named Schindler (Liam Neeson) - a failed German                   industrialist and Catholic war profiteer (a pots-and-pans factory                   owner), who struggled to save more than a thousand Polish-Jewish                   lives in Nazi-occupied Poland with the assistance of Jewish                   accountant and confidante Itzhak Stern (Ben Kingsley).
The three hour-long, small-budget ($23 million)                   film had twelve nominations and seven overall                   wins (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Art                   Direction, Best Cinematography for Janusz Kaminski, Best Film                   Editing, and Best Original Score - by John Williams). Surprisingly,                   the film won no acting awards. Spielberg also triumphed in                   the same year with three technical-achievement awards for his                   box-office hit Jurassic                     Park : Best Sound, Best Sound Effects Editing, and Best                   Visual Effects.
Four of the five Best Picture nominees were                   serious-minded films. The one exception was the box-office                   hit and action thriller The Fugitive (with seven nominations                   and one win - Best Supporting Actor) - the story of the relentless                   tracking of a convicted innocent man in director Andrew Davis'                   re-make of the 60's long-running TV series - it was notable                   as the first - and only - Best Picture nominee remake                   to be based on a popular TV series.
The other three Best Picture nominees included:
the strange love story between a mute-by-choice                     19th century Scotswoman (and pianist) and a New Zealand neighbor                     in producer/writer/director Jane Campion's offbeat film The                       Piano (with eight nominations and three wins - Best Actress,                     Best Supporting Actress, and Best Screenplay)
director Jim Sheridan's political-injustice                     drama about an accused IRA bomber who is wrongfully imprisoned                     in In the Name of the Father (with seven nominations                     and no wins)
the Merchant Ivory period drama of unrequited                     love in director James Ivory's film The Remains of the                       Day (with eight nominations and no wins)
Andrew Davis, the director of Best Picture-nominated The                   Fugitive, failed to receive a nomination in the Best                   Director category. Davis' place was filled by director Robert                   Altman for his three-hour long film, a collage of Raymond                   Carver's short stories, Short Cuts (the film's sole nomination).                   [This was Altman's second consecutive Best Director nomination                   for a film that did not receive a Best Picture nomination                   - The Player (1992) also received a Best Director                   nomination without a Best Picture nod. And it was also Altman's                   fourth unsuccessful bid to be Best Director.]
Jane Campion's nomination as Best Director for The                   Piano made her only the second woman in Oscar                   history to be nominated in the category. Campion is the first                   (and only) woman to have directed a Best Picture nominee                   AND to have received a Best Director nomination for herself.                   [The first woman ever nominated for Best Director                   was Lina Wertmuller for Seven Beauties (1976), seventeen                   years earlier.] Although Campion lost the Best Director Oscar,                   she won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.
Half of all the male acting nominations went                   to British performers (Day-Lewis, Hopkins, Neeson, Postlethwaite,                   and Fiennes). All four of the year's acting winners were first-time                   Academy Award winners.
The Best Actor Oscar was presented to Tom Hanks                   (with his second nomination and first Oscar win), best-known                   for comedic roles, for his serious performance as AIDS-infected                   corporate attorney and victim Andrew Beckett, fired from his                   job and fighting homophobia in director Jonathan Demme's bold                   adaptation of Ron Nyswaner's screenplay for Philadelphia (with                   five nominations and two wins - the second Oscar was                   for Bruce Springsteen's Best Song "Streets of Philadelphia").                   In the same year, Hanks starred in Nora Ephron's very popular romantic comedy Sleepless in Seattle, a remake of An                     Affair to Remember (1957) - with two unsuccessful nominations                   for Best Original Screenplay and Best Original Song. [Note:                   During Hanks' acceptance speech, he paid homage to his high                   school gay teacher Rawley Farnsworth - the situation was later                   used as the basis for the comedy In & Out (1997) in                   which a passionate Oscar winner during his acceptance speech                   inadvertently outed a teacher.]
The other Best Actor nominees were:
Daniel Day-Lewis (with his second nomination)                     as wrongly-imprisoned IRA terrorist and political prisoner                     Gerald Conlon in In the Name of the Father
Laurence Fishburne (with his first nomination)                     as abusive wife-beater Ike Turner in What's Love Got to                       Do With It (with two nominations and no wins); Fishburne,                     whose nomination was bumped up to a lead one, performed his                     own songs in the film
Anthony Hopkins (with his second nomination)                     as faithful, yet repressed head butler Stevens in The                       Remains of the Day
N. Ireland native Liam Neeson (with his first                     nomination) as conscience-stricken German industrialist Oskar                     Schindler, the savior of a thousand Polish Jews in
Schindler's                       List
Among the female acting nominees, two were simultaneously                   nominated in the lead and supporting acting categories in 1993                   - Holly Hunter and Emma Thompson. They were the first nominees                   to compete against each other in both the Actress and                   Supporting Actress categories, in the same year:
[Because Emma Thompson lost both Oscars                     in the Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress categories,                     she shares the same dubious 'achievement' with actress Sigourney                     Weaver - who was also unsuccessful with her nominations for Gorillas                       in the Mist (1988) and Working Girl (1988). Although                     Thompson and Weaver both lost, usually a double-nominee wins                     one of the categories.]
Holly Hunter (with her second/third nominations                   and first Oscar win) won the Best Actress Oscar for                   her dialogue-less performance as the 19th century mute (since                   childhood) and mail-order bride Ada McGrath - the erotic, Scottish                   woman and gifted pianist in The Piano. [This was another                   instance in which an award was given for an actress' non-speaking                   role, i.e., Jane Wyman in Johnny Belinda (1948), Patty                   Duke in The Miracle Worker (1962), Marlee Matlin in Children                   of a Lesser God (1986).]
The other four Best Actress nominees were:
Angela Bassett (with her first nomination)                     as abused rock singer Tina Turner in What's Love Got to                       Do With It
Stockard Channing (with her first nomination)                     as privileged Fifth Avenue wife Ouisa Kittredge in director                     Fred Schepisi's satirical comedy/drama of race and class, Six                       Degrees of Separation (the film's sole nomination)
Emma Thompson (with her second - or third                     nomination) as housekeeper Miss Kenton in The Remains                       of the Day
Debra Winger (with her third unsuccessful                     nomination) as Joy Gresham, the forthright American fan/poet                     and romantic lover of Oxford author/lecturer C. S. Lewis                     in director Richard Attenborough's exquisite melodrama, Shadowlands (with                     only two nominations, also Best Adapted Screenplay - and                     no wins)
The Best Supporting Actor Oscar was won by Tommy                   Lee Jones (with his second nomination and first Oscar                   win) for his performance as determined and relentless, laconic                   Deputy U.S. Marshal Samuel Gerard who tracks fugitive Harrison                   Ford in the exciting chase film The Fugitive. Many felt                   the award should have gone to Ralph Fiennes instead.
The other four Best Supporting Actor nominees                   in the category were:
nineteen year-old (pre-Titanic) Leonardo                     DiCaprio (with his first nomination) as co-star Johnny Depp's                     impaired, mentally-challenged teenage brother Arnie Grape                     in director Lasse Hallstrom's What's Eating Gilbert Grape (the film's sole nomination)
Ralph Fiennes (with his first nomination)                     as the merciless and vicious Nazi labor camp commander Amon                     Goeth in Plaszow in
Schindler's                       List
John Malkovich (with his second nomination)                     as former CIA agent and cold-blooded Presidential assassin                     Mitch Leary in director Wolfgang Petersen's thriller In                       the Line of Fire (with three nominations and no wins)
Pete Postlethwaite (with his first nomination)                     as Guiseppe Conlon, the father of wrongly-imprisoned co-star                     Daniel Day-Lewis in In the Name of the Father
The unexpected winner of the Best Supporting                   Actress Oscar was 11 year-old Anna Paquin for her R-rated film                   role as co-star (and competitive nominee) Holly Hunter's illegitimate                   daughter Flora in The Piano. [Paquin's Oscar, in her                   debut film, made her the second youngest competitive                   Oscar winner, second to 10 year-old Tatum O'Neal who won the                   Oscar twenty years earlier for Paper Moon (1973). Paquin                   also became the first New Zealander to receive an Oscar                   for Best Supporting Actress.]
The other Best Supporting Actress nominees included:
Holly Hunter (with her second - or third nomination)                     as tough, bleach-blonde secretary Tammy Hemphill in producer/director Sydney Pollack's thriller based on John Grisham's best-selling                     novel about a corrupted law firm, The Firm (with two                     nominations and no wins)
Brooklyn-born Puerto Rican Rosie Perez (with                     her first nomination) as co-star Jeff Bridges' fellow airplane                     crash survivor and guilt-stricken Hispanic mother Carla Rodrigo                     in director Peter Weir's Fearless (the film's sole nomination)
Winona Ryder (with her first nomination and                     the favored nominee) as May Welland - the emotionally-proper                     fiancee of co-star Daniel Day-Lewis in director Martin Scorsese's                     film adaptation of Edith Wharton's novel The Age of Innocence (with                     five nominations and one win - Best Costume Design)
Emma Thompson (with her second - or third                     nomination) as Gareth Peirce - Gerald Conlon's (Daniel Day-Lewis')                     English solicitor in In the Name of the Father
Six-time Best Actress nominee (in 1949, 1953,                   1956-1958, and 1960) and win-less Deborah Kerr received an                   Honorary award during the ceremonies, "in appreciation for a full career's worth of elegant and                   beautifully-crafted performances." She had appeared in some                   of cinema's greatest films, including Black Narcissus (1947), I                     See A Dark Stranger (1947), Edward, My Son (1949), The                       Prisoner of Zenda (1952), From Here                         to Eternity (1953) , The King and I (1956) , Tea and Sympathy (1956), Heaven                             Knows, Mr. Allison (1957), Separate Tables (1958), The                 Night of the Iguana (1964), and The Arrangement (1969).
Oscar Snubs and Omissions:
Brad Pitt was un-nominated for his performance                   as terrifying, homicidal serial killer Early Grayce in Kalifornia,                   nor was Val Kilmer as philosophical, ravaged Doc Holliday in Tombstone,                   nor was Ben Kingsley as Schindler's Jewish accountant in
Schindler's                     List , nor was Debra Winger as Arliss Howard's wife                   Vida in a romantic triangle in the pyrokinetic, incendiary Wilder                   Napalm.
Tim Burton's offbeat, stop-action animated musical The                   Nightmare Before Christmas was nominated (and lost) for                   only one award: Best Visual Effects, but was ignored for                   Danny Elfman's original musical score, and for the songs                   in its soundtrack (there were about a dozen songs in its                   74 minutes). Unexpectedly, there were no nominations for                   Wayne Wang's mother-daughter stories (adapted from Amy Tan's                   novel) in The Joy Luck Club.
Juliette Binoche was denied a nomination as grieving                   wife Julie Vignon de Courcy in the first film of director Krzysztof                   Kieslowski's three-color trilogy, Three Colors: Blue (Fr.)                   (aka Trois Couleurs: Bleu).
Denzel Washington was denied an acting nomination for his performance as black, ambulance-chasing defense lawyer                   Joe Miller (opposite Best Actor-winning Tom Hanks) in Philadelphia,                   as was Jeff Bridges for his role as post-traumatic stress disorder                   victim Max Klein in Weir's Fearless, and Arnold Schwarzenegger                   as fictional action hero film character Sgt. Jack Slater (and                   himself) in Last Action Hero. Although nominated for Remains                     of the Day, Anthony Hopkins should also have been nominated                   for his role as Christian novelist C.S. Lewis in Shadowlands (a                   film mostly neglected by the Academy). And Matthew McConaughey                   was un-nominated for his memorable performance as the seasoned                   suitor named Wooderson of Texas high school girls in Dazed                   and Confused.
An emerging romantic comedy masterpiece, Groundhog                   Day, struck out for Oscar nominations. There was no recognition                   for director/screenwriter Harold Ramis, or for actor Bill                   Murray's superb characterization as TV weatherman Phil who                   was forced to repeat the same day over and over again in                   an endless loop, and (supporting) actress Andie MacDowell                   as TV producer Rita (Phil's love interest). Composer John                   Williams' musical score for Jurassic                     Park was also not nominated.