The Hindu : Halle Berry creates Oscar history

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Mar 26, 2002

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Halle Berry creates Oscar history

Best actress Halle Berry (for Monster's Ball) and best actor Denzel Washington (for Training Day) pose for photographers with their Oscar trophies during the 74th annual Academy Awards in Los Angeles. — AP

LOS ANGELES, MARCH 25. Oscar glory bathed black stars on Sunday night as never before, as African-American performers claimed the top acting awards for the first time, and Sidney Poitier was saluted as the first leading man to cross Hollywood's colour barrier. Mr. Poitier and actor Robert Redford were given Oscars for lifetime achievement.

The surprise foreign film award winner was Bosnia's No Man's Land, writer-director Danis Tanovic's satiric story of a Bosnian soldier and a Serbian soldier stuck together in a trench, which beat France's Amelie, which had five nominations, and the Indian favourite Lagaan.

"This moment is so much bigger than me," a shivering Halle Berry exclaimed through tears as she accepted the first best actress statuette ever presented to a black performer. She won the prize for her role in the racially-charged film Monster's Ball.

Moments later, Denzel Washington, 47, claimed the second Oscar of his career, and his first as a lead actor, for playing a corrupt cop in the gritty drama Training Day. He became only the second African-American to win the best actor prize, nearly four decades after Mr. Poitier became the first to do so for Lilies of the Field in 1964.

"Two birds in one night, huh," Mr. Washington said as he emerged smiling on stage. "Forty years I've been chasing Sidney. They finally give it to me. What do they do? They give it to him the same night. I'll always be chasing you, Sidney. I'll always be following in your footsteps. There's nothing I would rather do."

The nomination of Mr. Washington, Ms. Berry and Will Smith, for his biographical boxing portrait in Ali, marked the first time since 1973 that three black performers were nominated in lead acting categories in the same year.

And the Oscar victories of Mr. Washington and Ms. Berry — only the seventh and eighth statuettes ever taken home by African-Americans — was an added triumph.

A Beautiful Mind took the top honours as best picture. It also won the best director for Ron Howard and tied with The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring with four Oscars total at the awards ceremony. — Reuters, AP

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