LOS ANGELES -The boxing saga Million Dollar Baby was the Academy Awards heavyweight last night, claiming best picture and three other trophies, including honors for director Clint Eastwood, lead actress Hilary Swank and supporting actor Morgan Freeman.
The night meant more heartbreak for Martin Scorsese. The Aviator came away with the most Oscars -five, including the supporting-actress prize for Cate Blanchett -but Scorsese lost the directing race for the fifth time.
Eastwood, who at 74 became the oldest directing winner ever, noted his mother was with him when his Western Unforgiven won the 1992 best-picture and directing Oscar.
She's here with me again tonight
so at 96 I'm thanking her for her genes Eastwood said. I figure I'm just a kid. I've got a lot of stuff to do yet.
Scorsese matched the record of Oscar futility held by a handful of legendary filmmakers such as Alfred Hitchcock and Robert Altman, who also went 0-for-5 in the directing category.
Swank became a double Academy Award winner yesterday for Million Dollar Baby, while Jamie Foxx took lead actor for Ray. The wins for Freeman and Foxx made it only the second time blacks won two of the four acting prizes.
Swank, who previously won the best-actress Oscar for Boys Don't Cry, once again beat out main rival Annette Bening, nominated for the theater farce Being Julia. Bening had been the front-runner for American Beauty five years ago but lost to underdog Swank.
I don't know what I did in this life to deserve all this. I'm just a girl from a trailer park who had a dream
said Swank, who played an indomitable boxer.
Swank joined Vivien Leigh, Helen Hayes, Sally Field and Luise Rainer as the only actresses with a perfect track record at the Oscars: Two nominations and two wins.
Foxx won for his uncanny emulation of Ray Charles in Ray. As he had at earlier awards triumphs, Foxx led the Oscar audience in a rendition of the call-and-response chant from Charles' 1959 hit What'd I Say, whose funky electric-piano grooves play over the opening credits of Ray.
Give it up for Ray Charles and his beautiful legacy. And thank you Ray Charles for living
said Foxx, who climbed to Oscar glory after an early career built mainly on comedy, including his TV series The Jamie Foxx Show and the raunchy sex flick Booty Call.
Foxx had been a double Oscar nominee, also picked in the supporting category for the hit man thriller Collateral.
Playing Katharine Hepburn in The Aviator, Blanchett had the spirit of the Oscars' most-honored actress on her side. Hepburn, the love of Hughes' life in the 1930s before she began her long romance with Spencer Tracy, earned 12 nominations and won a record four Oscars.
Thank you
of course
to Miss Hepburn. The longevity of her career I think is inspiring to everyone
Blanchett said. She added thanks to Aviator director Scorsese, saying, I hope my son will marry your daughter.
Oscar host Chris Rock said Blanchett was so convincing that Sidney Poitier, Hepburn's co-star in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, showed up at Blanchett's house for supper.
The wins by Freeman and Foxx followed Denzel Washington and Halle Berry's triumph three years ago for Training Day and Monster's Ball, the only other time blacks claimed two acting Oscars.
It means that Hollywood is continuing to make history
Freeman said backstage.
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