Regardless of the fact that The Aviator won more Academy Awards than Million Dollar Baby, this year’s Oscars for best movie and best directing went to celluloid industry veteran Clint Eastwood for his boxing film.
The 74-year-old actor and film director, the oldest ever to win in the directing category, was celebrating his second best-picture and directing triumph since 1993, when he won Best Director and Best Picture Oscars for Unforgiven, and thanking his mother, who also had accompanied him the previous time.
"She’s here with me again tonight, so at 96, I’m thanking her for her genes," said Eastwood. "I figure I’m just a kid. I’ve got a lot of stuff to do yet."
Hilary Swank won her second Best Actress Oscar in five years for her role as a gutsy, working-class woman establishing herself as a boxer in Million Dollar Baby, which has already taken in $65 million.
"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 the 30-year-old who was proclaimed the best actress back in 2000 for her role in Boys Don’t Cry.
Jamie Foxx took the Oscar for Best Actor for his portrayal of the late blind musician Ray Charles in the biopic Ray.
Australian actress Cate Blanchett walked away with the award as Best Supporting Actress for her role as Katharine Hepburn in The Aviator.
"Thank you, of course, to Miss Hepburn. The longevity of her career is inspiring to everyone," she said. "Most importantly, thank you to Martin Scorsese. I hope my son will marry your daughter."
The Aviator, which has taken in $94 million so far, turned out to be the 5th failure in winning the directing Academy Award for legendary Martin Scorsese, regarded as the best director never to have won an Oscar.
The biopic about the lives and loves of Howard Hughes, which went into the 77th Academy Awards ceremony with 11 nominations, won Oscars for art direction, cinematography, costume design, film editing and supporting actress.