WHAT did it all mean? Backstage at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, reporters struggled for a peg to the 67th Annual Academy Awards.
Was the success of Forrest Gump, winner of six Oscars, a sign that the United States is moving back to basics? Did Pulp Fiction 's sole award mean the country is signalling its disapproval of violence? Statue-holders stared bug-eyed at the press corps.
'It doesn't mean a thing,' said Forrest Gump 's producer Wendy Finerman.
The night went exactly according to predictions: Gump took the major awards for Best Picture, Director and Actor, as well as Adapted Screenplay, Visual Effects and Editing. Pulp Fiction, its major rival, took one Oscar (for Best Original Screenplay) out of seven nominations, as did Bullets Over Broadway (Dianne Wiest for Best Supporting Actress).
Prison drama The Shawshank Redemption went into the night with the worst title and seven nominations: it came out empty-handed.
A centenary of film is celebrated this year, but what did the 1995 Academy Awards signify? To Taiwan's Ang Lee, two-time nominated director in the Best Foreign Film category for last year's Wedding Banquet and Eat Drink Man Woman, they spelt a big Tinseltown career. Lee didn't win - 'of course I'm disappointed, but it's not the end of the world' - however he did parlay his Academy nod into a job directing Emma Thompson, Hugh Grant and Alan Rickman in Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility. The cameras start rolling in England next month on this lofty period drama.
