Chicago Sweeps the Oscars
And you thought the musical was dead. Razzle-dazzle hit Chicago triumphed at the 75th Academy Awards®, taking home six statuettes, including Best Picture and Supporting Actress for Catherine Zeta-Jones (somewhere Bob Fosse is smiling). Surprise winner Adrien Brody nabbed the Best Actor award for his performance in The Pianist (and grabbed a hefty kiss from Halle Berry), while Nicole Kidman won (by a nose?) for her turn as Virginia Woolf in The Hours. Chris Cooper took home Supporting Actor for Adaptation, and another surprise winner, Roman Polanski , won Best Director for The Pianist, which all in all got three Oscars, confounding expectations. Ooh and ahh at all of the glitzy, glamorous photos (courtesy of our fine friends at WireImage), check out the entire list of winners, and take a look-see at our Oscar Poll to find out if our participants knew all their Oscar jazz.

Winners Roundup:

Chicago -- 6
The Pianist -- 3
Frida -- 2
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers -- 2
Adaptation -- 1
Bowling for Columbine - 1
8 Mile -- 1
The Hours -- 1
Nowhere in Africa -- 1
Road to Perdition -- 1
Spirited Away -- 1
Talk to Her -- 1

The Best -- and Worst -- of 2002
We've closed the polls and tallied the votes, and now you can see who's won our Best of 2002 Poll. Not surprisingly, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers made a strong showing, as did Nicole Kidman and Daniel Day-Lewis. As for the Worst of 2002 Poll, well, we're thinking of calling this "The Britney Poll" seeing as Ms. Spears' Crossroads was a favorite (if that's the word) among the voters. And check our users' picks for those Most Likely to Win the Oscar -- you might be surprised at the results.

Razzies Get Swept Away; Heaven Lifts Spirits
A bright spot of levity and irreverence in these war-torn times shone on Saturday, as the Razzie Awards distributed their annual worst-of awards for film, and Madonna's Swept Away, well, swept it, taking five of the dis-honors, including Worst Picture, Worst Actress, Worst Screen Couple, Worst Director, and Worst Remake or Sequel. The Immaterial Girl had to share Worst Actress with Britney Spears, who stretched herself to play an aspiring pop star in Crossroads; the gal-friendly road trip flick also took home Worst Original Song for "I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman." Roberto Benigni's wooden performance as Pinocchio earned him Worst Actor, and Star Wars whipping boy Hayden Christensen made off with Worst Supporting Actor for Attack of the Clones (which also won Worst Screenplay). And the Razzies proved they were truly Madonna-crazy by giving the diva Worst Supporting Actress for her brief turn in Die Another Day. Madonna has now won nine Razzies -- the most for any female in Razzie history. Congratulations!

Saturday also saw the announcement of the Independent Spirit Awards, which were dominated by Todd Haynes' Far From Heaven. The Douglas Sirk homage won five of the awards, including Best Feature, Female Lead (Julianne Moore), Male Supporting Lead (Dennis Quaid), Director and Cinematography. Director John Waters oversaw the affair, which was peppered with anti-war statements from various winners and presenters, including Bowling for Columbine filmmaker Michael Moore, who sported a badge that said "Shoot Movies, Not Iraqis." The Male Lead award went to Derek Luke (Antwone Fisher), while Emily Mortimer nabbed Female Supporting Lead for Lovely & Amazing; the Screenplay honor went to dark comedy The Good Girl.

Oscar Nominees Do Lunch
As March 23rd drew closer, the Academy gave its annual luncheon on March 10 for this year's nominees, who nibbled on salad, beef or chicken, and dessert while chatting about this and that (we imagine the conversations went something like, "Oh, I bet you'll win!" "No, I bet you do!"). All of the acting nominees showed up -- save Paul Newman and Meryl Streep -- and obligingly answered questions and posed for photos (take a look at our photo gallery) alongside the larger-than-life gold man erected for the occasion. Afterwards, everyone got together for a graduating class-style group photo, and stood as their names were announced alphabetically and they received nomination certificates -- kudos to last-name-called Catherine Zeta-Jones, who gamely remained standing the entire time despite being eight months pregnant. Check out all the photos.

SAGs, BAFTAs, DGA, PGA Awards and More
We've wrapped up another awards season, as numerous groups from directors to cinematographers have all handed out their year-end awards for 2002's best. At the Screen Actors Guild Awards, Chicago nabbed not only Best Ensemble and Best Supporting Actress (for Catherine Zeta-Jones), but also the Best Lead Actress honor, as Renée Zellweger trumped expected winner Nicole Kidman. Both the Directors Guild and Producers Guild also chose Chicago for their top honors, while the BAFTAs (aka the "British Oscars") gave The Pianist their highest kudos. For all the major awards, take a look at the year-end kudos in our Awards Index.

NEW! Visit our photo gallery for the SAG Awards and the DGA Awards

Around the Golden Globes in a Day
There was Meryl Streep, exclaiming she hadn't won anything since the Pleistocene Era. There was Vanity Fair cover girl Salma Hayek, who made us understand why Edward Norton was smiling all night, even though he didn't win anything. There was Jack Nicholson, on Valium. There was Sharon Stone, screaming Richard Gere's name. There was everyone thanking Harvey Weinstein. And there was Lara Flynn Boyle, who apparently had a ballet recital to rush off to after the show. This year's Golden Globes were a fun and slightly crazy affair, with celebrity flubs and dizzying fashions aplenty -- and oh yes, some awards too, as The Hours and Chicago waltzed off with the evening's top honors. We've got the entire list of this year's winners as well as photos from the red carpet and backstage at the Globes, as well as all the parties, from our wonderful partners at WireImage.

Critical Honors Find Little Consensus
Critics' groups all over the country have chimed in with their picks for 2002's best, and while a few favorites emerged -- including Julianne Moore and Daniel Day-Lewis -- most of the choices were all over the map. The Pianist swept the National Society of Film Critics Awards, while Far From Heaven captivated the New York, Chicago and Seattle critics. Los Angeles is crazy About Schmidt and the Online Film Critics Society cited Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, just to be different. Take a look at all the top winners in our Critics Choice section.

Click for more trivia!

Oscar Trivia! This Original Screenplay winner has no dialogue; it beat such gabfests as La Strada and The Ladykillers. (answer)