The 74th Annual Academy Awards

The 74th Annual Academy Awards

Denzel Washington:
Two birds in one night, huh? Oh, God is good. God is great. God is great. From the bottom of my heart, I thank you all. Forty years I've been chasing Sidney [Poitier] , they finally give it to me, what'd 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, sir. Nothing I would rather do. God bless you. God bless you. I want to thank the Academy. You know, when I was in college first starting out as an actor, they asked each one of us what we wanted to do. I said I want to be the best actor in the world. All the students in the classroom looked at me like I was a nut. Life has taught me to just try and be the best that I can be, and I thank the Academy for saying to me that on this given night I was the best that I could be. I want to thank Warner Bros. and Alan Horn and Lorenzo di Bonaventura for supporting this film. And Antoine Fuqua, a brilliant young filmmaker, African-American filmmaker. I don't know where you are, Antoine, love you. Ethan Hawke, my partner in crime. So many people, I can't even remember everybody, lawyers, doctors, agents... My beautiful agent, Ed Limato. We've been together for so many years. Hometown boy from Mount Vernon. My beautiful wife. I love you so much. You put up with me, in spite of myself. And my beautiful children at home. I told you if I lost tonight I would come home and we'd celebrate and if I won tonight I would come home and we'd celebrate. Well, I'm coming home, we're celebrating. God bless you all.

Himself - Winner:
Best Picture: [Looking at the winner's envelope... ] Yeah, it says it was really close, which it was. Hi, Ron. Yikes. Okay. I want to thank the Academy for selecting our movie. I started out in the business as a writer - not a very good writer - but a writer, nonetheless. I've had the privilege of working with better writers, great actors and brilliant directors. I found that my calling was to tell stories as a producer and I love doing just that. In the case of "A Beautiful Mind" the story and the subject were personal and important to me, and to receive an award for making this movie is a miracle. I want to thank Universal Pictures, two very important and special people to me, Ron Meyer and Stacey Snider. I want to thank their team including Scott, Peter, Marc and Nikki. DreamWorks, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Steven Spielberg and David Geffen. I want to thank Sylvia Nasar and Graydon Carter. And my dedicated team at Imagine, Michael Rosenberg, Maureen Peyrot, Todd Hallowell and especially Karen Kehela, who is an amazing partner to me for her enormous contributions. Ron Howard, a closer friend, a better partner, a more inspired and evolving filmmaker I could never find. Thank you, Ron, for all of that. I can't pull this apart.

[referring to his notes]

Himself - Winner:
Best Picture: I'm so nervous. I know it's imperceptible. It's my honor to work with the profound Russell Crowe. And we wouldn't be here if it weren't for Russell Crowe. His amazing dedication, work ethic and artistry have gotten us here. The sublime Jennifer Connelly and all the fine actors on the movie. Akiva Goldsman, thank you for creating this difficult and heartrending script. And thank you James Horner for your most original and haunting score. Thank you to John and Alicia Nash. You've not only inspired a movie that has given so many a greater understanding of the vagaries of the mind, but you've given us a greater understanding of ourselves. I hope in some way our movie helped to improve the way we feel about and treat the mentally ill. And then I want to thank my little circle of love. My incredible, beautiful, amazing wife and my kids, Riley, Sage and Thomas. Thank you.

Himself - Winner:
Best Director and Co-Winner: Best Picture: God bless and thank you for this support.

Herself - Winner:
Best Actress in a Leading Role: Oh my God. Oh my God. I'm sorry. This moment is so much bigger than me. This moment is for Dorothy Dandridge, Lena Horne, Diahann Carroll. It's for the women that stand beside me, Jada Pinkett, Angela Bassett, Vivica Fox. And it's for every nameless, faceless woman of color that now has a chance because this door tonight has been opened. Thank you. I'm so honored. I'm so honored. And I thank the Academy for choosing me to be the vessel for which His blessing might flow. I want to thank my manager, Vincent Cirrincione. He's been with me for twelve long years and you fought every fight, and you loved me when I've been up but more importantly you've loved me when I've been down. You have been a manager, a friend and the only father I've ever known. Really. And I love you very much. I want to thank my mom who has given me the strength to fight every single day to be who I want to be and to give me the courage to dream, that this dream might be happening and possible for me. I love you, Mom, so much. Thank you, my husband, who is just a joy of my life. And India, thank you for giving me peace because only with the peace that you've brought me have I been allowed to go to places that I never even knew I could go. Thank you. I love you and India with all my heart. I want to thank Lions Gate. Thank you, Mike Paseornek, Tom Ortenberg, for making sure everybody knew about this little tiny movie. Thank you for believing in me. Our director Marc Forster, you're a genius. You're a genius. This moviemaking experience was magical for me because of you. You believed in me, you trusted me and you gently guided me to very scary places. I thank you. I want to thank Ivana Chubbuck, I could have never figured out who the heck this lady was without you. I love you. Thank you. I want to thank Lee Daniels, our producer. Thank you for giving me this chance, for believing that I could do it. And now tonight I have this. Thank you. I want to thank my agents. CAA, Josh Lieberman especially. I have to thank my agents. Kevin Huvane, thank you. Thank you for never kicking me out and sending me somewhere else. Thank you. Um... I, I, I, who else? I have so many people that I know I need to thank. My lawyers! Neil Meyer, thank you. Okay, wait a minute. I got to take... seventy-four years here! I got to take this time! I got to thank my lawyer Neil Meyer for making this deal. Doug Stone. I need to thank lastly and not leastly, I have to thank Spike Lee for putting me in my very first film and believing in me. Oprah Winfrey, for being the best role model any girl can have. Joel Silver, thank you. And thank you to Warren Beatty. Thank you so much for being my mentors and believing in me. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Himself - Winner:
Best Director: Thank you. Golden boy? Well, I am not a good enough actor anymore to be able to stand up here and make you believe that I haven't imagined this moment in my mind over the years and played it out about a thousand times. So here goes. It's pretty simple, really. I'm grateful. I'm very grateful for this. I'm grateful for an entire lifetime spent involved in this creative process that we do. I'm grateful that I was raised by an extraordinary man, my father Rance Howard, and my late mother Jean Howard. I also want to mention that before my mom passed away about eighteen months ago, she predicted that this was going to happen for me on this film. Well, she also made that prediction on every movie that I've directed since 1983. So now you know a little something about my mom. Thank you, Mom. Then there are the loves of my life. My incredible wife Cheryl. Yeah, she's something. Kids at home, Bryce, Jocelyn, Paige and Reed. Thank you for all the most important reasons. I've got a great friend and a partner, Brian Grazer. Brian, thanks for helping me realize so many of my dreams in this business, including getting to direct "A Beautiful Mind," which Brian produced so passionately and Akiva Goldsman wrote so brilliantly. You know, everyone from the decision makers at Universal and DreamWorks through to the entire production team, thank you for the incredible effort. It made the difference. And of course I had a tremendous cast. This is an acting movie. And including Jennifer Connelly. And Russell. Russell Crowe. This would not be happening tonight without your creative courage and your total commitment. It has been a great journey. And I thank you. And finally, they're here somewhere, I don't know where, but thank you to John and Alicia Nash for sharing your important story with us. I'm very, very proud to know you and may you have many years of peace ahead of you. Academy, thank you so much.


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