Tuesday, March 25, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
LOS ANGELES -- The romantic war epic "The English Patient" won nine Oscars, including Best Picture, Director and Supporting Actress.
"Earlier I said my cup was full. Now it runneth over," said the film's producer, Saul Zaentz.
Geoffrey Rush, the mentally disturbed concert pianist of "Shine," won Best Actor, and Frances McDormand, the pregnant Midwestern cop in "Fargo," was named Best Actress at the Academy Awards Monday night.
Anthony Minghella won Best Director for "The English Patient," and one of its stars, Juliette Binoche, claimed the Supporting Actress statuette.
Concluding his thanks, Rush gave special tribute to "the unstoppable David Helfgott -- you truly are an inspiration." "Shine" told the story of the real-life Helfgott's struggle to overcome a mental breakdown.
McDormand strutted to the stage and exclaimed, "It is impossible to maintain one's composure in this situation. What am I doing here? Especially considering the extraordinary group of women with whom I was nominated."
She then paid tribute to the other four actresses nominated in her category. She complimented producers who allow directors to make "automonous casting decisions" not based on "market value."
The top acting honors won by others prevented a sweep by "The English Patient," a burn victim's tortured recollections of his misdeeds in time of war. But it was enough to put it among film among Hollywood's elite. The all-time winner was 1959's "Ben-Hur" with 11 Oscars.
"I'm so surprised," said Binoche, who, like many, thought the statuette would go to Lauren Bacall. "I didn't prepare anything. I thought Lauren was going to get it. And I think she deserves it."
Binoche portrayed the compassionate Canadian nurse in "The English Patient." Bacall, a star since 1944 but never before nominated, was named for her role as a domineering mother in "The Mirror Has Two Faces."
"The English Patient," which had the most nominations with 12, also won six other prizes: cinematography, dramatic score, film editing, sound, costume and art direction.
Besides "The English Patient's" competitive Oscars, Zaentz received the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award for his career. He also produced previous Oscar-winners "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and "Amadeus."
Zaentz ran into financing problems after beginning production on "The English Patient" and shut it down. Twentieth Century Fox, which supported the film early on, decided it wanted more commercial casting to make it more of a box-office movie.
Reportedly, the studio wanted Demi Moore in the female lead. Zaentz declined any change in casting and won financing from Miramax.
Cuba Gooding Jr., the football star who repeatedly asks his faltering agent to "Show me the money!" in "Jerry Maguire," won the supporting actor Oscar. After hugging "Jerry Maguire" star Tom Cruise on his way up to the stage, Gooding shouted out thank-yous and I-love-yous and jumped around like he had just caught a game-winning touchdown.
The Shrine Auditorium audience loved his exuberance and applauded as he yelled out thanks to his family and everyone connected to the movie.
"I know I have a little bit of time so I'm going to rush and get in everyone. You can cut away, I won't be mad at you," the excited Gooding warned the audience as he exceeded the 40-second acceptance speech limit.
"The English Patient" hit a snag in the adapted screenplay category when Billy Bob Thornton scored for "Sling Blade," in which he also starred.
"Fargo" won for original screenplay.
Oscar specializes in sentiment, and a high point was reached when the documentary feature Oscar was presented to the producers of "When We Were Kings," which depicts a key fight in the career of former boxing champion Muhammad Ali.
When the producers gave credit to Ali, who was seated in the audience with his wife, the crowd applauded wildly in a standing ovation.
Ali, who has Parkinson's syndrome, made his way hesitantly to the stage along with one-time opponent George Foreman, who is also in the film.
"Well, thank heavens there wasn't a song in 'The English Patient' is all I can say," said Andrew Lloyd Webber as he and Tim Rice collected the original-song Oscar for "You Must Love Me" from "Evita."
Before the show, the contenders for top honors were largely unknown to most Americans.
Except for Cruise, Diane Keaton, Bacall and a couple of others, most of the 20 acting nominees hadn't gotten much play in Peoria.
In fact, three were nominated for their very first movies: Emily Watson, "Breaking the Waves"; Edward Norton, "Primal Fear"; and Marianne Jean-Baptiste, "Secrets and Lies." Fourteen others were never before nominated.
And in the Best Picture category, four of the five nominees were independent films with relatively small audiences: "The English Patient," "Fargo," "Shine" and "Secrets & Lies." Only "Jerry Maguire" was released by a major Hollywood studio.
In a previously announced award, Michael Kidd, who created the dances for "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers," "Guys and Dolls" and other musicals, received an honorary award for career achievement.
This year's nominations reflected a growing attitude among the Hollywood superpowers: Let the foreigners and independents make their human dramas with little box office appeal; we'll aim for the blockbusters.
That philosophy makes sense to the studios. If they can combine some big-name stars and a sure-fire concept, they might produce a "Mission: Impossible" or a "Ransom." One such moneymaker might be enough to keep a company in the black for a year -- and guarantee the jobs of studio heads.
Veteran screenwriter William Goldman ("Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," "All the President's Men") proclaimed 1996 "the worst year in Hollywood history."
"The most startling and depressing thing about the recent Academy nominations is not that 'Jerry Maguire' was the only studio film to get a Best Picture nod," Goldman wrote in a recent magazine article. "The crusher is that 'Jerry Maguire' was the only studio film that deserved to get a Best Picture nomination."
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