Flashy moments at the Academy Awards tend to go to “topliners” — actors, directors, writers and best picture. But that doesn’t mean the other categories can’t shine bright. And during the 78th Oscars, held at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles on March 5, 2006, that’s exactly what happened. Here’s what unspooled in the animated feature, song, makeup, costume, foreign-language film (now called international feature film) and live-action short film categories 20 years ago.
A first for South Africa 
Director Gavin Hood accepts the Oscar for the South African Oscar submission “Tsotsi.”
(Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)
“Tsotsi,” director Gavin Hood’s film about a young troublemaker who carjacks a vehicle only to find a baby inside, racked up South Africa’s first-ever Oscar win in the international feature category. It was the country’s second nomination, and the first African film not made in French to win.
Hood accepted the award from Will Smith and spoke briefly in Zulu before shifting to English: “God bless Africa.” He singled out stars Presley Chweneyagae and Terry Pheto, then added, “We may have foreign-language films, but our stories are the same as your stories. They’re about the human heart and emotion.”
“Tsotsi” was up against Italy’s “The Beast in the Heart,” France’s “Joyeux Noël,” Palestine’s “Paradise Now,” and Germany’s “Sophie Scholl – The Final Days.”
Keeping things animated 
Directors Nick Park, left, and Steve Box accept their Oscars for animated feature for their work on “Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.”
(Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)
Nick Park, who had three Oscars prior to this evening, picked up his fourth (with first-time winner Steve Box) for animated feature with the stop-motion film about monstrous lapins, “Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit” — and the bow-tie-wearing director even brought bow-ties for the statuettes he and Box held.
They pointed out Peter Sallis, who at the time had voiced Wallace in the “Wallace & Gromit” films for 23 years, after accepting the statuettes from Reese Witherspoon. And together they honored another kind of star from the “Wallace” films, chiming together, “Cracking cheese, Gromit!”
“Wallace” went up against Hayao Miyazaki’s “Howl’s Moving Castle” and “Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride” from Mike Johnson and Burton. “Corpse” and “Were-Rabbit” were the first stop-motion films to be nominated in the Oscars’ animated feature category, first awarded in 2002.
Easy street, even when it’s hard 
Front: Cedric Coleman, left, and Paul “DJ Paul” Beauregard. Rear: Darnell “Crunchy Black” Carlton, left, and Jordan “Juicy J” Houston accept the Oscar for original song for “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp.”
(Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)
Rap made a new foray into the original song category when “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp,” from “Hustle & Flow,” became the second original song in the genre to win the category. “Lose Yourself” from “8 Mile” was the first winner, in 2003, for Marshall Mathers (Eminem), Jeff Bass and Luis Resto.
The award went to Jordan Houston (Juicy J), Cedric Coleman, and Paul Beauregard (DJ Paul), who accepted on stage with “Hustle” star and singer Taraji P. Henson. After accepting the award from Queen Latifah, Beauregard gave a lot of shout-outs to friends and family — and, surprisingly, fellow Oscar winner George Clooney: “My favorite man, he showed me love when I first met him.”
“Pimp” won out over “In the Deep” from the night’s best picture winner “Crash,” with music by Kathleen “Bird” York and Michael Becker and lyrics by York; and “Travelin’ Thru” from “Transamerica,” music and lyrics by Dolly Parton.
Short, but with a long tail 
Writer Martin McDonagh accepts the Oscar for live-action short for the film “Six Shooter.”
(Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)
Though the short film (live action) Oscar doesn’t always prove to be a harbinger for the future, in the case of 2006’s winner — “Six Shooter” from director and five-time Tony-nominated playwright Martin McDonagh — it was an early sign of things to come. This was McDonagh’s first nomination and win; two years later he’d go on to direct features, starting with “In Bruges,” ultimately earning six more Academy Award nominations.
McDonagh was up against “Cashback” by Sean Ellis and Lene Bausager, “The Last Farm” by Rúnar Rúnarsson and Thor S. Sigurjónsson, “Our Time Is Up” by Rob Pearlstein and Pia Clemente, and “The Runaway (Ausreißer)” by Ulrike Grote.
Getting dressed and made up 
Colleen Atwood accepts the Oscar for achievement in costume design for her work on “Memoirs of a Geisha.”
(Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)
The categories for makeup and costume design provided first-timers and a prior Oscar winner. “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” earned awards for Howard Berger and Tami Lane, neither of whom had been nominated before. They accepted the awards from Will Ferrell and Steve Carell — and Clooney got another shout-out from Berger: “I’m just glad that Clooney doesn’t do makeup.”
“Narnia” was up against work from David LeRoy Anderson and Lance Anderson for “Cinderella Man” and Dave Elsey and Nikki Gooley’s craft on “Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith.”
Meanwhile, Colleen Atwood, who now has four Oscars for her costume design work, picked up her second statuette for her outfits on “Memoirs of a Geisha.” After accepting the award from Jennifer Aniston, she thanked her co-workers on the film, then gave a separate thanks to “the people of Japan, who gave me so much knowledge and grace.”
Atwood and “Geisha” had been up against Gabriella Pescucci (“Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”), Sandy Powell (“Mrs. Henderson Presents”), Jacqueline Durran (“Pride & Prejudice”) and Arianne Phillips (“Walk the Line”).