Academy Goes Its Own Way, Ignoring Guilds’ Top Choices

The academy bucked tradition Sunday night by overlooking some nominees who had won the industry’s guild awards. Over the years, the major guild winners became predictors for the academy’s final nominee selections. Not this time.

Director--Ang Lee, who won the Directors Guild of America’s top prize, lost out to Steven Soderbergh for “Traffic”--making it only the fifth time since 1949 that the DGA winner hasn’t won on Oscar night.

Actors--In the acting categories, only Julia Roberts managed to pull a double win, following up her victory at the Screen Actors Guild with an Oscar. Her fellow SAG winners, including Judi Dench (“Chocolat”) for best supporting actress and Albert Finney (“Erin Brockovich”) for best supporting actor, lost out to Marcia Gay Harden (“Pollock”) and Benicio Del Toro (“Traffic”) on Sunday. Del Toro won the SAG award for best actor.

Writers--The best original screenplay Oscar went to Cameron Crowe for “Almost Famous,” but the Writers Guild of America winner in that category was Kenneth Lonergan for “You Can Count on Me.”