1999 Oscars 71st Academy Awards

• Winners Announced: March 21, 1999
• Held at: Los Angeles County Music Center, Los Angeles, California
• Host: Whoopi Goldberg
• Eligibility Year: 1998

Trivia

• Whoopi Goldberg became the first woman and the first African American to solo host the Oscars. This was her third time hosting but her first time going solo.
• Shakespeare in Love managed to snag seven Oscars, including Best Picture, beating out the favorite, Saving Private Ryan. It was considered a major upset at the time.
• Gwyneth Paltrow won Best Actress for Shakespeare in Love, and her emotional acceptance speech, complete with tears and a pink Ralph Lauren gown, became iconic.
• Roberto Benigni became the toast of the town with his effusive and animated acceptance speech after winning Best Actor for Life is Beautiful. He climbed over chairs to get to the stage, a move that’s still talked about today.
• Life is Beautiful also won for Best Foreign Language Film, making it one of the few to win in multiple categories.
• Elton John and Tim Rice snagged Best Original Song for “The Prayer” from Quest for Camelot. Interestingly, this was a year where animated films showed strong in the music categories.
• The ceremony was one of the longest in Oscars history, clocking in at over four hours.
• James Coburn won Best Supporting Actor for Affliction, which was notable as he was a Hollywood veteran and this was his first Oscar win.
• The event was produced by the legendary Gil Cates, who had a knack for putting on a show that combined glamour with unexpected moments.
• This year’s ceremony was notable for its inclusion of a tribute to filmmaker Stanley Kubrick, who had passed away just weeks before the ceremony.
• “This is a terrible mistake, because I used up all of my English.”
  – Roberto Benigni, after winning his second Oscar of the night for Life is Beautiful
• “Am I allowed to say I really wanted this? This is fantastic.”
  – Steven Spielberg

1999 Oscar Nominees and Winners