LOS ANGELES (AP) — Ang Lee has won the Academy Award for best director for his “Life of Pi.”
It’s the second Oscar for Lee, who won in 2005 for “Brokeback Mountain.” The Taiwanese director was also nominated in 2000 for directing “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.” He becomes only the 19th director to win the honor multiple times.
The other nominees Sunday night were Steve Spielberg (”Lincoln”), Michael Haneke (”Amour”), David O. Russell (”Silver Linings Playbook”) and Benh Zeitlin (”Beasts of the Southern Wild”).
This year’s directing category was one of the most controversial, as it left out Ben Affleck for “Argo” and Kathryn Bigelow for “Zero Dark Thirty.”
THANKING THE ‘MOVIE GOD’
Ang Lee had his priorities in order when he gave one of his first thank you’s to the “movie god.”
The Taiwanese director pulled off a huge upset when he won an Academy Award for directing “Life of Pi.” He beat out front-runner and two-time Oscar winner Steven Spielberg.
Lee also gave a shoutout to the shipwreck story’s lead actor, Suraj Sharma, but didn’t thank the rest of the cast by name.
“I cannot waste this time talking about them,” he said sheepishly.
He did slip in a quick mention of his agent, his lawyer and of course his wife.
“I have to do that,” he said.
BEST PICTURE
Ben Affleck’s “Argo,” a film about a fake movie, has earned a very real prize: best picture at the Academy Awards.
In share-the-wealth mode, Oscar voters spread Sunday’s honors among a range of films, with “Argo” winning three trophies but “Life of Pi” leading with four.
Daniel Day-Lewis became the first person to win three best-actor Oscars, the latest coming for “Lincoln,” while “Hunger Games” star Jennifer Lawrence triumphed in Hollywood’s big games as best actress for “Silver Linings Playbook.”
The supporting-acting prizes went to Anne Hathaway for “Les Miserables” and Christoph Waltz for “Django Unchained.” It was Waltz’s second supporting-actor Oscar in a Quentin Tarantino film after previously winning for “Inglourious Basterds.” Tarantino also earned his second Oscar, for the “Django” screenplay, a category he previously won for “Pulp Fiction.”
From the White House, first lady Michelle Obama joined Jack Nicholson to help present the final prize to “Argo.”
“I never thought I’d be back here, and I am because of so many of you in this academy,” said Affleck, who shared a screenplay Oscar with pal Matt Damon 15 years earlier for their breakout film “Good Will Hunting.”
Among the wisdom he’s acquired since then: “You can’t hold grudges — it’s hard but you can’t hold grudges.”