Viewer Voting: If Fans Ran the Oscars...

By: Steve Biodrowski
Date: Monday, March 27, 2000

The Fans have spoken, and they think THE MATRIX should have been the big winner at the Academy Awards. Of the seven polls we ran on our site, THE MATRIX won in the six categories for which it was eligible; the single exception was for Best Song, which went to Trey Parker and Marc Shaiman's 'Blame Canada' from SOUTH PARK: BIGGER, LONGER & UNCUT. Rather than limiting ourselves to the nominations as given to us by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, our polls asked 'If Fans ran the Oscars, who would win...?' and included nominees representing the best that science fiction, horror, and fantasy had to offer in each category. THE MATRIX took top honors for Best Picture, Directing (Larry & Andy Wachowski), Actor (Keanu Reaves), Actress (Carrie Anne Moss), Screenplay (Larry and Andy Wachowski, and Visual Effects. The film took on average one-third of the vote in each category (the figures varied from 25% to 38%). The film scored its biggest victory in the Effects category, where it took 60% of the vote, compared to 34% for STAR WARS EPISODE ONE: THE PHANTOM MENACE and 5% for STUART LITTLE.

The biggest win, however, was scored by 'Blame Canada,' which took a whopping 70% in the Song category. Songs from TARZAN and TOY STORY 2 virtually tied with 16% and 14% respectively. THE SIXTH SENSE took second place in the Best Picture, Directing (M. Night Shyamalan), and Writing (Shyamalan) Categories. In the Actress category, SENSE's Toni Colette tied with Annette Bening for second, while Kevin Spacey took second in the Actor category, which was really the only close race: Spacey managed 18% of the vote to Reaves' 25%. For the complete breakdown of the results, check our polling section.