Oscar runway

Oscar runway

By Michael Horowitz

Daily Bruin Senior Staff

Despite several painful omissions and a few unexpectedly
inspired nods in the nominations process, Hollywood’s awards
weekend came off with very few surprises.

Predictability was the norm on Oscar night, from Gumpmania to
uneventful speeches on and backstage. Yet lack of shock concealed a
fairly even distribution of awards, excluding the deserving The
Shawshank Redemption. Those hoping for a Pulp Fiction upset were
disappointed early, when even the first awards offered few
surprises.

Fiction fans were satiated at the Independent Spirit Awards,
however. The annual awards honoring independent film were held in a
huge tent on Santa Monica Beach and as expected, Pulp Fiction
cleaned up. Tarantino’s masterwork took home awards for film,
direction, screenplay and actor Samuel L. Jackson. Spanking the
Monkey director David Russell also won two awards for Best First
Feature and Best First Screenplay.