'Gladiator' has won the Oscar for the Best Picture at the annual awards ceremony in Los Angeles. Russell Crowe, who played the lead role in the film, was awarded the statuette for Best Actor, beating two-time Oscar winner Tom Hanks ('Cast Away'), Ed Harris ('Pollock'), Javier Bardem ('Before Night Falls') and another previous winner Geoffrey Rush ('Quills') to pick up his first Oscar. Directed by Ridley Scott, 'Gladiator' won a total of five Oscars beating 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon', 'Traffic', 'Erin Brockovich' and 'Chocolat' to Best Picture. Ang Lee's 'Crouching Tiger...' and Steven Soderbergh's drug movie 'Traffic' each won four Oscars.
The award for Best Actress went to Julia Roberts who played the lead in 'Erin Brockovich'. 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' won Best Foreign Language Picture as well as picking up Oscars for Art Direction, Cinematography and Best Original Score. The 10 Oscar nominations earned by Lee's fim are the most ever received by a foreign-language film, breaking the previous record of seven held by the Italian film 'Life is Beautiful'.
Steven Soderbergh won Best Director for 'Traffic', while Benicio Del Torro picked up Best Supporting Actor for his role in the film. Best Supporting Actress went to Marcia Gay Harden in the film 'Pollock', while Bob Dylan won his first Oscar for Best Original Song with 'Things Have Changed', from the 'Wonder Boys'.
