WThe 74th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), took place on March 24, 2002, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles. During the ceremony, AMPAS presented Academy Awards in 24 categories honoring films released in 2001. The ceremony, televised in the United States by ABC, was produced by Laura Ziskin and directed by Louis J. Horvitz. Actress Whoopi Goldberg hosted the show for the fourth time. She first hosted the 66th ceremony held in 1994 and had last hosted the 71st ceremony in 1999. Three weeks earlier, in a ceremony held at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, on March 2, the Academy Awards for Technical Achievement were presented by host Charlize Theron.
WBlack Hawk Down is a 2001 war film produced and directed by Ridley Scott, from a screenplay by Ken Nolan. It is based on the 1999 non-fiction book of the same name by journalist Mark Bowden, about the U.S. military's 1993 raid in Mogadishu. The film features a large ensemble cast, including Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor, Eric Bana, Tom Sizemore, William Fichtner, Sam Shepard, and Tom Hardy in his first film role.
WCity by the Sea is a 2002 American crime drama film starring Robert De Niro, James Franco, Eliza Dushku, Frances McDormand and William Forsythe. It deals with the family problems of a wayward youth and is set against a man trying to break free of his past. It was directed by Michael Caton-Jones. It is based on the story of Vincent LaMarca.
WDeath to Smoochy is a 2002 black comedy crime film directed by Danny DeVito and written by Adam Resnick. Starring Robin Williams, Edward Norton, DeVito, Catherine Keener and Jon Stewart, the film centers on "Rainbow" Randolph Smiley (Williams), a disgraced former children's TV host who attempts to sabotage his replacement, Sheldon Mopes, and his character, Smoochy the Rhino (Norton).
WDon't Say a Word is a 2001 American crime thriller film starring Michael Douglas, Brittany Murphy and Sean Bean based on the novel Don't Say a Word by Andrew Klavan. It was directed by Gary Fleder and written by Anthony Peckham and Patrick Smith Kelly.
WAn Extremely Goofy Movie is a 2000 direct-to-video animated comedy film distributed by Walt Disney Home Video, produced by Walt Disney Television Animation, and directed by Douglas McCarthy. It is a standalone sequel to the 1995 film A Goofy Movie and the finale to the television series Goof Troop, in which Max goes to college and believes he will not have to deal with his father until Goofy loses his job and enrolls there to complete the degree he never received years ago in order to find a new job. Meanwhile, Max and his friends compete in the X Games, unaware of the reason why the school's top fraternity has a dynasty in the competition.
WThe Glass House is a 2001 American psychological mystery thriller film directed by Daniel Sackheim and written by Wesley Strick. The film stars Leelee Sobieski, Stellan Skarsgård, Diane Lane, Bruce Dern, Kathy Baker, Trevor Morgan and Chris Noth.
WGlitter is a 2001 American romantic musical drama film starring Mariah Carey and rapper Da Brat, written by Kate Lanier, and directed by Vondie Curtis Hall. Set in 1983, Carey plays Billie Frank, an aspiring singer who, along with her friends Louise and Roxanne, is a club dancer. Timothy Walker offers them a contract as backup singers/dancers to another singer. In the premiere of the song they recorded, Billie meets Julian "Dice" Black, who is a DJ in a night club, and helps her in her solo career. In the process, Billie and Dice fall in love with each other.
WHardball is a 2001 American sports comedy-drama film directed by Brian Robbins and starring Keanu Reeves, Diane Lane and D. B. Sweeney. The screenplay by John Gatins is based on the book Hardball: A Season in the Projects by Daniel Coyle. The original music score is composed by Mark Isham. The film was released on September 14, 2001, topping the box office the weekend after the September 11 attacks.
WKissing Jessica Stein is a 2001 American independent romantic comedy film, written and co-produced by the film's stars, Jennifer Westfeldt and Heather Juergensen. The film also stars Tovah Feldshuh and is directed by Charles Herman-Wurmfeld. It is one of the earlier film appearances of actor Jon Hamm. The film is based on a scene from the 1997 off-Broadway play by Westfeldt and Juergensen called Lipschtick.
WKnockaround Guys is a 2001 black comedy crime drama film starring Barry Pepper, Vin Diesel, Seth Green, John Malkovich and Dennis Hopper. It was filmed in locations in the U.S. and Canada including the small town of Delia, Alberta.
WLilo & Stitch is a 2002 American animated science fiction comedy-drama film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The 42nd Disney animated feature film, it was written and directed by Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois in their directorial debuts. It features Daveigh Chase and Sanders as the voices of the title characters, and also features the voices of Tia Carrere, David Ogden Stiers, Kevin McDonald, Ving Rhames, Jason Scott Lee, and Kevin Michael Richardson. It was also the second of three Disney animated feature films that were produced primarily at the Florida animation studio in Disney's Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World near Orlando, Florida. It was officially released on June 21, 2002, to positive reviews and was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 75th Academy Awards.
WMaid in Manhattan is a 2002 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Wayne Wang and based on a story by John Hughes, who is credited using a pseudonym. It stars Jennifer Lopez, Ralph Fiennes, and Natasha Richardson. In the film, a hotel maid and a high-profile politician fall in love. The film was released on December 13, 2002, by Columbia Pictures and was a box office success, grossing over $100 million more than its budget.
WMen in Black II is a 2002 American science fiction action comedy film directed by Barry Sonnenfeld and written by Robert Gordon and Barry Fanaro. A sequel to Men in Black (1997), which in turn is loosely based on the Marvel Comics series The Men in Black by Lowell Cunningham, the film stars Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith reprising their roles from the first film, with Lara Flynn Boyle, Johnny Knoxville, Rosario Dawson, Tony Shalhoub and Rip Torn in supporting roles. It was also the final appearance of Torn in the series, as he died on July 9, 2019, about a month after MIB International was released.
WMr. Deeds is a 2002 American romantic comedy film directed by Steven Brill, written by Tim Herlihy, and starring Adam Sandler, Winona Ryder, Peter Gallagher, Jared Harris, Allen Covert, Erick Avari, John Turturro, and Conchata Ferrell. It is a remake of the 1936 Frank Capra film Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, which in turn is based on the 1935 short story Opera Hat by Clarence Budington Kelland.
WPeople I Know is a 2002 crime drama film directed by Daniel Algrant and stars Al Pacino, Kim Basinger, and Téa Leoni. The film received mixed reviews, with Rotten Tomatoes giving a rating of 43%.
WRush Hour 2 is a 2001 American action comedy film directed by Brett Ratner and written by Jeff Nathanson, based on the characters created by Ross LaManna. A sequel to Rush Hour, it is the second installment in the Rush Hour series and stars Jackie Chan, Chris Tucker, John Lone, Alan King, Roselyn Sánchez, Harris Yulin, and Zhang Ziyi. The story follows Chief Inspector Lee (Chan) and Detective James Carter (Tucker), who go to Hong Kong on vacation only to be thwarted by a murder case involving two U.S. customs agents after a bombing at the American embassy. Lee suspects that the crime is linked to the Triad crime lord Ricky Tan (Lone).
WSerendipity is a 2001 American romantic comedy film directed by Peter Chelsom, written by Marc Klein, and starring John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale. The film grossed $77.5 million on a $28 million budget.
WSidewalks of New York is a 2001 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Edward Burns, who also stars in the film. The plot follows eight cycles in the lives of six Manhattan residents whose inter-connections form a circle that places each of them less than the proverbial six degrees of separation from the others.
WSpider-Man is a 2002 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name. Directed by Sam Raimi from a screenplay by David Koepp, it is the first installment in the Spider-Man trilogy, and stars Tobey Maguire as the title character, alongside Willem Dafoe, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Cliff Robertson, and Rosemary Harris. The film centers on outcast teen genius Peter Parker, who develops spider-like superhuman abilities after being bitten by a genetically-altered spider.
WStuart Little 2 is a 2002 American CGI animated/live-action family film directed by Rob Minkoff and starring Geena Davis, Hugh Laurie, and Jonathan Lipnicki, and the voices of Michael J. Fox as Stuart Little and Nathan Lane as Snowbell the cat. Although a sequel to the 1999 film Stuart Little, the plot bears more resemblance to the original novel by E.B. White, in which Stuart and Snowbell must save a canary named Margalo from an evil falcon.
WSwept Away is a 2002 adventure comedy romance film written and directed by Guy Ritchie; it is a remake of Lina Wertmüller's 1974 Italian film of the same name. The film stars Ritchie's then-wife Madonna and Adriano Giannini with a supporting cast featuring Bruce Greenwood, Jeanne Tripplehorn and Elizabeth Banks.
WThe Tribeca Film Festival is an annual festival organized by Tribeca Enterprises. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art and immersive programming. Tribeca was founded by Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal and Craig Hatkoff in 2001 to spur the economic and cultural revitalization of lower Manhattan following the attacks on the World Trade Center.
WVanilla Sky is a 2001 American science fiction psychological thriller film directed, written, and co-produced by Cameron Crowe. It is an English-language adaptation of Alejandro Amenábar's 1997 Spanish film Open Your Eyes, which was written by Amenábar and Mateo Gil, with Penélope Cruz reprising her role from the original film. The film has been described as "an odd mixture of science fiction, romance and reality warp".
WYou Stupid Man is a 2002 romantic comedy film written and directed by Brian Burns and starring Milla Jovovich, David Krumholtz, William Baldwin, Denise Richards, Dan Montgomery Jr., and Jessica Cauffiel.
WZoolander is a 2001 American action comedy film directed by Ben Stiller and starring Stiller, Owen Wilson, Christine Taylor and Will Ferrell. The film contains elements from a pair of short films directed by Russell Bates and written by Drake Sather and Stiller for the VH1 Fashion Awards television specials in 1996 and 1997.