American Beauty: 1999 Best Picture

American Beauty won 5 Oscars out of its 8 nominations at the 72nd Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director (Sam Mendes) and Best Actor (Kevin Spacey).

Hilary Swank won Best Actress for “Boys Don’t Cry”. Michael Caine got the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for “The Cider House Rules” and Angelina Jolie won Best Supporting Actress for “Girl Interrupted”.

The Top 10 box office hits were: “Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace”, “The Sixth Sense”, “Toy Story 2”, “The Matrix”, “Tarzan”, “The Mummy”, “Notting Hill”, “The World is not Enough”, “American Beauty” and “Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me”.

Other notable 1999 titles included: “The Green Mile”, “The Insider”, “The Straight Story”, “Sweet and Lowdown”, “The Hurricane”, “Tumbleweeds”, “Being John Malkovich”, “Topsy-Turvy”, “The Talented Mr. Ripley”, “The Red Violin” and “Angela’s Ashes”.

A song featuring an F bomb, “Blame Canada” from “Southpark: Bigger, Longer and Uncut”, was one of the nominees for Best Song that lost to “You’ll Be in My Heart” from “Tarzan”.

Jeopardy! clues on “American Beauty”
THE DIRECTOR’S FIRST FEATURE FILM $1200: “American Beauty” (1999)
“AMERICAN” ENTERTAINMENT $1600: Kevin Spacey won an Oscar for this rosy movie
ALLISON JANNEY WAS IN THAT? $1000: Chris Cooper & Allison played the deeply weird couple next door to realtor Annette Bening in this 1999 film
AWARDS & HONORS $800: This actor dedicated his “American Beauty” Oscar to his friend Jack Lemmon, who had inspired him
THEY PASSED $800: “American Beauty” might’ve been a little different if this “Fletch” star hadn’t turned down the Kevin Spacey role
WHAT THE ’90s MOVIE TITLE MEANS $800: Who can forget Mena Suvari on a bed of petals in this film? (The title is a type of rose)
“AMERICAN” MOVIES $800: Alan Ball won an Original Screenplay Oscar for this 1999 film

More 1999 film clues:
THAT’S SPOOKY $1200: Haley Joel Osment had a nice conversation with his dead grandma in this 1999 film
THE NATIONAL FILM REGISTRY $800: The most recent feature film on the registry is this 1999 Keanu Reeves movie that taught us there is no spoon
MOVIE SONGS $2000: The songs of Aimee Mann inspired this 1999 Paul Thomas Anderson film, & Aimee’s “Save Me” was heard in it
FROM BOOK TO FILM $1600: John Irving & Michael Caine won Oscars for this 1999 film– Irving for adapting his own novel
WITCH MOVIE? $600: 3 college kids go missing while investigating strange doings in the Black Hills Forest in this 1999 film
MOVIE TITLE REFERENCES $800: 1999: From the color of its floor tiles, a nickname for death row
ALPHANUMERIC NAMES & TITLES $400: In 1999 a feature film & a TV movie both had this 3-character title, a reference to the millennium bug
PLAYING HIMSELF $1600: The movie could’ve been called “Being Steven Seagal” if this actor hadn’t said yes to Spike Jonze for the 1999 film
SUPER $1600: Cutlery was the chosen weapon of the Blue Raja, played by Hank Azaria in this 1999 superfilm spoof
SPOILER ALERT! $400: 1999: The first rule of this film is Brad Pitt doesn’t really exist
DAYS IN… $1200: Y.A. Tittle & Johnny Unitas played coaches in this 1999 Al Pacino film
THE WRATH OF CAAN $2000: In this 1999 film, gangster James is sent to carry out a revenge hit on Hugh Grant
ANGELS $2000: The 2 fallen angels in the 1999 film “Dogma” were played by these 2 Oscar-winning screenwriters
HAPPY MADISON $2000: (Adam Sandler delivers the clue.) Happy Madison’s first feature film was this 1999 comedy that saw Rob Schneider go out on a date with a narcoleptic girl
MOVIE TITLE PAIRS $1200: A 1999 Jodie Foster film: “____ and the King”
ROLE $800: (Hi, I’m Christopher Meloni of Law & Order: SVU.) For some reason, Julia Roberts decided to flee from marrying me when I played her fiance Coach Bob in this 1999 film
BUDDHISM’S EIGHTFOLD PATH $1000: In a 1999 film they were “Cruel”; for Buddhists they should be right
SHE’S LOST CONTROL $400: After downing a bottle of aspirin & a bottle of vodka, Winona Ryder is committed to a mental ward in this 1999 film
THE CINEMA $200: 1999 film with the line “The answer is out there, Neo, and it’s looking for you, and it will find you if you want it to”
eBay $1,000 (Daily Double): I found Brad Pitt’s leather jacket from this 1999 film; I beat myself up when I found out it was a replica
CORNHUSKER CINEMA $800: Hilary Swank won an Oscar for playing a girl who lives as a guy in small-town Nebraska in this 1999 film
ONE-WORD FILM TITLES $1200: Tom Cruise got an Oscar nomination for his part in this 1999 film about the San Fernando Valley
PUERTO RICAN HOLIDAYS $1600: A royal-sounding January 6 holiday, or a 1999 George Clooney film
MOVIE MANIA $300: With $106 million, this “menacing” 1999 sci-fi film had the biggest 5-day opening in cinema history
SHAKESPEARE’S FILMS $600: The 1999 film “10 Things I Hate About You” was an update of this Shakespeare comedy
ELLE $600: Sophie Marceau bonded with Pierce Brosnan in this 1999 007 film
AT THE MOVIES $400: (Hi, I’m Nathan Lane, hold it down!) I was the voice of Snowball the Cat in this 1999 film based on an E.B. White book
AT THE MOVIES $1000: [Hi, I’m Michael McKean] In 1999 I played Mr. Walsh in this film about a small Alaska town whose hockey team faces off against the New York Rangers
BEATING THE ODDS $1000: In 1999 he returned to the screen as an elderly ex-boxer in “Diamonds”, his first film role since his stroke
60 MINUTES $1,000 (Daily Double): This 1999 film was based on a 1994 “60 Minutes” story
3-NAMED CELEBRITIES $500: In 1995 she made her feature film debut in “The Baby-Sitters Club”; in 1999 she proved “She’s All That”
MAKE-UP TEST $800: The Max Factor make-up inspired by this 1999 Shakespeare film features colors like Cob Web & Mustard Seed
NOT A GREEK LETTER $500: 1999 Kevin Smith film that didn’t follow Christianity to the letter
FILMS OF THE ’90s $800: In a 1999 film John Travolta & Madeleine Stowe tried to solve the murder of this title character
FROM PAGE TO SCREEN $500: David Guterson’s book about racism in the Pacific Northwest became this 1999 film that stars a brooding Ethan Hawke
FROM PAGE TO SCREEN $500 (Daily Double): John Irving adapted his own novel into this 1999 film in which orphan Tobey Maguire works in an apple orchard
BOB DYLAN $300: In 1975 Bob spoke out for this imprisoned boxer; in 1999 Denzel Washington played him on film
ACTOR-DIRECTORS $400: This director was back on screen playing a TV reporter in his 1999 film “Summer of Sam”
A.T. $200: In this 1999 film, Billy Crystal treated Robert De Niro well
1999 FILMS $100: In this film high school teacher Matthew Broderick gets involved with the campaign for student council
1999 FILMS $200: A jazz guitarist is the subject of this director’s “Sweet and Lowdown”
1999 FILMS $300: What part did this Irishman play in “End of Days”? Could it be…Satan?
1999 FILMS $400: “Music of the Heart” was directed by this man, more known for his nightmares
1999 FILMS $500: Once Mighty Joe Young’s girlfriend, she played the wife in “The Astronaut’s Wife”
IMAX FILMS $600: Omar Sharif starred in the 1999 IMAX film “The Mysteries of” this country
BORN TO BE WILDE $1000: One of Oscar’s last plays, it was made into a film starring Rupert Everett & Minnie Driver in 1999
THE CINEMA $300: This superstar directs himself as an investigative reporter in the 1999 film “True Crime”
FROG STUFF $100: He’s the handsome leading amphibian of the 1999 film “Muppets from Space”
TV TO FILM $400: Kenny gets killed early on in the 1999 film based on this series
ROGER EBERT ON MOVIES $300: For the 1999 Oscars, I wrongly predicted a screenplay award for this film with Warren Beatty as a politician
ACADEMY AWARD HISTORY: The first African-American Best Actress nominee, her life was the subject of a 1999 HBO film