One Ring Rules Them All

As predicted, The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King won Best Picture at Sunday's Academy Awards ceremony, the crowning achievement on an evening that saw the film bring home a record-tying 11 awards overall—including Best Director for Peter Jackson, the genius behind the epic LOTR film trilogy.

While King was lauded in all sorts of categories from visual effects to costume design to musical score, the night's ultimate winner was the literary mastermind behind it all, Lord of the Rings author J. R. R. Tolkien.

Jackson noted in an Associated Press story that Tolkien's themes of "forgiveness, courage, faith, friendship" are "themes that go straight to the heart."

In accepting the Best Picture award, co-producer Barrie Osborne thanked Tolkien. Earlier in the evening, when ROTK won for Writing (Adapted Screenplay) co-writer Philippa Boyens said, "We have so many people that we need to thank, but the first person we absolutely must thank is Professor J. R. R. Tolkien. Without him we wouldn't be standing here."

"It was the hardest thing I've ever done in my life," Jackson said. "But ever since I was a kid, I wanted to be a filmmaker, so what better film to work on than The Lord of the Rings? It was a privilege every day. It nearly killed me, but right now it feels absolutely fine."

ROTK won every award for which it was nominated. Its 11 Oscars tied a record set by Ben-Hur (1959) and Titanic (1997). Besides Best Picture and Best Director, it won for Art Direction, Costume Design, Film Editing, Makeup, Music (Score), Music (Song), Sound Mixing, Visual Effects, and Writing (Adapted Screenplay).

Other winners

Return of the King obviously wasn't the only winner on Sunday. Charlize Theron won for best actress as serial killer Aileen ...

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