Editorial: A trip to the peak of cinema art ...

From the first of the Academy Awards yesterday it was a New Zealand show. As Oscars steadily came the way of The Fellowship of the Ring, for make-up, visual effects, cinematography, the recipients, if they were not New Zealanders, spoke warmly of working in this country. It was a level of international exposure such as this country has probably never previously enjoyed.

Hollywood's Academy Awards command an international audience to eclipse that of any single sport or entertainment. Movies, with popular music and television, are part of the world's common experience and, in the developed world at least, the annual winners of the academy's votes are keenly awaited.

Thanks to the first of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, moviegoers all over the world know, if they did not know it previously, that New Zealand is scenically blessed. But those who watched the Academy Awards yesterday would have learned that the country's contribution to cinematic quality extends much further than its landscapes. The prizes New Zealanders collected were for many of the artistic and technical elements of movie-making. This country is not just a pretty set with unusual lighting, it is a cluster of competent creative servicing industries for those who want to make first-class films.

Disappointment at Peter Jackson's not winning the best picture or director's awards should not outweigh his achievement. To produce a film nominated for 13 Oscars guaranteed him, his co-workers and his country pride of place in all the publicity that preceded yesterday's ceremony.

The country's trade promoters have done their best to see that other industries can bask in the reflected glory of Jackson's production. New Zealand wine, food and fashions have been on show in Los Angeles in the build-up to the Oscar presentations. This has been a golden opportunity to put ourselves on the world's most glittering stage and those whose job it is to seize such moments have not let us down.

The pleasure of the achievement is all the greater for the fact that Australia, too, had a good night at the Oscars. Like New Zealand, which had nominees in nine categories, nine Australians were in contention for awards, largely on the strength of the musical Moulin Rouge. They included Nicole Kidman, who must have been very close to winning the Oscar for best actress. And Russell Crowe, who missed out on a second successive best actor award, is claimed by both countries. Transtasman rivalry becomes absurd. If either country attracts attention, both benefit.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences deserves credit for the international flavour of nominations this year. Besides the New Zealand and Australian nominees, a good number of Britons were in line for awards. Hollywood is sometimes maligned and feared as an instrument of American cultural dominance but it cannot be accused of unduly protecting its own.

There is, no doubt, a Hollywood stamp to all the films featured yesterday regardless of where they were made. It is commentary on the integration of the modern world that a picture set in Paris can be filmed in Australia and an English fable transported to New Zealand's landscape.

The challenge now is to see that Peter Jackson's achievement is just the first big international blockbuster to be produced here. We have the enthusiasts and the skills and we are fast acquiring the reputation for work of the highest merit.

An Oscar, like the America's Cup, is no longer an impossibly distant prize for New Zealanders. Peter Jackson has taken us to the cinematic summit.

Oscar nominees and winners (full list)

nzherald.co.nz/oscars