Saving Private Ryan loses to Shakespeare in Love

Credit media interest in the subject matter or Miramax's aggressive Oscar campaign, but it was the producers of "Shakespeare in Love" who took home the Academy Award for Best Picture on March 21, 1999, not "Saving Private Ryan." The Steven Spielberg-directed war epic was widely favoured to win that particular golden statuette, and while Spielberg took home Best Director, it seems that Academy members were more in the mood to reward romantic comedy than wartime bloodshed. Presenter Harrison Ford couldn't seem to believe it either when he tore open the envelope.