- - Gwyneth Paltrow addresses discourse over “Shakespeare in Love” winning Best Picture Oscar over “Saving Private Ryan”

Lauren HuffDecember 28, 2025 at 4:00 AM

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TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty

Gwyneth Paltrow wins Best Actress at the 1999 Oscars for 'Shakespeare in Love'

Long before there was a Best Picture Oscars controversy between La La Land and Moonlight, there was Saving Private Ryan versus Shakespeare in Love.

At the 71st Academy Awards in 1999, the rom-com Shakespeare in Love, starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Joseph Fiennes, stunned over the presumed favorite, Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan. The Harvey Weinstein-produced film ultimately won seven Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Actress for Paltrow. Spielberg's war pic won five, including Best Director for the helmer, but its loss in the night's top honor was considered controversial by many at the time.

More than 25 years later, Paltrow is in another film thick in the awards race: Marty Supreme. When asked by host Gerrad Hall on The Awardist podcast if she and her godfather Spielberg have ever talked about the upset before, Paltrow didn't get into specifics, but does say, "Well, it was so funny because Steven won for director and I won [Best Actress]. And Steven has been at this rodeo for a very long time, and even 25 years ago had already been at the rodeo a very long time."

Laurie Sparham/Miramax

Gwyneth Paltrow in 'Shakespeare In Love'

Getting reflective on the awards industrial complex as a whole, Paltrow pointed out that the whole thing is arbitrary, and no one knows why one film prevails over the other at the end of the day. Citing La La Land versus Moonlight as an example, she says, "You know what? Both of those could have won." (In 2017, in one of the most stunning moments in Oscar history, due to presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway being given the wrong envelope, they mistakenly announced the Damien Chazelle-directed musical film as the winner of Best Picture at the end of the night, when it was actually the Barry Jenkins drama that had won.)

"So it's like to say, I think awards are designed, I think, yes, to acknowledge people's amazing achievements, but it's also a monetization tool for a broader industry," Paltrow adds. "And so I think you have to understand them also from that perspective too, and know that even if your film is in the conversation, that in itself is an honor. That in itself is wonderful for a movie and for this business model of cinema, which I hope is going to continue to be viable."

She continues, "I think there's always discourse around what people like and don't like because art is subjective. That's the point of it. The point of art is to stir emotion and to help you process through emotion and to help you take something abstract and put it into a reference that you understand."

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Gwyneth Paltrow in 'Marty Supreme'

In her latest upcoming awards hopeful from director Josh Safdie, Paltrow plays Kay Stone, a wealthy socialite and fading movie star who forges an unlikely connection with the younger ping-pong phenom played by Timothée Chalamet.

You can listen to Paltrow's full interview on The Awardist, below.

on Entertainment Weekly

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