Thursday, 28th March 11.00am GMT

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Sunday, 24th March - Inside The One Party

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this report are those of Ian Smith, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the official fan club, its staff or any of its members.

The main oscar screening room was full for most of its four hour broadcast. Quickbeam from TheOneRing.net kept everyone entertained throughout the (overlong) ceremony by announcing raffle results and alternately goading/ encouraging the crowd to elicit some reaction. All-in-all it was a great way to view the broadcast.

Cameramen were present and floodlights came on every time an award "Lord of the Rings" had been nominated for was announced, letting us all know we were being filmed. As a result, we all whooped it up or boo-ed even more than we usually would (if that's at all possible). Around the room were various posters showing all the categories "Lord of the Rings" was up for - all were as professionally produced as everything else associated with this event. I was told that the decision to hold the party had only been made four weeks ago. If this is true, then the standards achieved - and by volunteers only, I might add - is nothing short of incredible. Clearly a lot of people put a lot of hard work and effort into making the evening a success.

Throughout the ceremony, people were popping in and out of "The Mines of Moria" to collect their raffle prizes, or to place bids for some of the Weta models on show. There were some real bargains to be had!

Unfortunately, as reported elsewhere by Sauron's Truss, there were one or two people who didn't want to play fair. He caught someone cheating in the auction by placing a last bid after the deadline had been announced.

Elsewhere Primula and a visitor from Germany had their goody bags stolen. Perhaps next year they could be given out at the end of the evening to avoid any repeat occurrences - for the victims it quite spoilt what was an otherwise perfect evening. In other parts of the club, while the Oscars Show carried on through its four hour marathon, Fan Club friends were being introduced to each other and meeting people they'd only previously known via the fan club bulletin boards.

Back in the screening room, things were coming to a sickly end. For me, the fact that "Lord of the Rings" didn't win Best Supporting Actor, Best Director or Best Film wasn't the issue - it was who those awards went to instead that became an issue. I thought Ian McKellen might lose to Ben Kingsley, a fine actor with an incredible range, but to lose to Jim Broadbent made no sense at all. I thought that Ron Howard's Best Director award was obvious from the moment the oscar television programme decided to include a shot of him in the audience at least .. ooh.. every 3 minutes. He is a popular, humourous guy (in a way which Peter Jackson isn't) and clearly a crowd favourite. I just wish he'd won it for a better film than "Beautiful Mind". But to then lose Best Film to the over-hyped, standard-fare, history-altering "Beautiful Mind" just didn't seem fair - I'd have been much happier losing to a genuinely innovative movie like "Moulin Rouge" It wasn't all bad news of course. Richard Taylor and his team won the Special Effects awards they deserved to. And, to my surprise, Howard Shore got the recognition he deserved for his fantastic movie score. I had assumed this would be too subtle to garner the required votes, lacking the endless repetition of a 4 or 5 note riff that constitutes most film "scores" these days. However, despite these wins the atmosphere at the end of the oscar ceremony was one of having been robbed, if only because most of us think that "Beautiful Mind" is a pretty mediocre film.

Fortunately there was the free booze to cheer us up and lift the party mood (was this the best value party ticket in town, or what?!). That being said, I was impressed at how sober the party guests remained - no boring drunks here! Indeed, after the horrors of previous Tolkien gatherings I've had the misfortune to attend (no names, no England-based pack drill, but tacky costumes and hours of in-depth discussion on the minor points of an obscure piece of Tolkien text do not a fun gathering make!) the whole TORn party event was a pleasant surprise. A great crowd of people out for a night of fun and much laughter - which is as it should be.

Continued on next page....

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