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The 69th Academy Awards were dominated by movies produced by independent studios, financed outside...

The 69th Academy Awards were dominated by movies produced by independent studios, financed outside of mainstream Hollywood, leading to 1997 being dubbed "The Year of the Independents". All but one of the nominees for Best Picture were low-budget independent movies (the next ceremony dominated by indie fims would be in 2006. 2008 was also dominated by independents). The big winner at the ceremony was Anthony Minghella's The English Patient, which had received 12 nominations and won 9 awards including Best Picture. Other notable movies to be honoured at the ceremony included Fargo, which had been nominated for 7 awards and won 2, Shine, which had been nominated for 7 awards and won just one, and Jerry Maguire, which had been nominated for 5 awards and also won just one. Shortly before the ceremony, two light aircraft flew over the auditorium streaming banners behind them. They first appeared as Larry Flynt, the subject of the Oscar-nominated film The People vs. Larry Flynt, arrived, which read "Columbia Studios Sucks — Larry Flynt". The second banner read "Disney uses sweatshops — 30 cents an hour in Haiti", criticizing Walt Disney Studios about the conditions under which some of its