The Oscar line up for that year was strong, but The Truman Show ought to have won several of the major prizes in my not remotely humble opinion.

It should have won Best Actor (Jim Carrey), Best Supporting Actor (Ed Harris, Best Original Screenplay (Andrew Niccol), and Best Film. However, I would probably have kept Best Director with Steven Spielberg (who did win) for Saving Private Ryan, despite Weir's brilliant work here. Probably the correct choice, considering how Spielberg's direction essentially reinvented the war film. That opening D-Day sequence has been endlessly, endlessly copied since, and is really the default template directors go to now when filming battle scenes - with rare exceptions. Nolan did his own thing with Dunkirk for instance, without throwing buckets of gore on the screen.

But then again, Peter Weir ought to have won Best Director on a few other occasions too (1985 for Witness, for instance).

One thing is certain, in my world, Shakespeare in Love wouldn't have had a look in. It's nice enough, but didn't deserve to win. Actually, The Thin Red Line was also a major nominee that year, and that deserved to win more than Shakespeare in Love. As I said, a strong line up.