(Traffic - Die Macht des Kartells)
Germany/US (2000): Drama
Featuring a huge cast of characters, the ambitious and breathtaking Traffic is a tapestry of three separate stories woven together by a common theme: the war on drugs. In Ohio, there's the newly appointed government drug czar (Michael Douglas) who realizes after he's accepted the job that he may have gotten into a no-win situation. Not only that, his teenage daughter (Erika Christensen) is herself quietly developing a nasty addiction problem. In San Diego, a drug kingpin (Steven Bauer) is arrested on information provided by an informant (Miguel Ferrer) who was nabbed by two undercover detectives (Don Cheadle and Luis Guzmán). The kingpin's wife (Catherine Zeta-Jones), heretofore ignorant of where her husband's wealth comes from, gets a crash course in the drug business and its nasty side effects. And south of the border, a Mexican cop (Benicio Del Toro) finds himself caught between both his home country and the U.S., as corrupt government officials duke it out with the drug cartel for control of trafficking various drugs back and forth across the border. Soderbergh and screenwriter Stephen Gaghan (adapting the British TV miniseries "Traffik" to the U.S.) seamlessly weave the threads of each separate plotline into one solid tale, with the actions of one plot having quiet repercussions on the other two.(Amazon.com)
5 nominations, 4 Awards
· Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role 2000: Benicio Del Toro
· Best Achievement in Directing 2000: Steven Soderbergh
· Best Achievement in Writing (Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published) 2000: Stephen Gaghan
· Best Achievement in Film Editing 2000: Stephen Mirrione
· Best Picture of the Year 2000: Edward Zwick, Marshall Herskovitz & Laura Bickford - Producers