Won: Best Actor (Denzel Washington), 2002 Denzel Washington's first and only Lead Actor win came here (he'd previously won in the Supporting Actor category for Glory in 1990), in Antoine Fuqua's Training Day: a solid, enjoyable film elevated memorably by the work of Washington and co-star, Ethan Hawke, who was nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role but lost out to Jim Broadbent (for Iris). Washington's work in Training Day, though great in a way, is actually pretty minor Denzel; riotous and full of quotable lines, yes, but ultimately nowhere near as powerful as his work in something like Malcolm X or The Hurricane (both of which saw him nominated for Best Actor). Take nothing away from Washington, though, who here became only the second black man ever to win the Best Actor Oscar, and the first since Sidney Poitier, whose inaugural win came for Lilies of the Field, way back in 1963 (Jamie Foxx and Forest Whitaker has since made it four, winning for Ray in 2005 and The Last King of Scotland in 2007 respectively).
