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The 70th Academy Awards ceremony, organized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), took place on March 23, 1998, at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles beginning at 6:00 p.m. PST / 9:00 p.m. EST. During the show, AMPAS presented Academy Awards (commonly referred to as Oscars) in 24 categories honoring films released in 1997. The ceremony, which was televised in the United States by ABC, was produced by Gil Cates and directed by Louis J. Horvitz. Actor Billy Crystal hosted the show for the sixth time. He had first hosted the 62nd ceremony held in 1990, and most recently the previous year’s awards. Nearly a month earlier in an event held at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, California on February 28, the Academy Awards for Technical Achievement were presented by host Ashley Judd.

Titanic won eleven awards, including Best Picture, a number that is tied with Ben-Hur and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Other winners included As Good as It Gets, Good Will Hunting, and L.A. Confidential with two awards, and Character, The Full Monty, Geri’s Game, The Long Way Home, Men in Black, A Story of Healing, and Visas and Virtue with one. The telecast garnered more than 57 million viewers in the United States, making it the most watched Oscars broadcast in history.