I do remember the controversy about Kazan at the time. I have to be honest I always wonder why the lifetime achievement award was given. The usual way the Lifetime Acheivement awards works is it is the equivalent of a gold watch to a performer or director who never won an Oscar in competition. The clearest example was Norman Jewison who had never done so but for some reason he was given the Thalberg award which is ostensibly for producing, not directing. (Even odder the next year they gave it to Warren Beatty.)

Kazan had already won two Oscars in competition, so there was no reason to give him a lifetime achievement award. And considering that there were other, far less controversial directors who were still alive in 1999 who never had won in Oscar in competiton - not just Jewison, but such luminaries as Stanley Kramer and Jules Dassin - the question is why the Oscars, who avoid controversy like the plague, chose to give one to Kazan who was certain to be a firestorm to the many members of the Academy who were still alive and remembered the blacklist and what Kazan had done.

Oddly enough Rod Steiger, who was in this film, actually came out against Kazan receiving an award and said that 'if he had known about this at the time, he would not have appeared in On The Waterfront." Karl Malden's reaction was: "then Rod was either very dumb or a liar." Steiger doubled down on this appearing on Politically Incorrect after that year's Oscars and arguing against kazan's stupiditiy.

Just a tidbit.