The acting awards went as expected, with Dame Helen Mirren and Forest Whitaker continuing their royal run from the Golden Globes.
So yet another Oscar ceremony done. An evening of no great surprises, but even Martin Scorsese wouldn't have dreamed of such a sweep for The Departed. His is the winningest film of the evening, with 4 awards from 5 nominations.
Jack Nicholson is up to present the Best Picture award, something he's doing for the 3rd time -- correct me if I've miscounted, please. He's joined by the always striking Diane Keaton. And the 79th Academy Award for Best Film goes to The Departed!
'Could you double-check the envelope?' says an overwhelmed Scorsese, making sure he thanks all his crew, and the people behind the original Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs.
Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg are up to present the Academy Award for Best Director. And the Oscar goes to Martin Scorsese for The Departed! Finally, the director gets the big prize, and the four of them on stage together makes for quite a massive Hollywood moment.
Reese Witherspoon, last year's Best Actress for Walk The Line. She gives the Best Actor trophy to Forest Whitaker, for playing Idi Amin in The Last King Of Scotland.
3 Awards to go. The tally so far: Pan's Labyrinth has three awards. The Departed, Little Miss Sunshine, Dreamgirls and An Inconvenient Truth have two. Babel and Letters From Iwo Jima have one.
Philip Seymour Hoffman, last year's Best Actor winner for Capote is up to announce Best Actress. And the Oscar goes to Helen Mirren for The Queen.
Jodie Foster introduces the montage of Hollywood greats we've lost over the last year. A striking collection, from Peter Boyle to Joe Barbera, Maureen Stapleton to James Doohan, Sydney Sheldon to Jack Warden. And the great Robert Altman. They will indeed be missed.
'Cut to the chase,' says the dazzling Kate Winslet. She gives away the Oscar for Best Film Editing to Thelma Schoonmaker for The Departed. Marty's longtime editor has picked up the trophy earlier for Aviator and Raging Bull. Will her third time indeed be lucky for Scorsese?
Nominated for his work in The Pursuit Of Happyness, Will Smith introduces a high-energy montage put together by director Michael Mann -- with whom Will worked in Ali -- looking at various depictions of America, at the movies.
John Travolta and Queen Latifah, possibly the grooviest actors in the industry, present the Best Original Song award to Melissa Etheridge for I need to wake up from An Inconvenient Truth! So much for the Dream run.
Jennifer Lopez introduces Beyonce Knowles and Jennifer Hudson to perform the 3 Dreamgirls songs nominated for Best Original Song. Fresh from her win, Hudson is electric!
Ah, that Spiderman theme music. Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst are on stage to present the Best Original Screenplay award. The Oscar goes to Michael Arndt for Little Miss Sunshine. The script awards usually translate into a Best Picture win, so does that mean it's down to Sunshine and Departed for the biggie? Whoa.
Hugh Jackman and Penelope Cruz give the Best Original Score award to Babel!
When Ennio Morricone's theme from The Good, The Bad and The Ugly plays, who else can dare take the stage but Clint Eastwood? And, in turn, who better to stand by as a montage of unbelievable music plays, and felicitate Morricone with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Eastwood translated from the Italian speech, perhaps giving an indication of his next Foreign Language effort?
Gael Garcia Bernal gives out the award for Best Documentary Short Subject to The Blood Of Yingzhou District.
Jerry Seinfeld is up next, following up a vintage stand-up act by giving Best Documentary to An Inconvenient Truth.
A video clip announces the next Best Picture nominee, Babel. The Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu film is predicted as one of the top favourites for the big prize.
George Clooney takes the stage, and is a riot as always, giving Al Gore something to laugh about. He hands over the Best Supporting Actress award to Jennifer Hudson for Dreamgirls!
And it's time for Best Foreign Language Film. The category is a hotly contested one, and Catherine Deneuve and Ken Watanabe start with a great montage of winners over the years. Clive Owen and Cate Blanchett give the Oscar to The Lives Of Others!
A stunning Naomi Watts and a slightly Pacino'd Robert Downey Jr take the stage to present Best Visual Effects. The Oscar goes to Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. The Johnny Depp film was last year's biggest grosser.
Gwyneth Paltrow hands over the award for Best Cinematography to Guillermo Navarro for Pan's Labyrinth. Incidentally, Navarro is in India next month to shoot Vishal Bhardwaj's next movie.
Meanwhile, in the audience, Ellen gets Steven Spielberg to take a picture of her with Clint Eastwood.
Tom Cruise takes the stage, to the Mission:Impossible theme, presenting the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award to Sherry Lansing, Hollywood's pioneering studio boss and active philanthropist. "She leaves behing a legacy of classic films," says Cruise before handing over the trophy, "but promises to make an even greater impact in the years to come."
The Devil Wears Prada stars Emily Blunt and Anne Hathaway come on to present the award for Best Costume Design, giving nominated co-star Meryl Streep in the audience a chance to slip into character. And the Oscar goes to Marie Antoinette!
Ben Affleck introduces a fascinating montage about Hollywood screenwriters, the on-screen kind. Tom Hanks accompanies Helen Mirren to give out the award for Best Adapted Screenplay. It's absolutely brilliant to hear Mirren read out an excerpt of the Borat screenplay. And the Oscar goes to William Monahan for The Departed.
A lovely Cameron Diaz is next on stage, waxing nostalgic about Disney's Snow White before she gives out the Best Animated Film award, to Happy Feet.
Al Gore and Leonardo DiCaprio take the stage and announce that for the first time in Oscar history, the show has 'gone Green.' Which means that it's a completely environmentally-friendly show.
Then comes Melissa Etheridge, strumming the guitar to the next nominee, the title song from An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore's documentary.
The first nominated song plays, Our Town from Cars, by Randy Newman.
The video clip for the second Best Picture nominee is out: The Departed. Scorsese's film is up for 5 Oscars.
A colleague from New York just alerted us to an interesting bit of information: One of the producers of The West Bank Story -- the Live Action Short winner -- is an Indian-American, Ravi Malhotra.
The luminous Rachel Weisz, last year's Best Supporting Actress winner, takes the stage to hand out the award for Best Supporting Actor. The Oscar goes to Alan Arkin for Little Miss Sunshine!
The award for Best Sound Mixing goes to Dreamgirls. The musical is nominated in 8 categories, the maximum for the evening.
Little Miss Sunshine lead actors Steve Carrell and Greg Kinnear give the award for Best Sound Editing -- and during the presentation, a joke toward the sound editors results in them being briefly muted. The Oscar goes to Letters From Iwo Jima.
Next comes the video introducing the first Best Picture nominee, Clint Eastwood's Japanese-language achievement, Letters From Iwo Jima.
Little Oscar Nominee Abigail Breslin and Will Smith's son Jaden Smith are the next presenters. The award for Best Animated Short Film goes to The Danish Poet. The award for Best Live-Action Short Film goes to West Bank Story.
The award for Best Makeup goes to Pan's Labyrinth!
The first performance for the evening is under way. And it's the inimitable Will Ferrell, singing a hilarious lament about the plight about 'A Comedian At The Oscars,' being the 'saddest, bitterest alcoholic clown.' Jack Black joins him in challenging the nominees to fistfights. John C Reilly enters as the singing voice of reason, telling them to play gay roles and biopics. Priceless.
The new James Bond, Daniel Craig and Nicole Kidman -- looking striking in scarlet -- are the first presenters of the evening. And the first award, for Best Art Direction goes to Pan's Labyrinth!
Ellen DeGeneres is the first-time host, and her opening monologue is intentionally awkward, in a "y'know" warm way. She mentions how it's the most International Oscars ever, in terms of nominees -- and then goes on to remind the nominees that it's a "make or break" night for them. The highlight right now? Jack Nicholson with a head shaved smoother than an 8-ball, sitting in the front row! Wow.
The ceremony is on! And it starts up with a montage of every nominee on a white background, veterans talking about not winning -- "I was nominated for Lawrence Of Arabia," reminded O'Toole -- and newcomers like Jennifer Hudson breaking into a bit of a jig. Interesting and fun, but a trifle overlong -- and on-screen titles for the lesser known nominees would have helped significantly. Anyway, the awards are up right now, and the whistled Pan's Labyrinth theme from the montage is haunting -- lets hope it sets the tone for the evening.
Seeing we still have some time to go, and I'm not the kind to talk about tuxedos and Vera Wang evening gowns, here's who I'm rooting for tonight -- Rinko Kikuchi for Babel (Best Supp. Actress); Martin Scorsese for The Departed (Best Director) better win; Pan's Labyrinth (Best Foreign Film) --the finest film this year, that one -- Peter O'Toole for Venus (Best Actor); Mark Wahlberg for The Departed (Best Supp Actor); Cars (Best Animated Film); and Kate Winslet for Little Children (Best Actress).
But that's just me. Who do you guys want to see win? Use that messageboard! -- Cheers, Raja Sen
Unlike most Oscar years, the thrill this year comes from the absolute unpredictability. There is no clear favourite -- except for the world nodding their head in unison about Martin Scorsese finally deserving the Best Director prize, but we've said that before -- in any major category.
Conceivably, Little Miss Sunshine could win Best Picture, Peter O'Toole could win Best Actor and Paul Greengrass could win Best Director -- and none of those would be an upset!
The only predicted, 'surefire' winner is Dame Helen Mirren taking home Best Actress for The Queen -- but then don't the Oscars throw up one surprise every night?
Yeah, all bets are off tonight.
What happens when excitable penguins meet Kazakh journalists in bizarre neon green jumpsuits? The opening pre-show montage had just that animated montage, as the red carpet continues. The curtain is just minutes from going up, and it's been a year of tremendous performances. Keep refreshing for all the action, LIVE.