After more than 25 years of heartbreak, director Martin Scorsese finally took home the one prize that has eluded him throughout his illustrious directorial career: an Oscar.
Scorsese won Best Director at the 79th Annual Academy Awards for his Boston mob film “The Departed,” which subsequently won Best Picture, capping off a night filled with some surprising and not-so-surprising winners.
Fittingly, Scorsese was presented his Oscar by Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, who are commonly associated with Scorsese as auteur filmmakers of the 1970s.
But Scorsese wanted to make sure this whole scenario was not too good to be true.
“Could you double-check the envelope?” Scorsese asked after going onstage to accept his award.
Among the surprises at the Academy Awards were Alan Arkin’s win for Best Supporting Actor for his role in “Little Miss Sunshine.” The veteran actor won his first Oscar, beating out favorite Eddie Murphy, who was nominated for his role in “Dreamgirls.”
Less surprising were Helen Mirren’s best actress win for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in “The Queen” and Forest Whitaker’s best actor prize for his role as Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in “The Last King of Scotland.” Both actors were heavily favored by critics to take home the top acting prizes.
In the Best Supporting Actress category, another favorite, Jennifer Hudson of “Dreamgirls,” completed her transformation from American Idol reject to Oscar winner. She tearfully thanked her grandmother as she accepted the award.
The night’s biggest shock, however, was “The Lives of Others,” the German film scoring a stunning victory in the best foreign language film category over the critically-lauded and heavily favored “Pan’s Labyrinth.”
Michael Arndt won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for “Little Miss Sunshine.” Arndt’s story was an uplifting one: He went through countless jobs and drafts attempting to write the film for nearly a decade. His prize for all his hard work? The ultimate mantelpiece decoration.
And “The Departed” won for Best Adapted Screenplay, for a script written by William Monahan. The script was adapted from the 2002 Hong Kong film “Infernal Affairs.”
One of the night’s surprising stars was former Vice President Al Gore, there to support “An Inconvenient Truth,” the documentary about global warming in which he starred.
First-time host Ellen Degeneres made the most of her opportunity. She provided plenty of laughs, particularly when she went into the crowd to take “MySpace pictures” with Clint Eastwood and Steven Spielberg. Degeneres also took the chance to simultaneously observe and poke fun at the Oscar nominees’ expanding demographic diversity.
“Spain is in the house. Japan is representing. I think I saw a few Americans as well ““ of course I’m talking about the seat-fillers,” Degeneres said. “No one can fill a seat like an American.”
“The Departed” led all winners with four Oscars, followed by “Pan’s Labyrinth” with three and “Dreamgirls,” “Little Miss Sunshine,” and “An Inconvenient Truth,” all with two. “Babel,” which won Best Motion Picture ““ Drama at the Golden Globe Awards and led all films with seven nominations, managed only one win, for Best Original Score.