Different Look Oscars Still Deliver

Last night’s Oscars marked the 80th year that the awards ceremony has been held, and as always, it was a night of celebration, jokes, expensive outfits, and tearful acceptance speeches.
This year’s ceremony was different from past years in that it fell 2 weeks after the resolution of the writers’ strike, and until recently many thought the ceremony might not even occur. A number of stars did not even attend this year, though there were new faces such as Ellen Paige (nominated for a best actress award for her role in Juno) and recent teen pop sensation Miley Cyrus.
John Stewart made the evening fun and laidback as the host, as he touched on various current events and happenings throughout the show. Stewart only had 8 days to prepare for hosting the show (his second appearance filling the role), but he did an admirable job of making the crowd, both in the Kodak Theater and watching at home, laugh at his jokes between awards. He opened the show by remarking, “Oscar is 80 this year, which makes him the automatic front runner for the Republican nomination,” and continued to make the audience laugh throughout.
“These past three and a half months have been very tough. The town was torn apart by a bitter writer's strike, but I'm happy to say that the fight is over," Stewart said. "So tonight, welcome to the makeup sex."
The surprise of the night was all four top acting awards going to foreign actors and actresses. In the two sure things of the night, Spaniard Javier Bardem won for supporting actor in "No Country For Old Men," and Brit Daniel Day Lewis picked up his second best-actor Oscar for "There Will Be Blood”. For the actresses, Frenchwoman Marion Cotillard was the surprise winner of the best-actress award for her portrayal of the late Edith Piaf in "La Vie En Rose", while Brit Tilda Swinton took home the supporting-actress award for her work in "Michael Clayton."
The biggest winners of the evening were the Coen brothers, who took home three Academy Awards, including best directing, best actor, and best picture.
Other winners included "The Bourne Ultimatum" for editing, sound editing, and sound mixing, and "Ratatouille" for best animated film.
“Juno,” which garnered a lot of Oscar buzz, was nominated for several awards such as best actress and best picture, but only ended up with writer Diablo Cody picking up the award for best original screenplay.
Another surprise was the best-song award, which went to "Falling Slowly" from the film "Once”. Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, who play the two main characters in the film, are real-life musicians who wrote all the songs for the film.
"What are we doing here? This is mad," Hansard said. "It took us three weeks to make. We made it for a hundred grand. We never thought we'd come into a room like this and be in front of all you people."
Many of the top awards this year went to films dealing with heavy subjects, leading Stewart to remark "Does this town need a hug? What happened? 'No Country For Old Men,' 'Sweeney Todd,' 'There Will Be Blood?' All I can say is, thank God for teen pregnancy. I think the country agrees," Stewart said, referring to best-picture nominee "Juno."”
As a whole, the evening lacked some of the glitz and glamour that previous years have had, but this wasn’t entirely a bad thing. Although some familiar faces were missing, all the winners were deserving, the show went off without a hitch, and was well received by viewers.