The 81st Academy Awards

"Art will always be our universal language" -Penelope Cruz

Well, ladies and gentlemen this was the most captivating Academy Awards in a while and all I can say is, "Oh, God .... "Oh, God" (please try to do this in your best Kate Winslet voice).

The set was breath-taking, Australians can sing,and no one fell asleep. There were hardly any montages and when they actually did come on screen, they were brilliantly done. It honored the other non-nominated films even if it was only for a few seconds.

The speeches were beautiful and short. The performances were wicked and held that classic style which needs to be brought back. It was very creative as to how the actors and actresses were announced. Thank God I am in a screenplay class because I appreciated what they did to announce the different films . Oh, and Coldplay subliminally took over the show.

The winners
(Every film was brilliant. Every artist puts their heart and soul into their work, so please appreciate everything that was nominated and not nominated)

Sean Penn won best actor for Milk. He is and always will be pure brilliance. He truly becomes every character that he plays.

Heath Ledger won for best supporting actor in the Dark Knight. His family gave a lovely acceptance speech on his behalf and it touched the hearts of many.

Kate Winslet didn't hyperventilate too much when she won for best actress. She greatly deserves it because she is phenomenal but everyone knows that Meryl will always win in my heart.

Penelope Cruz won best supporting actress and was "genius" in Vicky Christina Barcelona.

Pixar has done it again. Wall-E won for best animated film and I stand by the fact that it should have been up for best picture.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button won Art Direction. The colors, set, lighting, etc. were amazing in this film and it is great that it won.

Slumdog Millionaire won for Cinematography.

The Duchess won Costume Design. Is anyone else sick of corsets winning best costume design? They might be hard to make but honestly the one thing you need to show the time period of the nineteen hundred's is a corset. Give us a challenge, please.

Danny Boyle walked away with Best Director. He was so excited! The job is tedious and all of the weight rests on your shoulders. It could have went to any of the directors but only one person can be recognized.

Man on Wire won best Documentary Feature. That man can balance.

Smile Pinki won for best Documentary Short. Can't say that I have seen any of these so congratulations.

Slumdog Millionaire won for Film Editing. One thing I think would make me go crazy, editing a film.

Departures won Best Foreign Language Film. Again have not seen any of these ...woop.

Make-up of course went to The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Phenomenal.

Slumdog Millionaire won Best Original Score and Best Original Score. It was something that was finally different. Indian culture is where it's at. Jai Ho!

Short Animated Film went to La Maison en Petits Cubes. "T-ank you Academy." Greatest speech ever. (This was not to be sarcastic, I really liked it.)

Short Animated Live Action went to Spielzeugland (Toyland). The Academy loves those Holocaust films and the director/producer/maybe writer? gave a magnificent speech.

The Dark Knight won Sound Editing. Luis guessed this.

Slumdog won Sound Mixing.

Visual Effects went to The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Apparently while making this film the technology wasn't even developed when they started filming or something along the lines of this statement.

Screenplay, Adapted went to Slumdog Millionaire. Insane.

Screenplay, Original went to Milk. Dustin Lance Black's speech was great and he really showed how much this award meant to him.

Slumdog Millionaire won Best Picture of the year. It was stunning. It left your heart just uplifted and really let you into the slums of Mumbai. The other films were just as great but I am ecstatic that my favorite film this year won.

The greatest night of a film lover is over but I am just so excited to see what is in store for us next year. I am happy that we got a lot of people to watch it and I think they enjoyed it just as much as I did.

On a side note I learned a couple of things as I watch the Awards: Gracie can guess everything, Ahmend had a beautiful portfolio, Luis is a minority, Bollywood is an actual thing, my really good friend looks like Robert Downey Jr., I can not predict anything and I should never gamble on anything unless Pixar is up for best animated, and you are considered married if you live with someone for seven years.

"Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto"