Oscar has never looked so sharp. Best Animated Feature winners Nick Park and Steve Box dress their awards with matching bow ties backstage during the 78th Annual Academy Awards at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, CA on Sunday, March 5, 2006. Copyright Academy Awards, 2006.

Last night was the big red carpet night and all the Oscars were handed out to those the Academy had chosen. From gay cowboys and exotic geishas and those who had stood out to announce what’s right and wrong, many people went home happy last night. Jon Stewart enriched the awards with his own dry humor, hilarious actually, and easily tops last year’s host, Chris Rock. At some points I was very surprised at who the winners were.

BEST ACTOR
Philip Seymour Hoffman in “Capote” -Winner, not at all surprising
Terrence Howard in “Hustle & Flow”
Heath Ledger in “Brokeback Mountain”
Joaquin Phoenix in “Walk the Line”
David Strathairn in “Good Night, and Good Luck.”

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
George Clooney in “Syriana” -Winner, somewhat surprising, was given Golden Globe.
Matt Dillon in “Crash”
Paul Giamatti in “Cinderella Man” -I expected him to win because he was nominated last year for Best Actor and lost. Maybe the Academy would cut him a little slack.

BEST ACTRESS
Judi Dench in “Mrs. Henderson Presents”
Felicity Huffman in “Transamerica”
Keira Knightley in “Pride & Prejudice”
Charlize Theron in “North Country”
Reese Witherspoon in “Walk the Line” - Winner, not surprising. Most performances weren’t that great, but hers stood out a bit.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Amy Adams in “Junebug”- My second choice.
Catherine Keener in “Capote”
Frances McDormand in “North Country”
Rachel Weisz in “The Constant Gardener” Winner, won Golden Globe.
Michelle Williams in “Brokeback Mountain”

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
“Howl’s Moving Castle”
Hayao Miyazaki
“Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride”
Mike Johnson and Tim Burton
“Wallace & Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit” -Winner, no contest.
Nick Park and Steve Box

ART DIRECTION
“Good Night, and Good Luck.”
Art Direction: Jim Bissell
Set Decoration: Jan Pascale
“Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire”
Art Direction: Stuart Craig
Set Decoration: Stephenie McMillan
“King Kong”
Art Direction: Grant Major
Set Decoration: Dan Hennah and Simon Bright
“Memoirs of a Geisha” -Winner, I have not seen the film, but from the trailers it looks like a beautiful film.
Art Direction: John Myhre
Set Decoration: Gretchen Rau
“Pride & Prejudice”
Art Direction: Sarah Greenwood
Set Decoration: Katie Spencer

CINEMATOGRAPHY
“Batman Begins”
Wally Pfister
“Brokeback Mountain”
Rodrigo Prieto
“Good Night, and Good Luck.”
Robert Elswit
“Memoirs of a Geisha” -Winner, once again, looks as if its a beautiful film.
Dion Beebe
“The New World”
Emmanuel Lubezki

COSTUME DESIGN
“Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”
Gabriella Pescucci
“Memoirs of a Geisha” Winner, ” ”
Colleen Atwood
“Mrs. Henderson Presents”
Sandy Powell
“Pride & Prejudice”
Jacqueline Durran
“Walk the Line”
Arianne Phillips

BEST DIRECTOR
“Brokeback Mountain”
Ang Lee -Winner, no contest here.
“Capote”
Bennett Miller
“Crash”
Paul Haggis
“Good Night, and Good Luck.”
George Clooney
“Munich”
Steven Spielberg

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
“Darwin’s Nightmare”
A Mille et Une Production
Hubert Sauper
“Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room” -Also a very impressive documentary.
An HDNet Films Production
Alex Gibney and Jason Kliot
“March of the Penguins”
A Bonne Pioche Production
Luc Jacquet and Yves Darondeau -Winner, a very impressive documentary I expected to win.
“Murderball”- Also an impressive Documentary.
An Eat Films Production
Henry-Alex Rubin and Dana Adam Shapiro
“Street Fight”
A Marshall Curry Production
Marshall Curry

DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT
The Death of Kevin Carter: Casualty of the Bang Bang Club”
A Dan Krauss Production
Dan Krauss
“God Sleeps in Rwanda”
An Acquaro/Sherman Production
Kimberlee Acquaro and Stacy Sherman
“The Mushroom Club”
A Farallon Films Production
Steven Okazaki
“A Note of Triumph: The Golden Age of Norman Corwin”
A NomaFilms Production
Corinne Marrinan and Eric Simonson- Winner

FILM EDITING
“Cinderella Man”
Mike Hill and Dan Hanley
“The Constant Gardener”
Claire Simpson
“Crash” -Winner
Hughes Winborne
“Munich”
Michael Kahn
“Walk the Line” -Also a worthy contender.
Michael McCusker

FOREIGN FILM
“Don’t Tell”
A Cattleya/Rai Cinema Production
Italy
“Joyeux Noël”
A Nord-Ouest Production
France
“Paradise Now” -With all the hype, I was expecting this.
An Augustus Film Production
Palestine
“Sophie Scholl - The Final Days”
A Goldkind Filmproduktion and Broth Film Production
Germany
“Tsotsi” -Winner
A Moviworld Production
South Africa

MAKEUP
“The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”
Howard Berger and Tami Lane-Winner, dissapointing, I didn’t even consider this much of a contender.
“Cinderella Man”
David Leroy Anderson and Lance Anderson
“Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith”
Dave Elsey and Nikki Gooley -Could have won just as easily.

ORIGINAL SCORE
“Brokeback Mountain” Gustavo Santaolalla -Winner, I really love the score.
“The Constant Gardener” Alberto Iglesias
“Memoirs of a Geisha” John Williams -Had a chance, won Golden Globe.
“Munich” John Williams
“Pride & Prejudice” Dario Marianelli

ORIGINAL SONG
“In the Deep” from “Crash”
Music by Kathleen “Bird” York and Michael Becker
Lyric by Kathleen “Bird” York
“It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp” from“Hustle & Flow” -Winner, I find rap kind of lazy but this was much better than the other two nominees.
Music and Lyric by Jordan Houston, Cedric Coleman and Paul Beauregard
“Travelin’ Thru” from “Transamerica”
Music and Lyric by Dolly Parton

BEST PICTURE
“Brokeback Mountain” -Should have won, I guess hollywood isn’t ready for gay cowboys.
A River Road Entertainment Production
Diana Ossana and James Schamus, Producers
“Capote”
An A-Line Pictures/Cooper’s Town/ Infinity Media Production
Caroline Baron, William Vince and Michael Ohoven, Producers
“Crash” (Lions Gate)-Winner, big surprise actually, deals a lot with racism, but the film is way overdone.
A Bob Yari/DEJ/Blackfriar’s Bridge/ Harris Company/ApolloProscreen GmbH & Co./Bull’s Eye Entertainment Production
Paul Haggis and Cathy Schulman, Producers
“Good Night, and Good Luck.”
A Good Night Good Luck LLC Production
Grant Heslov, Producer
“Munich”
A Universal Pictures/DreamWorks Pictures Production
Kathleen Kennedy, Steven Spielberg and Barry Mendel, Producers

ANIMATED SHORT
“Badgered”
A National Film and Television School Production
Sharon Colman
“The Moon and the Son: An Imagined Conversation”
A John Canemaker Production
John Canemaker and Peggy Stern- Winner
“The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello” (Monster Distributes)
A 3D Films Production
Anthony Lucas
“9”
A Shane Acker Production
Shane Acker
“One Man Band”
A Pixar Animation Studios Production
Andrew Jimenez and Mark Andrews

LIVE ACTION SHORT
“Ausreisser (The Runaway)”
A Hamburg Media School, Filmwerkstatt Production
Ulrike Grote
“Cashback” (The British Film Institute)
A Left Turn Films Production
Sean Ellis and Lene Bausager
“The Last Farm”
A Zik Zak Filmworks Production
Rúnar Rúnarsson and Thor S. Sigurjónsson
“Our Time Is Up”
A Station B Production
Rob Pearlstein and Pia Clemente
“Six Shooter” (Sundance Film Channel)
A Missing in Action Films and Funny Farm Films Production
Martin McDonagh- Winner

SOUND EDITING
“King Kong” Mike Hopkins and Ethan Van der Ryn -Winner, not a surprise.
“Memoirs of a Geisha” Wylie Stateman
“War of the Worlds” Richard King

SOUND MIXING
“The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”
Terry Porter, Dean A. Zupancic and Tony Johnson
“King Kong” -Winner, ” ”
Christopher Boyes, Michael Semanick, Michael Hedges and Hammond Peek
“Memoirs of a Geisha”
Kevin O’Connell, Greg P. Russell, Rick Kline and John Pritchett
“Walk the Line”
Paul Massey, D.M. Hemphill and Peter F. Kurland
“War of the Worlds”
Andy Nelson, Anna Behlmer and Ronald Judkins

VISUAL EFFECTS
“The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”
Dean Wright, Bill Westenhofer, Jim Berney and Scott Farrar
“King Kong” -Winner, ” ”
Joe Letteri, Brian Van’t Hul, Christian Rivers and Richard Taylor
“War of the Worlds”
Dennis Muren, Pablo Helman, Randal M. Dutra and Daniel Sudick

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
“Brokeback Mountain”
Screenplay by Larry McMurtry & Diana Ossana-Winner
“Capote”
Screenplay by Dan Futterman
“The Constant Gardener”
Screenplay by Jeffrey Caine
“A History of Violence”
Screenplay by Josh Olson
“Munich”
Screenplay by Tony Kushner and Eric Roth

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
“Crash” Winner- Once, again, this film was all it was hyped to be, I knew it was going to win this, though it didn’t necessarily deserve it.
Screenplay by Paul Haggis & Bobby Moresco
Story by Paul Haggis
“Good Night, and Good Luck.”
Screenplay by George Clooney & Grant Heslov
“Match Point”
Written by Woody Allen
“The Squid and the Whale”
Written by Noah Baumbach
“Syriana”
Written by Stephen Gaghan

That’s it for this year, come back next time for more coverage for the films of 2006.