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How will we know it’s the future?
There weren’t any real shockers among tonight’s Oscar winners, were there? I think for the first time in years, most of the winners were either foregone conclusions, like Daniel Day-Lewis and Javier Bardem, or strong contenders, like Tilda Swinton and Marion Cotillard. No Crash beating out Brokeback Mountain. No Alan Arkin winning an award everyone had already given to Eddie Murphy.

This year there was a clear-cut winner. No Country for Old Men swept all the major awards it was up for, but the other four Best Picture contenders each won at least one award. I always feel better when that happens. It must hurt if your Best Picture nominee gets shut out completely.

The Oscar ceremony itself was for once (and blessedly) not over the top with schlock. Jon Stewart did a fine, understated job as host, and the presenters’ remarks were not as overwritten and unfunny as we’ve come to expect from awards shows, especially this one. Unlike some people, I love film montages and never think there are too many of them, and tonight’s montages were just about right, even the comical ones like the Salute to Binoculars and Periscopes.

The In Memoriam montage was a little less moving than usual, but only because so few megastars died this year. There was a little polite applause at first, but it was mostly silent until we got to Suzanne Pleshette, Deborah Kerr and Ingmar Bergman. And of course they had to finish with Heath Ledger, because of the suddenness of his passing and the unfulfilled promise.

One place the Academy fell short was in nominating original songs from this year’s movies. The three from Enchanted are all forgettable, and the one from August Rush is from a dud of a movie. Why didn’t Eddie Vedder get a nomination for his songs from Into the Wild? Or how about “Let’s Duet” from Walk Hard?

I’m so happy “Falling Slowly” won Best Original Song, not only because it’s the best original song, but also because it’s from Once, a beautiful little movie that deserves some mainstream recognition. And its stars and songwriters, Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, were wonderfully humble and articulate in their acceptance speeches. That’s a great reason to be happy for them.

Maybe I’m the only one who does this, but I always keep a running tally of (a) how many awards each film wins, and (2) how many of the winners I’ve seen. Including short subjects, seventeen different movies won Oscars tonight, and I have seen five of them (Elizabeth: The Golden Age, Ratatouille, La Vie en Rose, Michael Clayton and Once). After No Country for Old Men, which won four Oscars, the next most honored film of the year is The Bourne Ultimatum with three. Two other movies won two: La Vie en Rose and There Will Be Blood. And that’s it. The rest of the awards were spread out one at a time. There must be many happy people in Hollywood tonight. I hope they all get home safely.

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