Faith and Dreams Come True at the Oscars

Marty finally got it!

After being nominated countless times throughout his illustrious career, brilliant film director Martin Scorsese finally bagged the elusive Oscar for Best Director ath the 79th Oscar Awards ceremony this evening in Los Angeles. To make the win even more complete and precious, the movie for which he won the Best Director award - "The Departed" bagged the Best Picure award as well. Sweet victory has finally come for one of Hollywood's most illustrious filmmakers.

It was a night of dreams fulfilled and a ceremony that reminded the viewers of the power of hope and faith. Actress Jennifer Hudson gave credit to God when she said, "Look at what God can do!" and spoke of her grandmother who was her inspiration and the one who pushed her to pursue her childhood dreams. Best Actor winner Forest Whitaker also thanked God profusely and spoke of the times when as a young man he had dreamt of this moment. Alan Arkin, my bet for Best Supporting Actor for "Little Miss Sunshine" was gracious in saying that "acting is always a team effort" and how through the public's acceptance of their small independent film, speaks so openly of " the possibility of innocence, growth and connection," said Arkin, who plays a foul-mouthed grandpa with ataste for heroin in the road comedy. And truly, the best films are those that come out of real life as evidenced by screenwriter Arndt's win for "Little Miss Sunshine" he said in his acceptance speech - "When I was a kid, my family drove 600 miles in a VW bus with a broken clutch," Arndt said, describing a road trip that mirrored the one in the film. "It ended up being one of the funnest things we did together." Truly, the themes of love, faith and family resonated throughout the winner's speeches at the Oscars this evening.

Watching the annual awards presentation is a main event for me each year. For the last several years my friend R and I have a running bet on the top six categories - picture, director and all four acting awards. It was both an interesting and tough selection this year. Though he went with all the front runners, I opted (as usual) to vote differently and ended up with 3 wins (director, supporting actor and acress) versus his 5. To be honest, I really wanted Peter O'Toole to finally get an Oscar in the same manner that Scorses did. With probably only a few more years left, O'Toole, a really great Bristish actor deserves to get an Oscar. Maybe one British win this year was enough. Helen Mirren was really remarkable as Queen Elizabeth - she completely inhabited her role. My bet for Best Picture was a toss between "The Departed" which is really such a GREAT film and "Letters from Iwo-Jima" I decided to go with the war movie but I guess in it's present state, America just wanted to veer away from war movies or the thought of war. Film really mirrors life and the choices this year were an excellent representation of that. And talk about being global! Tonight's Oscar awards was simply that - a coming together of the world's greatest filmmakers, actors, actresses and technicians for the mother of all award ceremonies. Lots of really great films to look out for on DVD and movie theatres in the coming months. Oh if our own Philippine movie industry could only be a part of that growing global industry...