NO OSCAR SURPRISES

Gangster movie The Departed took home the big prize while the announcement of other key winners revealed no significant surprises in last night’s 79th annual Oscar Awards in Los Angeles.

After five previous snubs by the Academy Martin Scorsese took home the best directing gong for his acclaimed The Departed. While the film is not considered to be his finest, there was much expectation that he would win the prize in part to make up for not being recognised in the past.

Shortly thereafter, Scorsese was back on the stage when the film was named best motion picture of the year. The Departed was additionally awarded best adapted screenplay and also won in the editing category.

In the least surprising award of the evening, Hellen Mirren was recognised for her leading role performance as the Queen in the film of the same name. Mirren had won almost every other major film award for the performance, including a BAFTA and a Golden Globe. Newcomer Jennifer Hudson was chosen as best actress in a supporting role for her powerful turn in the musical Dreamgirls.

Dreamgirls however failed to win for its other nominations: its Beyonce-performed Listen lost out to I Need to Wake Up from An Inconvenient Truth in the category of best original song.

There was also no surprise when Forest Whitaker was named best performer in a leading role as Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland, while Alan Arkin was awarded for his supporting role in the independent film Little Miss Sunshine. Little Miss Sunshine also won in the original screenplay category.

An Inconvenient Truth, the Al Gore environmental documentary, was awarded best documentary feature and Happy Feet was given the best animated feature gong. The Lives of Others from Germany was named best foreign language film.