Last night’s Oscar ceremony was the best I’ve ever seen, and JayBird and MSat agree. Planned and spontaneous jokes from Jon Stewart kept the evening feeling fresh while well-produced clip montages of Oscar’s past set the theme. The clips featured emotional moments from Oscar’s 80 year history as well as scenes from the films that shaped generations of movie goers. Swelling music kept everyone in an Oscar mood while unexpected skits added to the fun. Entertainment’s most anticipated night did live up to our expectations for once, and producers managed to create a fresh and interesting ceremony with less than two weeks preparation after the strike ended.

The best lead and supporting actress winners were complete surprises for me, as none of the journalists I’d read ahead of time predicted that either would win. Tilda Swinton gave a witty dry speech for her best supporting actress win while Marion Cotillard was exuberant and shaking with overwhelming happiness.

We all laughed out loud when lookalike scruffy actors and co-presenters Seth Rogan and Jonah Hill were introduced by Jon Stewart as Halle Berry and Dame Judi Dench. They then proceeded to argue over which one of them would get to be Halle Berry.

Musicians and indie actors Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova won best song for the haunting “Falling Slowly” from Once. Hansard spoke quickly in his acceptance speech but the music started playing once Irglova got to the mic. It cut to commercial and when we came back to the Oscars Jon Stewart brought Irglova back on stage to give her thanks. She said their win was for all independent musicians and that “it’s just to prove no matter how far out your dreams are, it’s possible.”

The best documentary: short subject was presented by a filmed clip from US soldiers stationed in Iraq, and it was a very nice way to honor the troops. It also struck me that the Academy was trying to balance out the political subject matter in the longer documentary films. It seemed like they used the troops to introduce the shorter documentaries so as not to make it too much of an obvious contrast with the several full length documentaries nominated with anti-war themes.

The only political statements of the night came from the documentary winners and were brief and well stated. Cynthia Wade and Vanessa Roth won best documentary short for their 38 minute film Freeheld, about a dying Lieutenant who wants to leave her pension benefits to her same sex partner. Wade said “It was Lieutenant Laurel Hester’s dying wish that her fight for, against discrimination would make a difference for all the same sex couples across the country that face discrimination every day.” (Video shown above.)

Anti-torture full length documentary Taxi to the Dark Side won, and director Alex Gibney did make a brief statement, and given his very harrowing film you would expect him to, but it was general and inspiring. He said “This is dedicated to two people who are no longer with us, Dilawar, the young Afghan taxi driver, and my father, a navy interrogator who urged me to make this film because of his fury about what was being done to the rule of law. Let’s hope we can turn this country around, move away from the dark side and back to the light.”

98 year old art director Robert Boyle was presented with an honorary Oscar, and his resulting speech was longer than about ten Academy Award winners put together. It was hard to tell quite when he would end or where he was going, but the guy was so awesome we were all hoping he would keep talking. At the end he wrapped it up with a wonderful statement that seemed to sum up what the Oscars and the movies are all about. He said “Since I’ve been around here for almost a century, I’ve noted a lot of conflicts, but there was one bright image in this whole life of ours, and that was the arts, and particularly the art of the moviemakers, of the moving image that we all love.”

Here are some more clips from the night.

Jack Nicholson presents the films that won best picture over the last 79 years:Jon Stewart gives pregnancy award to Angelina Jolie: