Martin Scorsese Wins Oscar For Best Director

Posted on February 26, 2007

It was finally Martin Scorsese's time: last night he won the Oscar for Best Director for The Departed. Scorsese seemed absolutely elated, as did the crowd. He was handed his statuette by old friends, writer/directors Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. The Departed also picked up Best Picture and Best Adapted Screeplay honors for William Monohan, who opened his acceptance speech by joking that "Valium does work" (Monohan is notoriously publicity-shy).

We really liked the way they did the writing awards for Best Original and Best Adapted Screenplay. The presenters read from the actual script, while showing the scene from the movie. It really gave the audience the feel of how a writer's thoughts translate to film.

We also loved Ellen DeGeneres' gag when she went into the audience, crouched down beside Martin Scorsese to make small talk. She asked if it was hot in the room, then fanned herself with a spec script, pretending to be surprised at its appearance. She then convinced Scorsese to take a look at her script which she described as "sort of a cross between Goodfellas and Big Momma's House. It's Goodmommas."