Capping the Year

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O, the moments from last night. Here is a couple of the out-standing speeches from last night, Dustin Lance Black's relevantly personal and deeply humanistic acceptance for Milk and, of course, Kate's quirky and long-awaited acceptance for The Reader.
On a related note, a point I didn't address last night but one that surely deserves mention is that of the revised process of awarding the actors, by which five previous winners in each category not only announced and congratulated their category's new winner but also spoke to and praised each other nominee for his/her nominated work, a process which I and, I'm sure, many of you felt to be both a welcome reprieve from the semi-redundant and oft minimizing practice of showing clips from each nominated work and a clever way to make use of the Academy's greatest asset: not its money, not its fame, and surely not its members but much rather its actors. Well done, Mr. Condon (and team); this move almost makes up for your lamentable Dreamgirls (2006). (And - to think - I almost went a whole post without making a single criticism....)
In any event, the show was pretty darn good last night, better than it has been in years, though of course improvements to many things in our pasts and presents could always have been and still be made. Nevertheless, as I said when I wrote last night, I was blithely contented by the whole affair of this year's Oscars; it was nice to see almost everything go according to plan but that going simultaneously be unboring. And, so oft as it has been, let us end of that note, a good one, and thus close this year in film, 2008.
(2009, away!)

(Other video below:)