Hollywood's Big Night

The Oscars® were really a free for all, tonight … with a few exceptions.

Best Picture and Best Director went to No Country for Old Men (Joel and Ethan Coen), as did the award for Adapted Screenplay. Best Supporting Actor went to Javier Bardem for the film. No shock there. Ditto for Best Actor winner Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood; the film also won Best Cinematography.

Best Actress went to Marion Cotillard for La Vie En Rose (which also won for Best Makeup) and Best Supporting Actress was Tilda Swinton for Michael Clayton (the film’s only major award).

Best Original Screenplay went to Juno’s Diablo Cody, who won Best First Screenplay at Film Independent’s Spirit Awards. Cody, who was cool and excited on Saturday, looked totally blown away by her Sunday win.

Once beat out three songs from Enchanted and one from August Rush, winning the Oscar for Best Original Song: "Falling Slowly," music and lyrics by the film’s stars Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova. (Once took home the Spirit Award for Best Foreign Film the day before.)

Austria’s The Counterfeiters won the Academy Award® for Best Foreign Film, and Taxi to the Dark Side took home Best Documentary. Ratatouille won Best Animated Film and Atonement took the award for Best Score. Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street won for Best Art Direction, The Golden Compass won for Visual Effects, and the award for Costume Design went to Elizabeth: The Golden Age.

The Bourne Ultimatum was full of surprises: it won Best Editing (which usually goes to Best Picture), as well as awards for Sound Editing and Sound Mixing.

For a complete list of Academy Award winners, go to Oscar.com. For a complete list of Spirit Award Winners, go to Spirit Awards.com.

Turn on Friday Night Lights

NBC’s Friday Night Lights was one of the best new shows last season. And tonight marks the last pre-strike episode of the show, perhaps the last ep of the season, and possible the series finale. Since the ratings were not that great—even with brand new episodes airing against less than stellar strike-fare—season three seems unlikely. (I am still hopeful, as those rose-colored glasses block out a lot of drudge.)

If you haven’t caught this prime-time football drama that’s more about the people affected by the game in small-town Dillon, Texas, than football itself, you are missing out. Friday Night Lights, filmed in TX, is shot more like a feature film than a TV program. The acting is superb—if the plot lines tend to be a bit melodramatic. And even the most fanatical, annoying character at the beginning of the show’s run (Buddy Garrity, I’m talking about you) has become endearing. Meanwhile, the most stable—Matt Saracen—has totally lost it after being tested one too many times. Lucky for Matt, Coach is watching out for him.

Check out FNL before the lights go out for good.