A Final Word...

...on this year's Academy Awards show. I absolutely loved Hugh Jackman as host. I thought his opening number was adroable and he is so talented: he sings, he dances, he acts! Fantastic. And he's not bad to look at!

My favorite part of this year's show was the new format for introducing the nominees in the acting categories. Bringing back former Academy Award winners to give testimony to the performances of this year's nominees was genius. Some of the presenters did better than others and were either wonderfully moving or personal; specifically I loved Shirley MacLaine's introduction of Anne Hathaway (who was quite a trooper and very impressive in her bit with Hugh Jackman at the beginning) and Robert DeNiro's of Sean Penn. But Eva Marie Saint and Sophia Loren and Joel Grey were also all wonderful, and wonderful to see. I have read that some critics didn't like this bit, that they would have preferred to see clips of the performances rather than these testimonials. I LOVED this so much more than the clips. We've all seen bits and pieces of the performances; anyone who really cares about the Oscars has. I much prefer bringing back these winners. As a movie fan, it was just such a treat to see them. And the reactions of such personal introductions were obviously well-received by the nominees. We haven't seen that kind of emotion at the Oscars very often, except from the winners. It's nice to give all of the nominees a chance to really feel that emotion on their special night.