Times are all GMT
00.20
The red carpet stuff has started. Paul Giamatti and Tim Burton have just been interviewed. And now Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams. The ABC red carpet crew are getting through these quick.
00.31
Joel Siegel on the red carpet has just reminded ABC viewers that Philip Seymour Hoffman once promised his college room mate that he would bark if he ever won the Oscar for Best Actor. I cannot wait to see if he does.
00.58
The ceremony is about to begin. The big question has to be: how many gaw cowboy jokes is Jon Stewart going to squeeze into his opening monologue?
01.06
Amusing opening TV montage with previous Oscar presenters turning this year’s job down. I think Jon Stewart will be funny. I don’t see him doing a Letterman.
01.07
First obligatory shot of Jack Nicholson grinning with his shades on.
01.10
First Dick Cheney gag of the evening. Bjork (she of the Ostrich like dress in 2000) couldn’t be here tonight because the Vice-President shot her. Nice.
1.20
George Clooney wins Best Supporting Actor for Syriana. The one prediction I was worried about but George came good!
1.28
King Kong wins for Best Visual Effects. And rightly so. The film is a landmark in visual SFX.
1.32
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit wins Best Animated Feature. Nick Park and his co-director Steve Box are wearing some rather large bow ties and have just put some miniture ones on their golden statuettes.
01.42
Best Live Action Short Film has gone to Six Shooter, directed by Martin McDonagh (no, I haven’t seen it either)
01.47
Best Animated Short Film has been won by The Moon and the Son: An Imagined Conversation. Another one I have yet to see.
01.50
Memoirs of a Geisha wins it’s first technical award of the evening as it scoops Best Costume Design.
01.59
Best Makeup goes to The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
02.01
Host Jon Stewart points to the big Oscar statue behind him and asks if democracy in Hollywood would flourish if they all pulled it down.
02.35
Sorry for the delay – I needed a cup of tea. Whilst I was away Rachel Weisz won Best Supporting Actress for The Constant Gardener. Go Rachel. It is 2 out of 2 in my predictions for the main categories. The documentary awards went to A Note of Triumph: The Golden Age of Norman Corwin for Best Documentary Short Subject and March of the Penguins won Best Documentary, which saw the rather bizarre sight of French filmmakers invading the stage with toy penguins.
03.01
Best Art Direction goes to Memoirs of a Geisha (ahead of King Kong?!) whilst Brokeback Mountain gets its first Oscar of the evening as a surprised looking Gustavo Santaolalla wins Best Original Score for his evocative work on Ang Lee’s film.
03.28
Best Sound Mixing has gone to King Kong (I had a feeling Walk the Line might have sneaked it but it’s well deserved).
Meanwhile Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin gave a rather tortuous introduction to Robert Altman for his Lifetime Achievement Award in we learnt that he had a heart transplant a few years ago.
Best Music (Song) goes to Three 6 Mafia for "It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp" from Hustle and Flow which is annoying as I thought it would win a few days ago but changed my mind. After Eminem’s win a couple of years ago it seems the Academy is getting down with the kids when it comes to music.
03.41
Best gag of the evening so far from Jon Stewart: "For those of you keeping score at home. Three 6 Mafia – 1 Oscar. Martin Scorcese – no Oscars".
03.45
Another technical award goes to King Kong as it wins Best Sound Editing.
Best Foreign Language Film goes to Tsotsi (South Africa) and it’s director was quite emotional.
Best Film Editing goes to Crash and editor Hughes Winborne almost walked off the stage before remebering he had a quick speech to give.
03.47
The great (and I mean great) Philip Seymour Hoffman wins Best Actor for Capote. But he didn’t bark. Pity.
03.56
Memoirs of a Geisha wins Best Cinematography. Can someone please explain how this won over The New World and Brokeback Mountain?
04.00
Reese Witherspoon deservedly wins Best Actress for Walk the Line. She seems somewhat overwhelmed by it all. She was emotional but there was no sign of any Paltrow-style waterworks.
04.15
It’s the screenplays now. Diana Ossana and Larry McMurty win Best Adapted Screenplay for Brokeback Mountain. Highly expected but richly deserved. Larry even saluted the "culture of the book". Which was nice.
Best Original Screenplay goes to Paul Haggis and Bobby Maresco for Crash. Another highly expected win. But wasn’t Paul nervous?
04.21
Ang Lee wins Best Director for Brokeback Mountain. But we all knew he was going to didn’t we? The real question is whether Crash can sneak Best Picture…
04.24
Best Picture goes to Crash. I didn’t think it would do it but all the last minute vibes from various observers proved correct.
04.44
Well, that’s it for another year. The big stories from a British perspective were Rachel Weisz and Wallace and Gromit winning, the major story of the evening was Crash winning Best Picture. Some predicted it and they were right. One interesting aspect for Oscar geeks was the fact that a different film won in each of the six major categories. I can’t remember the last time that happened. Anyway, I’m off to bed as I’m tired and the Vanity Fair party is too far away for me to walk ๐