The Academy did not assist anyone in coming to this realization, however, with the beginning of its awards telecast. Though the versatile Neil Patrick Harris performed a splendid musical number that seemed to incorporate elements from the old magic of Hollywood, the opening dialogue delivered by Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin fell flat. If this replacement for the traditional monologue was performed in any other year, I suspect that the Oscars ratings would have flatlined immediately. Yet, because there were some popular choices for this year’s Oscars, there was still reason for most of the country to watch. When they continued to watch, they were treated to the best that Hollywood had to offer, and the highlights used to show this year’s best picture nominees will have me racing to the theaters, or, in the case of some of the pictures released earlier this year, the mall in order to see some more of the nominated films.

Oscars intro math: Funny + Funny = Not Funny

Though some speculated that run-off style voting used in this year’s awards would lead to a dark-horse nominee winning best picture, the results had all the surprises of all number one seeds making the Final Four. However, unlike in years past, this result was acceptable. The Hurt Locker trumping all others was not like last year’s Academy Awards, in which two films of that year that were not nominated (The Dark Knight and Doubt) had a more legitimate claim to the golden statuette and all of the films of the previous year (No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood, Juno, Michael Clayton, and Atonement) were better than the winner Slumdog Millionaire. The Hurt Locker emerged from a field that included the most financially successful movie ever, a Quentin Tarantino masterpiece, and an animated classic, among others, in order to win. The fact that I was able to write the previous sentence shows that the victory was well deserved. This year wasn’t another chapter in the Academy’s love affair with independent movies (though The Hurt Locker will be the answer to the trivia question ‘What is the lowest grossing movie to ever win the Best Picture Oscar?’). Instead, it was a celebration of all of cinema. For this reason, all movie fans should be grateful that the Academy expanded to ten best picture nominees last summer.