Since the moment it was announced Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin were to host this year’s Academy Awards, I had a feeling it would be a good year for the Oscars – and it most certainly was. In terms of numbers, it had the largest audience in five years- since Million Dollar Baby scooped the top prize, but it was more than the ratings that made last night a success. The shadow that had overcast the evening for me was the fear that Avatar would win Best Picture. Yes it was a wildly successful and visually spectacular movie – but best film of the last year? Absolutely not. As soon as Kathryn Bigelow was announced as Best Director for  the Hurt Locker I was convinced that was it – Avatar had to win a major prize and all that remained was Best Picture. Well thankfully I was wrong and the Hurt Locker did pick up Best Picture. In fact indie films dominated the awards last night – receiving twelve statues compared to the nine that films from major studios collected.

As for the rest of the ceremony itself, the hosts were funny – though maybe they could have pushed the envelope a little further – and there was an incredibly touching tribute to John Hughes. The real scene stealer though was Ben Stiller, who presented the award for Best Makeup in character as a Na’vi from Avatar (Avatar was not nominated in this category). Take a look at the video above to watch him garner more laughs than all the other presenters put together.