Movie Fanatic brings you the Academy Awards as it happens, with commentary, analysis and some exclusive insight that those ABC cameras won't bring you. Since those Academy Awards nominations were announced, this was the moment we've been waiting for.
From the opening monologue of host Seth MacFarlane to the announcement of the Oscar for Best Picture... we chronicle the 85th Academy Awards as no other.
The nominees and presenters have walked the red carpet and are settled into the Dolby Theater. Without further ado... we bring you the 2013 Academy Awards!
8:30 p.m. The show opens with Seth MacFarlane taking the stage. What's he going to do? "The mission to make Tommy Lee Jones laugh starts now!" Then, he laughed! MacFarlane has already succeeded. Love his picking on Jean Dujardin!
Although MacFarlane is no stand-up comic, he's nailing it in that effort. His joke on Chris Brown and Rihanna struck a chord.
Things were going well and then William Shatner shows up! Will he call MacFarlane a pig like in our interview?! No, but he brought a "clip" with him from the "future" where MacFarlane supposedly ruined the night. We Saw Your Boobs is classic MacFarlane.
Then, MacFarlane launched into song with Charlize Theron and Channing Tatum. The Way You Look Tonight with Tatum and Theron dancing. Nice touch, MacFarlane.
Shatner appeared once again to show a clip from what could have been... a sock puppet rendition of Flight. It was pretty fun, but still Shatner cautioned it was not good.
Joseph Gordon Levitt and Daniel Radcliffe took the stage and joined MacFarlane for a song and dance version of High Hopes.
The bit with Sally Field might have sounded good on paper, but we weren't the hugest fan.
Yet, MacFarlane redeemed himself with a rousing Oscar-themed version of Be Our Guest. Complete with closing headline: Best Oscar Host Ever, says everyone but Entertainment Weekly.
8:46 p.m. Octavia Spencer (last year's winner for The Help) takes the stage to announce Best Supporting Actor. And the Oscar goes to...Christoph Waltz! Our first upset of the night is from our first award! Honestly, the man deserved it. He was astounding in Django Unchained. We just never thought it could happen. Keep surprising us Oscars!
8:55 p.m. Paul Rudd and Melissa McCarthy hit the stage. These two are a funny twosome! Who are your favorite comedy duos? They are in fact there to present Best Animated Short Film. The winner is Disney's Paperman. Such a wonderful movie that appeared before Wreck-It Ralph. Want to see it yourself? Check out the Paperman full movie!
9:00 p.m. The comic duo then announce the winner for Best Animated Feature. Surprise... it's Brave! Disney goes two-for-two!
9:01 p.m. America's sweetheart Reese Witherspoon takes the stage, looking classic Hollywood stunning. She is introducing the Best Picture nominee Les Miserables. She's there to also introduce Life of Pi and Beasts of the Southern Wild. This is new, perhaps a time saver to introduce more than one movie at once?
9:03 p.m. MacFarlane cracks jokes based on Beasts of the Southern Wild lead actress and her young age. He's on tonight, there is no question. Then he introduces five of The Avengers! Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Jeremy Renner and Samuel L. Jackson. They are there to present Achievement in Cinematography. And the winner is... Life of Pi. Good call Academy. One gorgeous film. The superhero gang continues by awarding Best Visual Effects. The Oscar goes to...Life of Pi.
9:15 p.m. MacFarlane introduces Jennifer Aniston and Channing Tatum. The pair are hitting the Dolby Theatre with a few behind-the-scenes awards -- makeup and hairstyling awards! First up, the costume designers are tributed. Love the joke about waxing Channing! Too true, too true. This year's Best Costume Designer worked on... Anna Karenina. Called it! And then it's time for Best Makeup and Hairstyling... who wins? Why it's Les Miserables. Two for two here!
9:22 p.m. Halle Berry takes the stage... is it time for our Bond tribute?! Yeah! The James Bond movies have always been our favorite. That theme song is so iconic, my goodness. Amazing how they have effectively shown the most incredible sights and sounds of 50 years in a few short minutes. One of the better Oscar tributes in some time.
Surprise! Shirley Bassey takes the stage to sing Goldfinger. Has she still got it or what? Simply awesome.
9:30 p.m. Oscar winner Jamie Foxx and fellow Django Unchained star Kerry Washington now walk up to the microphone. They're presenting Live Action Short Film. The winner is Curfew. Best Documentary Short Feature is up next. Inocente wins! Movie Fanatic is two for two in these hard-to-predict categories!
9:35 p.m. Liam Neeson comes out, but not before MacFarlane gets in a too obvious Harvey Weinstein joke. Neeson is there to introduce the next few Oscar Best Picture nominees: Argo, Lincoln and Zero Dark Thirty. Our winner is among those three... mark my words.
9:43 p.m. Ben Affleck takes the stage to introduce the Best Documentary Feature. And the Oscar goes to... Searching for Sugarman. Movie Fanatic knew that the Academy would go for this charming and powerful piece!
9:48 p.m. What a pair! Jessica Chastain and Jennifer Garner arrive to present Best Foreign Language Film. No surprise here... the winner is Amour. Want more about this charming film? Check out our Amour quotes.
9:53 p.m. MacFarlane salutes the Oscar orchestra... which isn't playing there, but at the Capital Records building? Wow... who knew?
9:54 p.m. John Travolta hits the stage to tribute movie musicals. Les Miserables' Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe and Anne Hathaway are announced to perform. Also to perform, songs from Chicago and Dreamgirls.
First up is Catherine Zeta Jones singing one of our favorites, All That Jazz from Chicago!
Next up is the Academy Award-winning Dreamgirls and let's hope Jennifer Hudson is singing that song. Bingo! Man, And I Am Telling You I Am Not Going is just as powerful as when she sang it in the movie.
Lastly, Oscar pays tribute to this year's musical movie nominee... Les Miserables. Fantastic job of melding all the powerful songs from this astounding musical.
10:08 p.m. Star Trek Into Darkness stars Chris Pine and Zoe Saldana take the stage to salute awards given to tech people, presented earlier this month.
10:10 p.m. Seth MacFarlane salutes all the good movies made this year. Then, being great at self-deprecating humor, he introduces the stars of his film, Ted, Mark Wahlberg and the title character. The two prove why their chemistry produced a movie that made a lot of loot! We finally find out why they're there... to present Best Sound Mixing. And the Oscar goes to Les Miserables.
Best Sound Editing is next... and the Oscar goes to: It's a tie! Wow, this never happens! First winner is Zero Dark Thirty. The film that tied it is... Skyfall. Nice to see a Bond movie win for something other than Best Song... which they will win later!
10:18 p.m. Christopher Plummer is about to be introduced... love the Sound of Music joke! Uncanny! Finally, he does hit the stage. The winner for Best Supporting Actor last year for Beginners is here to present this year's Best Supporting Actress. Love you Sally Field, but no surprise here... the winner is Anne Hathaway for Les Miserables.
10:28 p.m. MacFarlane introduces the Academy President. This year's Oscar escorts are filmmakers of the future. Nice to know!
10:30 p.m. Sandra Bullock is introduced. Why is she there? To present the Oscar for Achievement in Film Editing! This is a huge indicator as to who will win Best Picture. Dozens of winners of this category have gone on to win Best Picture. And the Oscar for Achievement in Film Editing goes to: Argo.
10:33 p.m. Jennifer Lawrence takes the stage to introduce Adele singing Skyfall!
10:44 p.m. Nicole Kidman lands on the Dolby Theatre stage to introduce the next several Best Picture nominees: Silver Linings Playbook, Django Unchained and Amour.
10:47 p.m. Daniel Radcliffe and Kristen Stewart arrive to present the award for Best Production Design. Seeing Harry Potter and Bella from the Twilight Saga is an impressive combination. The winner is Lincoln and deservedly so, as the team behind the film impeccably captured the feel of that period as no other.
10:55 p.m. Salma Hayek salutes the Humanitarian Awards.
10:57 p.m. One of Hollywood's favorite people, George Clooney, introduces the In Memoriam section of the show. Barbra Streisand makes a rare appearance to salute her friend Marvin Hamlisch with The Way We Were.
11:07 p.m. Chicago stars Richard Gere, Catherine Zeta Jones, Renee Zellweger and Queen Latifah take the stage. Wow. Simply, wow! The superstars are there to present Best Score. And the winner is... Life of Pi. We called it!
11:11 p.m. It's time for Best Original Song! Will Bond win? We find out after Norah Jones sings us a little Ted track. And the Oscar goes to... Skyfall by Adele.
11:23 p.m. Charlize Theron and Dustin Hoffman, an interesting pairing, arrive to present the screenplay awards. First up, is Best Adapted Screenplay. The winner is... Argo. Honestly, I think this is a crime. Tony Kushner's script for Lincoln is nothing short of a miracle. And now it's time for Best Original Screenplay. Will Quentin Tarantino win? The Oscar goes to... Tarantino!! This QT fan could not be more excited.
11:33 p.m. MacFarlane introduces Jane Fonda and Michael Douglas... good point Seth, children of superstars who are superstars themselves. The legends are here to present Best Director. No Spielberg! It's Ang Lee for Life of Pi.
11:40 p.m. Last year's Best Actor winner Jean Dujardin is set to award this year's Best Actress. And the Oscar goes to... Jennifer Lawrence for Silver Linings Playbook.
11:45 p.m. Meryl Streep arrives as MacFarlane says she needs no introduction. Too true. So, who's our Best Actor? Hard to predict this year... not! Streep must have agreed as she wasted no time announcing Daniel Day Lewis for Lincoln.
11:51 p.m. Jack's here! They brought out the big guns for Best Picture, baby! After all this... who is going to win? Big surprise... he introduces First Lady Michelle Obama! What a treat. And the big winner is... Argo. Not really a surprise at this point, but still nice to see Ben Affleck up there clutching his golden statue.
11:55 p.m. MacFarlane greets the crowd one final time before signing off for the night. But first, Kristin Chenoweth and MacFarlane sing a salute to the losers.