Scorsese finally scores Oscar gold with "The Departed"

Martin Scorsese's violent epic The Departed captured the Best Picture of 2006 at the 79th Annual Academy Awards, held Sunday evening in Los Angeles. The Warner Bros. movie also won three other Oscars, including Best Director for Scorsese (his first ever award), Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Film Editing.

The musical Dreamgirls, which headed into the awards ceremony with the most nominations, managed to score only two Oscars for Best Supporting Actress (Jennifer Hudson) and Best Sound Mixing.

Among the other winners were Alan Arkin (Best Supporting Actor, Little Miss Sunshine) and Helen Mirren (Best Actress, The Queen). Forest Whitaker won the award for Best Actor for his performance in The Last King of Scotland), denying Peter O'Toole an Oscar for the eighth time (not counting an honorary Oscar won in 2003). The acclaimed documentary An Inconvenient Truth (conceived by former Vice President Al Gore about global warming) won the Best Documentary Feature award, and Happy Feet won for Best Animated Feature. The Mexican film Pan's Labyrinth was the second most awarded film with three Oscars (Cinematography, Makeup, Art Direction).