Well that’s that then.

Last night brought the curtain down on another incredible awards season as the glamour and talent of Hollywood came together to toast the best of the film industry at the 85th Academy Awards.

In what was a night of few shocks, some predictability and plenty of music and laughs, the Academy lavished awards love on many films in contention at this year’s ceremony.

However, it was Ben Affleck who had the last laugh as the ridiculed actor-turned-acclaimed director celebrated success in the Best Picture category and was joined on stage by producer and fellow Hollywood star George Clooney.

Despite being snubbed for a Best Director nomination, Affleck’s real-life thriller Argo landed the hugely coveted Best Picture award, as well as securing wins in Best Adapted Screenplay for writer Chris Terrio and Best Editing.

In rather audacious fashion, the award was announced via web-link by First Lady Michelle Obama, who read out the result at the White House with the support of Oscar-winning legend Jack Nicholson.

Affleck delivered an emotional speech in which he thanked everyone involved on the film, as well as his wife, Hollywood actress Jennifer Garner. He then it rounded off by talking about how hard he had worked in Hollywood to finally earn the respect from his peers.

“I’d just like to say, I was here 15 years ago or something and I had no idea what I was doing. I stood out here in front of you all and really just a kid. I went out and I never thought I would be back here. You have to work harder than you think you possibly can. You can’t hold grudges — it’s hard, but you can’t hold grudges. And it doesn’t matter how you get knocked down in life; that’s going happen. All that matters is you’ve got to get up.”

As well as Argo’s Best Picture success, seven of the eight other films nominated for Best Picture all had the fortune of winning at least one award.

However, it was the fantasy drama Life of Pi that ended up with the most wins as it claimed four gongs, including a surprise second Best Director win for filmmaker Ang Lee, who overcame the much-fancied Steven Spielberg (Lincoln).

As well as its directing success, Pi also secured took home prizes for Best Cinematography, Best Visual Effects and Best Original Score for composer Mychael Danna.

Elsewhere, Daniel Day-Lewis made Oscar history by becoming the first male performer to win THREE Best Actor awards for his portrayal of President Abraham Lincoln in the historical epic Lincoln.

The Kensington-born performer saw off strong competition from the likes of Hugh Jackman (Les Misérables) and Joaquin Phoenix (The Master) to triumph.

Upon receiving his acting award from fellow three time Oscar-winner Meryl Streep, Day-Lewis delivered a witty speech and jokingly said that he was close to playing Streep’s role as Margaret Thatcher in last year’s political biopic The Iron Lady.

Despite coming into the evening with the most nominations (twelve), Lincoln could only manage one other gong for its production design.

Meanwhile, Jennifer Lawrence capped off a fantastic last twelve months as she was awarded Best Actress for her role as dysfunctional young widow Tiffany in the romantic dramedy Silver Linings Playbook.

Among those competing with her in the same category included 86-year-old Emmanuelle Riva (Amour), and nine-year old starlet Quvenzhane Wallis (Beasts of the Southern Wild).

On her way to collecting the award, Lawrence almost embarrassed herself after tripping on the stairs heading onto the stage.

Quentin Tarantino’s violent western Django Unchained landed two awards as the controversial filmmaker won his second Best Original Screenplay accolade, while German actor Christoph Waltz received his second Best Supporting Actor award in three years for his performance as bounty hunter Dr. King Shultz.

Musical extravaganza Les Misérables was awarded three wins, including a comprehensive Best Supporting Actress win for Anne Hathaway in her devastating performance as tragic factory worker Fantine as well as victories for Best Makeup and Best Sound Mixing.

As predicted, she gave an emotional speech thanking everyone on the film before concluding by saying, “someday in the not too distant future, the misfortunes of Fantine will only be found in stories and never in real life. Thank you.”

Les Mis was also part of the Oscar ceremony’s incredible tribute to musicals as the whole cast (including Hathaway and her co-stars Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Amanda Seyfried and Eddie Redmayne) performed a medley of the iconic ‘One Day More’.

2002 Best Picture winner Chicago was part of the tribute as Catherine Zeta-Jones donned the Velma Kelly costume to sing her rendition of ‘All that Jazz’ before later presenting the Music awards with her co-stars Renée Zellweger, Richard Gere and Queen Latifah.

Dreamgirls was also represented as Jennifer Hudson belted our her stunning rendition of ‘And I’m Telling You’ while legendary singer/actress Barbra Streisand sung her classic theme song ‘The Way We Were’ as part of an emotional dedication to the late composer Marvin Hamlisch during the In Memoriam segment.

The latest film of the series Skyfall went on to secure two wins including a Best Original Song triumph for British singer Adele as her soulful rendition of ‘Skyfall’ (which she sang at the ceremony) helped to continue her fantastic run of form with awards.

The blockbuster was also part of a rare moment in Oscar history as it shared the Best Sound Editing prize with Kathryn Bigelow’s real life war thriller Zero Dark Thirty to become only the third time that a tie has occurred at the awards. However, the film’s experienced technical contributors of Roger Deakins (Cinematography), Greg P. Russell (Sound Mixing) and Thomas Newman (Original Score) all missed out on overdue first wins.

Other major award winners on the night included Palm D’or winning drama Amour which secured Best Foreign Language Feature while there were also triumphs in various other categories for Anna Karenina (Costume Design), Searching for Sugarman (Best Documentary), Paperman (Best Animated Short) and a disappointing win in Best Animated Film for the underwhelming Pixar flick Brave (which beat off the likes of Frankenweenie, ParaNorman and Wreck-It-Ralph).

The entire ceremony provided enough entertainment to satisfy audiences, particularly younger ones, as Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane caused a stir with some hilarious and, at times, controversial talking points.

During his opening monologue, he re-enacted Flight through the use of sock puppets while also poking fun at Ben Affleck, Jodie Foster, and The Sound of Music.

However, he also received groans for risky comments such as calling Django Unchained a date movie for Chris Brown and Rihanna while also ridiculing Jean Dujardin, George Clooney and the death of Abraham Lincoln.

His most audacious yet edgy move was to sing a number called ‘We Saw Your Boobs’ in reference to several Hollywood actresses exposing themselves in films including Halle Berry, Angelina Jolie, Kristen Stewart, Charlize Theron and Kate Winslet.

BEST PICTURE
ARGO

BEST DIRECTOR
Ang Lee, LIFE OF PI

BEST ACTRESS
Jennifer Lawrence, SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK

BEST ACTOR
Daniel Day-Lewis, LINCOLN

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Anne Hathaway, LES MISÉRABLES

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Christoph Waltz, DJANGO UNCHAINED

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
ARGO (Chris Terrio)

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
DJANGO UNCHAINED (Quentin Tarantino)

BEST EDITING
ARGO

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
LIFE OF PI

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
LINCOLN

BEST COSTUME DESIGN
ANNA KARENINA

BEST MAKEUP
LES MISÉRABLES

BEST SOUND MIXING
LES MISÉRABLES

BEST SOUND EDITING (*TIE*)
SKYFALL
ZERO DARK THIRTY

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
LIFE OF PI

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
LIFE OF PI (Mychael Danna)

BEST ORIGINAL SONG
SKYFALL (“Skyfall”)

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
BRAVE

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
AMOUR (France)

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
SEARCHING FOR SUGAR MAN

DOCUMENTARY SHORT
INOCENTE

LIVE ACTION SHORT
CURFEW

ANIMATED SHORT
PAPERMAN

And that’s a wrap, everyone!

Thank you all for following my coverage of awards season, I will be counting down the months before the new season starts near the end of 2013.

I close by saying this, “ARGO F**K YOURSELF”!