AT LAST, SCORSESE HE WINS BEST DIRECTOR 'DEPARTED' IS BEST PICTURE WHITAKER, MIRREN TAKE ACTING OSCARS.

Byline: GLENN WHIPP 

Film Writer

Martin Scorsese finally got what he was gunning for as his mob drama "The Departed" was the big winner at the 79th annual Academy Awards, taking Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Editing, and, most significantly, a long-awaited director's honor for Scorsese himself.

The legendary director won on his sixth try and was handed the award by longtime friends Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas.

"So many years, people have been wishing this for me," the 64-year-old Scorsese said, before going into a trademark rapid-fire random list of well-wishers. He then thanked his family -- and those well-wishers -- holding up the Oscar and saying, "This is for you."

Favorites Helen Mirren and Forest Whitaker won the top acting awards for their portrayals of legendary historical figures. Mirren played Elizabeth II in "The Queen," while Whitaker delivered a ferocious version of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in "The Last King of Scotland."

Both Mirren and Whitaker had each won just about every acting prize on their way to Oscar victories.

Mirren dedicated her statue to the queen herself.

"She has maintained her dignity, her sense of duty and her hairstyle," Mirren said. "She's had her feet planted firmly on the ground, her hat on her head, her handbag on her arm and she's weathered many, many storms. If it wasn't for her, I most certainly wouldn't be here."

Backstage, Whitaker said playing Amin didn't drive him to distraction.

"Sometimes when you play characters -- I've played drug addicts, people who didn't want to live -- waking up with that energy every day, that's kind of tough," Whitaker said. "With this, there was so much intensity, it was in some ways, at some times, invigorating."

Though he was a favorite, Whitaker said he wasn't sure he would win.

"But I felt that something magical was going to happen because I could feel a tingling on my neck," Whitaker said. "That's my ancestors saying, 'We're with you."'

Ellen DeGeneres made for an amiable, apolitical host, mostly steering the humor away from the topicality of recent years and getting good mileage in her opening monologue by playing off the nominees' nervousness.

Her biggest laugh did hit a partisan note when she juxtaposed Best Supporting Actress Jennifer Hudson and former Vice President Al Gore.

"Jennifer Hudson was on 'American Idol,' America didn't vote for her and yet she's here with an Oscar nomination," DeGeneres said. "Al Gore is here. America DID vote for him. It's very complicated."

Gore appeared later with Best Actor nominee Leonardo DiCaprio to announce that "for the first time in history, Oscar has gone green," directing viewers to the oscar.com Web site for information on conservation.

"Are you sure you're not inspired to make some major, major announcement?" DiCaprio asked Gore slyly.

Gore then pulled out a speech from his coat pocket, saying, "I guess with a billion people watching, it's as good a time as any." Pause. "My fellow Americans, I'm going to take this opportunity here and now to formally announce my intentions ..."

At that point, the orchestra began playing, Gore feigned mock disappointment and then smiled, walking off stage arm-in-arm with DiCaprio.

Gore also shared the stage -- and the Oscar -- when "An Inconvenient Truth," Davis Guggenheim's look at Gore's crusade to halt global warming, won Best Documentary.

"People all over the world, we need to solve the climate crisis," Gore said to sustained applause. "It's not a political issue. It's a moral issue. We have everything we need to get started with the possible exception of the will to act. That's a renewable resource. Let's renew it."

"An Inconvenient Truth" also pulled off a surprise with Melissa Etheridge's "I Need To Wake Up" besting the three nominees from "Dreamgirls" in the Best Original Song category.

Hudson, as expected, won for playing the take-no-prisoners soul sister in the musical "Dreamgirls."

"Oh my God, I have to just take this moment in," Hudson said, tearful but composed. "I cannot believe this. Look what God can do. I didn't think I was going to win. If my grandmother was here to see me now. She was my biggest inspiration."

In a mild surprise, Alan Arkin won Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of the foul-mouthed but essentially lovable grandpa in the indie hit "Little Miss Sunshine."

"More than anything, I'm deeply moved by the open-hearted appreciation our small film has received, which in these fragmented times speaks so openly of the possibility of innocence," Arkin said.

Arkin, 72, had previously been nominated twice for lead actor in the 1960s movies "The Russians Are Coming" and "The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter."

Arkin's victory came at the expense of front-runner Eddie Murphy, whose turn as the shouting soul singer in "Dreamgirls" was expected by many to win him an Oscar.

Another surprise came when the dancing penguin musical "Happy Feet" bested Pixar Animation's "Cars" in the Best Animated Feature category.

"I asked my kids, 'What should I say?' They said, 'Thank all the men for wearing penguin suits,'" said "Happy Feet" director George Miller.

Backstage, Miller added: "I started off doing live action. I never thought I'd be holding an Oscar for animation. Honestly, I can say I didn't expect to win. It's really nice. And it got given to me by Cameron Diaz ... I feel pretty good."

Guillermo del Toro's dark fairy tale "Pan's Labyrinth" got some love, winning three Oscars -- cinematography, makeup and art direction -- but losing its big prize, Best Foreign Language Film, to Germany's "The Lives of Others."

"I'm very happy with what is happening with this movie," said "Pan's" art director, Eugenio Caballero. "It's important because in this movie, in this cruel world right now, it's important to give a chance to fantasy."

"The Lives of Others" was deeply rooted in the reality of an East German secret police officer who becomes gradually disillusioned with his job.

Director Florian von Donnersmarck thanked the usual suspects -- and Arnold Schwarzenegger, "for teaching me that the words 'I can't' should be stricken from my vocabulary."

The evening's presenters often overshadowed the awards' recipients. Tom Cruise gave former Paramount chairwoman Sherry Lansing the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, while Clint Eastwood presented Italian composer Ennio Morricone the Honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement.

Eastwood, who starred in the Morricone-scored spaghetti westerns ("The Good, The Bad and The Ugly," "A Fistful of Dollars," "A Few Dollars More") that made him an international star in the 1960s, warmly translated Morricone's acceptance speech. Morricone does not speak English.

"I remember the first time I ever heard an Ennio Morricone score," Eastwood said. "It was this Western, and all of a sudden this music came on and it was so different, so different than anything I had ever heard before, and I thought, 'You know what's great? I'm in this movie. This is fantastic."'

glenn.whipp(at)dailynews.com

[phone]

CAPTION(S):

6 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- color) Director Martin Scorsese accepts the Oscar for Best Director for his work on "The Departed" Sunday night at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. The movie, a gritty fictional tale about police and corruption in modern-day Boston also won for Best Picture.

Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press

(2 -- 3 -- color) Helen Mirren, above, and Forest Whitaker were named Best Actress and Best Actor for their performances in "The Queen" and "The Last King of Scotland."

(4) Onetime "American Idol" finalist Jennifer Hudson won Best Supporting Actress for "Dreamgirls" at the Academy Awards.

(5) Alan Arkin won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his role as a curmudgeonly grandfather in "Little Miss Sunshine."

David Sprague/Staff Photographer

(6 -- color) no caption (Abigail Breslin)

Box:

Best moments