The 85th Academy Awards

The 2013 Oscars have come and gone apparently. And while I didn't watch the actual ceremony, I followed the media coverage surrounding it with keen interest. It is also worth noting that out of the 10 Best Picture nominees, the only one I'd seen prior to the Oscars was Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained, one of my favorite movies of the moment.

But I guess that's what these awards ceremonies are there for, to highlight the cream of the crop and give those of us who'd missed out on their greatness a reason to go back and revisit them.

Let's begin with some raw numbers.

Going into the ceremony, the movie that had the most nominations was Spielberg's Lincoln (12 nominations). It was closely followed by Life of Pi (11 nominations); Les Misérables and Silver Linings Playbook (8 nomination each); Argo (7 nominations); then of course Django Unchained, Skyfall, Zero Dark Thirty and Armor (5 nominations each).

By the end of the night though, the big winners were Life of Pi (4 awards); Argo and Les Misérables (3 awards apiece); then Django Unchained, Lincoln and Skyfall (2 awards each).

The first award of the evening went to Christoph Waltz for Best Supporting Actor (Django Unchained). Quentin Tarantino also won for Best Original Screenplay (Django Unchained), his second win in that category since he won for Pulp Fiction (1994). On the technical side, Life of Pi won for both Best Visual Effects and Best Cinematography, much like Hugo did last year.

Best Actor went to Daniel Day-Lewis for his performance in Lincoln (surprise, surprise), while Jennifer Lawrence took home the award for Best Actress, for her role in Silver Linings Playbook. Equally predictable was Adele's win for Best Original Song (Skyfall), an award she shares with the very talented Paul Epworth.

Somewhat surprising though was Brave's win for the Best Animated Film award, over the much-better-received Wreck-It Ralph. Maybe it is just the gamer inside of me that's complaining. I am yet to sit through either movie, so I guess whatever opinion I might have is highly irrelevant.

Rounding off the ceremony were the most important categories: Best Director and Best Picture. Ang Lee won his second Best Director award for Life of Pi, while Ben Affleck finally got some much deserved recognition, winning the overall Best Picture award for Argo.

So there you have it. The breakdown. Needless to say, the two movies at the top of my must-see list right now are Argo and Life of Pi. What about you? What Oscar movies did you miss out on and would most likely go back to see?