Ellen's Great Oscar Night

HOLLYWOOD, CA -- Ellen DeGeneres did a fantastic job hosting the 79th Academy Awards Sunday, creating a relaxed setting and playfully reminding the room full of stars that "everything is on the line for you".

"And that's why it's my job . . . to relax you, to put your mind at ease and make you forget that this is make-or-break night for you," Ellen joked as she made her debut as an Oscar host.

"I cannot imagine what you people are going through."

Dressed in a burgundy-colored pant suit and white shoes, she went on to joke that the record 177 nominees vying for Oscars this year should stop worrying about whether they will win, what they might say if they do, and the attention of all their peers.

Some of the highlights of the night was Jennifer Hudson winning the best supporting actress award for her role in "Dreamgirls," Forest Whitaker's speech after winning the best actor award for his role in "The Last King of Scotland," and Melissa Etheridge kissing her wife on the mouth when walking up to accept the award for best original song, "I Need to Wake Up."

The winners:

Best Picture - The Departed
Best Actor - Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland
Best Actress - Helen Mirren, The Queen
Best Supporting Actor - Alan Arkin, Little Miss Sunshine
Best Supporting Actress - Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls
Best Director - Martin Scorsese, The Departed
Animated Feature - Happy Feet
Original Screenplay - Little Miss Sunshine
Adapted Screenplay - The Departed
Foreign Language Film - The Lives of Others (Germany)
Documentary Feature - An Inconvenient Truth
Documentary Short Subject - The Blood of Yingzhou District
Art Direction - Pan's Labyrinth
Cinematography - Pan's Labyrinth
Costume Design - Marie Antoinette
Editing - The Departed
Makeup - Pan's Labyrinth
Original Score - Babel
Original Song - “I Need to Wake Up” from An Inconvenient Truth
Best Animated Short Film - The Danish Poet
Best Live Action Short Film - West Bank Story
Sound Editing - Letters from Iwo Jima
Sound Mixing - Dreamgirls
Achievement in Visual Effects - Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.