Previous award-winner Dustin Hoffman takes to the stage explaining the difficulties of adapting stories for screen before announcing the nominees for the best adapted screenplay. The hopeful: Brokeback Mountain, Capote, The Constant Gardener, A History of Violence and Munich.

And the Oscar goes to...Larry McMurtry & Diana Ossana for their screenplay of Brokeback Mountain, based on the short story by Anne Proloux. Again, well deserved. Whilst in most cases adaptations of books result in cutting material out, here it was a case of padding out a 50 page-long story, which they did excellently, added some real depth to the story.

Next - best original screenplay, announced by Uma Thurman. And the Oscar goes to Paul Haggis and Bobby Moresco's Crash. Being released last summer and out of the traditional Oscars window has obviously not stood in the way of voters remembering the quality of this screenplay, which weaves together the lives of a variety of characters in what was one of the most moving movies of the the year.