As a lifelong movie lover, the Oscars are always a special event for me. No matter how much I learn about how movies are made, no matter how many I see, and how much I discover about what goes on behind the scenes, they are always fresh and surprising. I’ve been lucky enough to maintain an innocence, a naiveté, that allows me to suspend disbelief when I’m watching a film.

This year, for the first time, I was able to be in Los Angeles for Oscar weekend. On the day before the ceremony, I saw the Kodak Theater, the ceremony’s home since 2002, and experienced firsthand the massive amount of production that goes into making the Oscar telecast such a memorable event. For someone still able to be moved by movies past and present, placing my hands inside the impressions of Cary Grant, Harold Lloyd, and Matt Damon’s hands in front of Grauman’s Theater inspired a profound connection to the history of the art form I love. I attended an annual event called “Meet the Oscars,” a small exhibit that gives the public the opportunity to be photographed holding an actual Oscar statuette - providing me with a slam dunk snapshot for my Christmas card in ten months.

I share all this not to brag, but simply to note that while watching the telecast at the home of a dear friend in LA I was still as caught up in the show as I always am. Even though I saw first-hand the amount of fakery and construction that goes into the telecast – the red carpet, the cheesy gigantic Oscars that flank the people who enter the theater, the fact that the Kodak theater anchors a mall – I suspended my disbelief without ever thinking about it. I screamed and yelled and carried on when something surprised me, I bitched and moaned when I felt the winner was less than deserving (I’m looking at you editor of The Bourne Ultimatum), and I still marvel at the sheer star-power of great actors and marvel at the mysterious skill of the writers and directors I adore.

And the show this year was as worthy of love as any in recent memory. Here are a few of the many memorable moments and innovations.

1. Jon Stewart was arguably a perfect host. He did not dominate the program, he simply guided it with a steady hand. No joke brought the show to a halt, and many of them were pretty savvy insider bits especially the montage of binoculars and telescopes, and the montage of bad dreams. These segments gently spoofed traditional elements of the show. But Stewart’s crowning moment of the night, and for my money one of the all-time great moments by any host in the telecast’s history, came when he brought Markéta Irglová back after the orchestra cut her off before she could say anything after winning the award for Best Song. She was allowed to give a speech as warm and touching and concise as the movie. This brings me to the next best thing about the night…

2. The acceptance speeches were full of genuine excitement and passion. From Tilda Swinton’s honest shock to the thunderously thankful creators of the best documentary short winner, to Marion Cotillard, to the duo from Once, many of the speeches came off as overwhelmingly heartfelt. There is absolutely no reason for the producers of the telecast to ever cut off a winner. These people, whether they are the sound effects editors, or the animated short directors, or the actors deserve to have as long as they want.

3. Having the presenters pre-record the reading of the nominees names was a masterstroke. No more stumbling over difficult names, no more having a nominee’s moment in the sun ruined by a glitch with the microphone, and no more self-conscious giggling when the presenters get tongue-tied made for a very smooth telecast that clocked in at a swift three hours and eighteen minutes.

4. Diablo Cody set a record for the largest visible tattoo ever seen on an Oscar winner.

5. Ethan Coen’s terse, gracious, humble acceptance speeches.

6. Daniel Day-Lewis being knighted by Helen Mirren.

7. Martin Scorsese getting one more joke out of having to wait so long to win his first Oscar.

8. Brad Bird giving credit to the high school guidance counselor who never believed that he would make a living making movies.

9. Only four films took home multiple awards this year, underscoring the fact that the Academy recognized this was a fantastic movie year full of films worthy of your time and attention.

10. The lifetime achievement award for Robert Boyle, a man whose amazing work for decades connected the show directly with a master like Alfred Hitchcock. Whenever the Oscar show can seamlessly teach history, whole new generations of movie fans are born.