It’s been a long time coming but Martin Scorsese, who began in the movie business as a very young lad over 40 years ago and the man behind so many ground-breaking and thought-provoking motion pictures has finally gone home with an Oscar for Best Director. He was also awarded with the honor to see his latest entry, “The Departed,” starring Jack Nicholson, Leonardo DiCaprio, Alec Baldwin, Martin Sheen, Matt Damon and Mark Wahlberg, get voted by the members of the Academy of Arts and Motion Pictures as the Best Film of the year.

The other big winner of the night was director Guillermo del Toro’s highly imaginative film “Pan’s Labyrinth,” which earned a total of three Academy Awards but failed to grasp the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. That honor fell to Germany’s “Lives of Others.”

Other major winners of the night were Forest Whitaker for Best Actor in his well-deserved performance as dictator Idi Amin in “The Last King of Scotland,” Helen Mirren took home the Best Actress gold for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth in “The Queen,” Eddie Murphy got out-flanked by Alan Arkin for Best Supporting Actor, and American Idol’s Jennifer Hudson won Best Supporting Actress for her outstanding role on “Dreamgirls.”