Part of the fun of watching the Oscars every year is listening to the speeches and hoping for words of wisdom, inspiration and of course words that make us laugh from some of most talented folks in the industry.

Below are my Top 5 Oscar Speeches from last night that made the 3+ hour show worth it.

1. Daniel Day-Lewis winning Best Actor for There Will Be Blood : It should be said that I have long been a fan of Daniel Day-Lewis, but that aside, his acceptable speech last night had all the elements - he started off with a simple joke, inspired us with his carefully crafted tribute to the great Paul Thomas Anderson, and then touched our hearts with the thanks he gave his co-stars and his family - all the while keeping calm and not rambling.

And that’s the closest I’ll ever come to getting a knighthood, so thank you.

My deepest thanks to the members of the Academy for whacking me with the handsomest bludgeon in town. I’m looking at this gorgeous thing you’ve given me and I’m thinking back to the first devilish whisper of an idea that came to him and everything since and it seems to me that this sprang like a golden sapling out of the mad, beautiful head of Paul Thomas Anderson.

I wish my son and my partner HW Plainview were up here with me, the mighty Dillon Frasier. So many people to thank. One amongst them would be Mrs. Plainview down there, the enchantingly optimistic, open-minded and beautiful Rebecca Miller.

I hope that all those to whom I owe and to whom I feel the deepest gratitude will forgive me if I say just simply, “Thank you, Paul.”

I’ve been thinking a lot about fathers and sons in the course of this, and I’d like to accept this in the memory of my grandfather, Michael Balcon, my father, Cecil Day-Lewis, and my three fine boys, Gabriel, Ronan and Cashel. Thank you very much indeed. Thank you.

2.Tilda Swinton winning Best Supporting Actress for Michael Clayton : The speech is funny, intelligent and touching in it’s own subtle way. More than that though, it was most likely made up on the spot as Cate Blanchett was thought to be a shoe in and Swinton’s win was one of the bigger upsets of the night.

Oh, no. Happy birthday, man. I have an American agent who is the spitting image of this. Really truly the same shape head and, it has to be said, the buttocks.And I’m giving this to him because there’s no way I would be in America, at all ever on a plane, if it wasn’t for him. So, Brian Swardstrom, I’m giving this to you. And Tony Gilroy walks on water, it’s entirely official as far as I’m concerned, and Jen Fox and Steve Samuels, our incredible producers.

And Sydney Pollack, and George Clooney, you know, the seriousness and the dedication to your art, seeing you climb into that rubber bat suit from “Batman & Robin,” the one with the nipples, every morning under your costume, on the set, off the set, hanging upside-down at lunch, you rock, man.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

3. Joel Coen winning Best Picture for No Country For Old Men : Both Scott Rudin (producer) and Ethan Coen (director) spoke during the acceptance of the Best Picture Oscar, but it was Joel Coen’s brief statement that made me smile. In a few lines he managed to capture the essence of the Coen Brothers along with giving a very heartfelt thanks.

Joel Coen: Ethan and I have been making stories with movie cameras since we were kids. In the late ’60s when Ethan was 11 or 12, he got a suit and a briefcase and we went to the Minneapolis International Airport with a Super 8 camera and made a movie about shuttle diplomacy called “Henry Kissinger, Man on the Go.”

And honestly, what we do now doesn’t feel that much different from what we were doing then. There are too many people to thank for this. We’re really thrilled to have received it, and we’re very thankful to all of you out there for letting us continue to play in our corner of the sandbox, so thank you very much.

4. Alex Gibney winning Best Documentary Feature for Taxi to the Dark Side : The most overtly political film to win last night, Taxi to the Dark Side brings with it a lot of controversy. Alex Gibney however, gave a subtle yet powerful speech that spoke to his cause without spewing negativity or alienating anyone. Well done!

Wow. Thank you very much, Academy. Here’s to all doc filmmakers. And, truth is, I think my dear wife Anne was kind of hoping I’d make a romantic comedy, but honestly, after Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, extraordinary rendition that simply wasn’t possible.

This is dedicated to two people who are no longer with us, Dilawar, the young Afghan taxi driver, and my father, a Navy interrogator who urged me to make this film because of his fury about what was being done to the rule of law. Let’s hope we can turn this country around, move away from the dark side and back to the light. Thank you very much.

5. Ethan Coen and Joel Coen winning Best Adapted Screening for No Country For Old Men : Joel Coen spoke first and with more words than his brother, but is was Ethan’s brief microphone moment that captured my heart.

Joel Coen: Thank you very much for this. Thank you, Scott Rudin for bringing us this novel and giving us the opportunity to make the movie. I think whatever success we’ve had in this area has been entirely attributable to how selective we are. We’ve only adapted Homer and Cormac McCarthy, so thank you.

Ethan Coen: We, uh and thank you very much.

Here is a video montage I found that has clips of quite a few speeches - a few that I mentioned above are featured so give a look:

Inspirational Oscar speeches aside, most of my favorite filmmakers will never be nominated for a golden man and if they were, I doubt they would show up to the awards show anyways. So in honor of them, and read one of my favorite Jim Jarmusch interviews and if you don’t know who Jim Jarmusch is, add the film Stranger Than Paradise, Down by Law, Dead Man or Ghost Dog : Way of the Samurai to your “to rent list” - you’ll be glad you did!