If the Coen brothers and Daniel Day-Lewis hadn't walk away with last night's top Oscar honors, would rioters have flipped cars in the parking lot? Most of the categories turned out to be foregone conclusions, validating the opinions that dominated AMC's Long Live Awards poll -- except when it came to the leading ladies. Voters never saw Marion Cotillard and Tilda Swinton coming -- or perhaps just didn't get to see their movies in time.

Hopefully those who felt let down by last night's few surprises will feel that Saturday's Independent Spirit awards picked up the slack and restored order to our unstable cinematic world. Juno walked away with all the honors that the Academy withheld: Best Feature and Best Actress. The Irish film Once got to have its cake and its indie cred too, emerging from the weekend with both a Best Foreign Film Spirit award and a Best Song Oscar. And Julian Schnabel's directing loss to the Coens on Sunday was probably a lot easier to swallow with an Indie Spirit award already in the bag.