'Justice done' at Oscars

Oscar winners: Julia Roberts and Russell Crowe

Justice was done at the Oscars, according to initial reaction from commentators.

The BBC's Tom Brook said: "It was an interesting evening. A bit of a mixed up evening."

Gladiator, Traffic and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon shared the main honours of the night.

Steven Soderbergh: Best director

Gladiator took the best picture award but Steven Soderbergh won the best director prize for Traffic, splitting two awards which often go hand-in -hand together.

"Best director is hard to call and if we ever could find out the voting, I would suspect it would be very, very close," said Brook.

He added: "Ridley Scott is upset - how can you give a man best picture and not best director?

Deserving

"Ang Lee was quite deserving as well but Steven Soderbergh is the film maker of the moment in Hollywood and justice was done."

The glamour is missing

Katy Haber, Bafta

Katy Haber, managing director of Bafta in Los Angeles, said she was surprised Steven Soderbergh was named best director.

She said: "It was definitely a fight between Ang Lee and Ridley Scott. Soderbergh seemed absolutely shocked.

"Ridley will be disappointed. He has been working for many years in the industry and on many different levels he deserved to win."

Some felt Oscar night lacked the spontaneity of old.

Brook said: "There was not a lot of drama and suspense. The big awards went to those who were expected to win - Julia Roberts won best actress and Russell Crowe won best actor.

Spontaneous

"Host Steve Martin was funny but I prefer Billy Crystal who is far more spontaneous.

"Steve Martin was at times being funny in quotation marks."

Katy Haber agreed that the ceremony was lacklustre.

"We never have any memorable moments any more," she said.

She added: "The Oscars organisers are too concerned with everything running on time and it is not fair to give people only 45 seconds for their acceptance speeches.

"The glamour is missing."