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The 75th Academy Awards ceremony started with host Steve Martin quipping, “That’ll send them a message,” referring to how toning down the glitz and glamour of the Academy Awards might impact the war in Iraq.

Once inside the Kodak Theater, however, Chicago jazzed things up considerably, taking home six Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

The musical spectacular won its first big award of the evening when the very pregnant and very lovely Catherine Zeta-Jones was named Best Supporting Actress. It then went on to sweep most of the technical awards, including Best Art Direction, Costumes, Sound and Film Editing.

But it didn’t win everything.

During the course of the evening, some things went in a surprisingly different direction, including the exiled Roman Polanski‘s win as Best Director for his searing film The Pianist. Adrien Brody also shocked those betting in Oscar pools when he won the coveted award for Best Actor for his brilliant performance as the film’s lead character, beating out favorites Jack Nicholson and Daniel Day-Lewis.

Laying a big kiss on presenter Halle Berry, taking her slightly aback, a graceful Brody went on to give one of evening’s most moving acceptance speech, sending the audience to its feet. The Holocaust film, based on the memoirs of famed pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman, was also named Best Adapted Screenplay.

Fighting back the tears she was told by friend Russell Crowe not to shed when accepting her award, the elegant Nicole Kidman accepted the Best Actress award for her turn in The Hours by giving another of the evening’s more touching speeches, emphasizing that even during the world’s current turmoil, art is still important. Rounding out the acting prizes, Chris Cooper picked up the Best Supporting Actor award for his work as the dentally challenged orchid thief in Adaptation.

In the night’s biggest political stir, controversial documentary filmmaker Michael Moore won the award for Best Documentary for Bowling for Columbine, received a standing ovation, then declared his views against the war to cheers and jeers of the crowd. Immediately following that, Twin Towers snagged the award for Documentary Short Subject.

Bucking the usual tradition of announcing one of the supporting categories first, the evening opened with the Best Animated Film award, which went to the Japanime film Spirited Away, beating out the favored Ice Age. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers was then award the Oscar for Best Visual Effects and, later in the evening, also won for Best Sound Editing.

Pedro Almodovar‘s Spanish film Talk to Her took the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, although the film, ironically, was not submitted by Spain as its entry for Best Foreign Language Film. That award went to the German film Nowhere in Africa.

The late cinematographer Conrad Hall, who died early this year, won the Best Cinematography award posthumously for his work on Road to Perdition, with his son tearfully accepting the award for him.

Elliot Goldenthal’s score for Frida picked up the award for Best Score, and the biopic also took home the statue for Best Makeup, out of a field of only two nominees.

Beating out rockers U2, bad boy rapper Eminem won Best Song for “Lose Yourself” from 8 Mile, but he wasn’t there to accept the award. Too bad.

In the short film categories, the delightful quirky The ChubbChubbs! won for Best Short Animated Film, while This Charming Man (Der Er En Yndig Mand) won for Best Short Live Action Film.

Even though Miramax Films came out smelling the sweetest with its Chicago wins, the studio’s other film, Gangs of New York, took home nothing, making it the evening’s biggest snub. Director Martin Scorsese, considered the top contender for Best Director, stood up with the rest and applauded graciously when Polanski was named.

Now that’s a class act.

Here’s the complete list of nominations and winners:

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Best Picture