Michelle Obama, the First Lady of the United States, appeared live via satellite at the Academy Awards on Sunday night to announce that Ben Affleck's CIA-in-Iran romp Argo had won the Best Picture Oscar. Yes, that Michelle Obama, the wife of the commander in chief, surrounded by service members in shiny full dress uniforms, bantering with Jack Nicholson and celebrating a movie that itself celebrates a successful collaboration between America's film industry and its intelligence industry. It would be nice to say that the her appearance at the tail end of the bizarre, seemingly interminable awards show was the most tasteless thing about it (imagine Lyudmila Putin declaring as "best picture" a fictional rendition of an SVR operation in Georgia), but then, Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane was the host, which meant three hours of cloying, self-centered jokes, as rote and joyless as as they were sexist and homophobic, punctuated by an extended and inexplicable "celebration" of three musicals from the last decade. Really the most embarrassing thing about Michelle Obama's appearance is that it's this film industry she's ceremonially acknowledging as an extension of American imperial power, and not one that could, say, put on an entertaining three-hour award show.

In any event, here are the award winners.

In an event, here are the winners:

Best Picture: Argo

Achievement in Directing: Ang Lee for Life of Pi

Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis for Lincoln

Best Actress: Jennifer Lawrence for Silver Linings Playbook

Best Supporting Actor: Christophe Waltz for Django Unchained

Best Supporting Actress: Anne Hathaway for Les Misérables

Best Writing – Original Screenplay: Quentin Tarantino for Django Unchained

Best Writing – Adapted Screenplay: Chris Terrio for Argo

Best Animated Feature: Brave

Best Foreign Language Film: Amour (Michael Haneke, Austria)

Best Documentary – Feature: Searching for Sugar Man

Best Documentary Short: Inocente

Best Live Action Short Film: Curfew

Best Animated Short Film: Paperman

Best Original Song: "Skyfall" by Adele Adkins and Paul Epworth

Best Production Design: Rick Carter for Lincoln

Best Cinematography: Claudio Miranda for Life of Pi

Best Makeup and Hairstyling: Lisa Westcott and Julie Dartnell for Les Misérables

Best Costume Design: Jacqueline Durran for Anna Karenina

Best Film Editing: William Goldenberg for Argo