Stanley Kubrick never got an Oscar. Orson Welles never got an Oscar. So it would have been okay if Martin Scorsese had never won an Oscar, but it's really wonderful that he got this acknowledgement. He's the reason I got interested in movies. Watching his films and the films that inspired him set me on my current path.
But enough about me. Scorsese's coronation was inevitable, but sweet nonetheless. I wish he had 20 minutes just to free associate. His speech for the NYFCC Best Director award was much livelier and funnier, perhaps because he was speaking to an audience of critics who would indulge a longer speech. The Departed is certainly not Scorsese's best work, but it's a nonetheless dazzling piece of direction and worthy of this acknowledgement. Eat that, 3-6 Mafia.