Her lifetime achievement award speech garnered tears from the Hollywood audience and had a meaning far beyond Tinseltown.. Foster said, in part:
"You see, Charlie and Kit, sometimes your mom loses it too. I can’t help but get moony, you know. This feels like the end of one era and the beginning of something else. Scary and exciting and now what? Well, I may never be up on this stage again, on any stage for that matter. Change, you gotta love it. I will continue to tell stories, to move people by being moved, the greatest job in the world. It’s just that from now on, I may be holding a different talking stick. And maybe it won’t be as sparkly, maybe it won’t open on 3,000 screens, maybe it will be so quiet and delicate that only dogs can hear it whistle. But it will be my writing on the wall. Jodie Foster was here, I still am, and I want to be seen, to be understood deeply and to be not so very lonely.
"Thank you, all of you, for the company. Here’s to the next 50 years."
Meanwhile "Argo" won best picture - drama and "Les Miserables" won best picture - comedy or musical ..
Oh, and yes, it's never a compete night in Hollywood without a Tarantino 'n-word' controversy..