The first of the 2009 Oscars were awarded this past weekend to actress Lauren Bacall, cinematographer Gordon Willis and producer-director Roger Corman. The Academy announced over the summer that they were dropping the presentation of honorary Oscars from the televised broadcast and creating a separate, non-televised event for the awards. Thus the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Governors Awards were born, with the inaugural ceremony being held this past Saturday in a ballroom above the Kodak Theater in Hollywood. USA Today noted that at the event were many potential nominees for the upcoming Oscars:

Quentin Tarantino, whose Inglourious Basterds will make a play in multiple categories, presented the trophy to Corman; Jeff Bridges, getting best-actor buzz for his country music drama Crazy Heart, did the same for Willis. In the audience was Basterds' charismatic villain (and likely supporting actor contender) Christoph Waltz; Up in the Air's Vera Farmiga, Precious newcomer Gabourey Sidibe and Bright Star's Abbie Cornish.

Other potential nominees hobnobbing among the swarm of Academy voters were The Hurt Locker screenwriter Mark Boal and director Kathryn Bigelow; Morgan Freeman, who plays Nelson Mandela in the drama Invictus; and Alec Baldwin - not only a potential supporting actor candidate for the Meryl Streep romance It's Complicated, but also co-host of the March 7 telecast with Steve Martin.

Photo credit: Richard Harbaugh / A.M.P.A.S.