There are many film awards, but one is more famous and important than all the others – the Oscars. Every March, actors and film-makers wait nervously for the news: who has won an Oscar? The hard work of acting and making movies is over. But the Oscar winners need to work on something else – their speeches!

Some actors and actresses speeches aren't very good – they seem to be lost without a writer's lines. Some winners are just too excited. In 1984 when Sally Field won an Oscar for Best Actress in Places in the Heart, she shouted, 'You like me, you really like me.' It was true, but not so many people liked her speech!

Sometimes the speeches are too long. Many winners want to thank everybody – the list of names seems never to end! In 1943, one winner's speech was over one hour long!

The producers of the television show of the Oscars want it to be exciting. They have tried to make the speeches shorter. This year they even offered a prize for the shortest speech – a TV! When a winner talks for too long, the band begins to play. The message is clear: 'Leave the stage!' This doesn't always work. When Cuba Gooding, Jr. won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar in 1996 for Jerry McGuire, the music started during his speech. Cuba just shouted louder!

So how were the speeches this year? The show wasn't too long, but some of the winners didn't care about the prize for shortest speech. During her speech for Best Actress in Erin Brockovich, Julia Roberts said that she already had a television! Then she told the director of the band to sit down. She was not going to leave until she thanked everyone! She gave the longest speech of the evening.

But did Julia give a good speech? She was very excited to win. She held the Oscar and said that it was 'quite pretty'. She said, 'I can't believe this . . . And turn that clock off – it's making me nervous. I love it up here! . . . I love the world! I'm so happy! Thank you!' Before the show, actor Benjamin Bratt said that Julia never writes her speeches. 'It's amazing the things that come out of her mouth sometimes,' he said.

This year many people think that director Steven Soderbergh gave the best speech. He was nominated for Best Director for Traffic and Erin Brockovich. He won for Traffic. In his speech, he didn't read out any names. He said, 'I want to thank anyone who spends part of their day creating. I don't care if it's a book, a film, a painting, a dance, a piece of theatre, a piece of music.' He said that he couldn't live without art. In the opinion of many viewers, more winners should follow Soderbergh and forget about the long lists of names.