The Oscars Started Early!

Congratulations are in order for opinionated actress Lauren Bacall.

Bacall was one of many presented with an Oscar as the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences presented its honorary Oscars separately this year from the annual Oscar ceremony.

The event took place at a private, black-tie dinner in Hollywood’s Kodak Theather with about 600 guests Saturday night.

Presenters included Tom Hanks, Quentin Tarantino and Annette Bening just to name a few.

And many of the guests actually preferred that the ceremony wasn’t being filmed.

Said Warren Beatty, “It’s so much better … that nobody’s worrying whether 36.5 million people are watching us or 29.2.”

Bacall was presented her award by Anjelica Huston who added that Bacall “defines what it means to be a great actress and also a huge movie star.”

As for the rest of the event, it was taped but didn’t air this weekend. Instead, excerpts of the footage will be shown during the 82nd annual Academy Awards next year on March 7th.

[Image via Adriana Barraza / WENN.]