Listen to your mother - you might win an Oscar

From the very start, as promised, the Academy Awards rolled out the red carpet for the moms in the house.

Host Anne Hathaway's mother scolded her from the audience to stand up straight, and James Franco's grandmother stood to inform everyone that she'd spotted "Marky Mark."

Of course, more mom-focused gratitude came from the winners themselves. Best actress winner Natalie Portman thanked her parents for giving her life and the opportunity to work at a young age. She also thanked her fiance (and "Black Swan" choreographer) Benjamin Millepied, with whom she's expecting a child, for giving her "the most important role of my life," she said.

And then there's best director winner Tom Hooper ("King's Speech"), who thanked his mother with this story: "My mum in 2007 was invited by some friends to a fringe theater play reading...of the 'King's Speech," he said. "Thank goodness she [went], because she came home, rang me up and said, 'Tom, I think I found your next film.'

"So with this tonight, I honor you," Hooper said to his mom, adding as an aside to the audience that "the moral of the story is: listen to your mother."