Before he presented the award for best film score, Elton John took a moment to joke about his vision.

“It’s very special night for me to be here, because I don’t know if you know, but there’s been a lot of stories going on around about my regressive eyesight, and I just wanted to reassure everybody that it’s not as bad as it seems,” John said, standing next to Brandi Carlile. “So I’m so pleased to be here with my co-host, Rihanna.”

In a heartfelt acceptance speech, "The Brutalist" director Brady Corbet paid tribute to fellow independent filmmaker Jeff Baena, who died over the weekend. Baena was married to actor Aubrey Plaza.

Corbet, who won the best director prize, also recognized the deaths of three other people in his life: his grandfather, his grandfather's brother and a dear friend. The filmmaker's young daughter wept in the audience as her dad read his remarks off an iPhone.

The win for Corbet, 36, cements him as a major contender heading into the Oscars. "The Brutalist" is his third feature-length work as a director and indisputably the most high-profile yet. The film, shot on 35mm celluloid, tells the story of a Hungarian Holocaust survivor who attempts to start a new life in the U.S. as an architect.

Corbet got his start as a teen actor, appearing in edgy movies such as "Thirteen," "Mysterious Skin" and "Funny Games."

Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross, “Challengers”

Accepting the award for “Flow,” which just won best animated movie, director Gints Zilbalodis took the stage to note that the film “was made by a very small, young but very passionate team in a place where there isn’t a big film industry.”

“This is the first time that a film from Latvia has been here,” Zilbalodis added, standing alongside producers Matīss Kaža and Ron Dyens. “So this is huge for us.”

When it came to the best animated film category, "Flow" — an 85-minute tale about a cat in peril, with no dialogue — went up against blockbusters from major studios, including "Inside Out 2" (Disney) and "The Wild Robot" (Universal). "Flow" was distributed in the U.S. by a relatively small company — Janus Films, which typically handles small art-house releases such as "Drive My Car" and "EO."

Brady Corbet, “The Brutalist”

During a midshow recap, Nikki Glaser noted that "comebacks" for female actors have become common in the last year.

“If you’re a woman over 50 in a lead role, they call it a comeback,” Glaser said. “If you’re a guy over 50 in a lead role, congratulations — you’re about to play Sydney Sweeney’s boyfriend.”

“Flow"

At 82, Harrison Ford, known as Han Solo and Indiana Jones to generations of moviegoers, is having yet another big moment in a career full of them.

The second season of Apple TV's "Shrinking just wrapped last month, and now he's going to appear in "1923" season two next month — and make his first appearance in a Marvel movie, as Red Hulk in the new "Captain America."