It's Marty's year!

But he lost to Clint Eastwood, whose ‘‘Million Dollar Baby’’ also won best picture. Some wondered if Eastwood would again spoil Scorsese’s chances this year. Eastwood was nominated for directing the esteemed but little-seen ‘‘Letters from Iwo Jima,’’ which was also up for best picture.

Round two of Scorsese-Eastwood went to the 64-year-old New York native.

Eastwood has never enjoyed the comparison — and has frequently praised Scorsese effusively. ‘‘I voted for him back in the ‘Raging Bull’ days as an academy member,’’ Eastwood said earlier. ‘‘Everybody thought that would be his moment. It still is one of his defining films.’’

Though the Howard Hughes biopic ‘‘The Aviator’’ seemed more the kind of fare the Academy often honors, Scorsese finally broke through with a film in the blood-soaked crime genre that he proved himself a master of with ‘‘Mean Streets,’’ ‘‘Taxi Driver’’ and ‘‘Goodfellas.’’ ‘‘The Departed,’’ which also won Oscars for best adapted screenplay and best editing, is the story of rival mob and police moles, remade from the Hong Kong thriller ‘‘Infernal Affairs.’’

Previously, Scorsese had been tied with four other filmmakers — Alfred Hitchcock and Robert Altman among them — for the best-director futility record — five nominations, no wins.

Last fall, as ‘‘The Departed’’ arrived in theaters, he said of his Oscar shutout: ‘‘I guess it’s all right. I’m disappointed, of course. But you don’t make pictures to win Oscars.’’

AP