Things for Marketa Irglova and Glen Hansard continue to come up roses. Their little film went from little indie to big international deal. They won an Oscar for "Falling Slowly." Not surprisingly, their good fortune continues. Variety reports that the pair have signed a deal with Warner/Chappell Music -- part of Warner Music Group -- to get their catalog of music published.

Warner will go through all of their catalog -- not only the songs from Once, but also Hansard's work with the Frames and the music appearing on Glen and Marketa's debut album as The Swell Season. Now, to be clear, this isn't a recording contract -- it's only a publishing deal. Glen Brunman of Warner/Chappell says: "Glen's and Mar's songs have touched so many who have seen the film Once. Glen's work with the Frames we'll continue to rock, and we'll make sure that it reaches an even wider audience."

In the meantime, the duo are touring the U.S. from late April to mid-June, if you want to see them up-close and live. Good luck, Marketa and Glen!

A lot of people will be talking about Marion Cotillard today, whose teary-eyed acceptance speech was just beyond cute. But I feel the night's greatest moment came in two parts -- first when Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova performed Falling Slowly (from the movie Once) on stage, and then when both accepted the Oscar for best song. In a very cool moment, Irglova was cut off at the mic before she could thank anyone, and so after the commercial break Jon Stewart brought her back on stage to finish what she was about to say.

Talk about two kids who deserved a break. This song, from a film that was made for roughly $100,000, beat out Disney and their -- what? -- 13 Enchanted nominations. Was it me, or did each of those Enchanted songs sound exactly the same? This time, however, the Oscar went to the little guy (and girl). You could totally tell that there was a ton of love behind that song -- and even though it was obvious Hansard and Irglova were nervous at the beginning, they finished it off in spectacular fashion. Above, check out their performance at the Oscars, then head after the jump to see both acceptance speeches.

Who else is tired of all the Academy Award technicalities that make this or that ineligible for best song, best score or best foreign film? Well, we can rejoice for a little bit today, because the popular indie film Once will remain in the running for the Best Original Song award in this year's Oscar race. Just yesterday Monika was telling us that the tune "Falling Slowly" was being looked at by the Academy and had a high chance of being disqualified due to its being publicly played before the film's release. Or something. I guess it doesn't matter now, because according to David Carr (aka The Carpetbagger), the track is valid and has been included on the Oscar ballots mailed out this morning.

Carr has printed a statement given to him by phone by music branch executive committee chairman Charles Bernstein, who said (as quoted by Carr), "We needed to address whether the song was written specifically for the the film and the second issue was whether it had been played prior to the inclusion in the film - did this constitute a reason to ineligible-ize it. The first issue was satisfied by a sworn statements attesting to the fact that it was written for the film along with a chronology, and the second issue was settled by the fact that it had only been performed in Europe and the Czech Republic and not in a way that would have given it advantage or influence here."

This should be great news to Once fans, many of whom thought the film's music got the shaft by the Golden Globes and whom may even think the Oscar's one nomination was not enough recognition considering three different songs from Enchanted received nominations. Now, if only we fans of Jonny Greenwood and 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days could see the same sort of satisfaction in the score and foreign language categories, respectively.

As if the Best Song category wasn't already completely ridiculous, the lone fresh breeze in that race might lose its spot. If you remember, the Academy selected a ridiculous three songs from Enchanted, one from August Rush, and then the excellent "Falling Slowly" from Once. Now, according to the New York Times, Once might see its song removed. It seems that there are eligibility issues (one would think that would've been sussed out before the nods) -- songs should be written specifically for the film, and since some of the songs were played after the film started to come together, but before it was released, it might be ineligible. That's just a stinking load of offal and baloney.

They should just axe the Best Song category at the Oscars. It's never an accurate portrayal of the original songs that come from each year of film, and it almost never focuses on what's really important -- the song in the context of the film. Sure, one song may be more technically challenging than the other, or have more widespread appeal. However, fact of the matter is, the Oscars are about film -- so the Best Song should really not only be a good song, but reflect the material it is played in.

Sometimes the Academy seems to get that, but most of the time it just falls into this ridiculous rut -- one that this year made Enchanted some example of musical perfection, shadowing the other songs from Once, Kimya Dawson's work on Juno, Eddie Vedder's work on Into the Wild...

[via Anne Thompson]