Jessica Biel played host in the ballroom of the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, CA yesterday for the 81st Annual Academy Awards Scientific And Technical Awards Ceremony … which are basically, the Geek Oscars. Here are a couple pics of Jessica and the assembled Scientific And Technical Academy Award winners yesterday afternoon:

On a weekend when the Grammys were attracting most of the attention, Jessica Biel grabbed some Oscar spotlight for the people who make the movies look so good – and the actress looked pretty good herself. Wearing a strapless, silver-and-gold, floor-length Oscar De La Renta gown with magenta trim, Biel hosted the 81st Annual Science and Technical Oscars Saturday night, handing out awards to the unsung heroes who design Hollywood’s lighting systems, playback monitors, zoom lenses and computer graphics. The job required more than just looks, however. “They should call this show ‘Are You Smarter Than a 15th Grader,’” joked Biel as she valiantly waded through a river of difficult technical jargon. Befitting the industry’s ongoing transformation from hand-drawn to computer animation, the highest award –­ and the evening’s lone Oscar statuette –­ went to digital graphics pioneer and Pixar Animation Studios president Ed Catmull. Past starlets who have paid tribute to the industry top scientists and inventors include Jessica Alba, Scarlett Johansson and Jennifer Garner. While not televised, excerpts from the evening will be played during the telecast of the 81st Academy Awards on Feb. 22.

I kinda love how they always tap ladies from Young Hollywood to host these awards year after year … I’m convinced the real reason they do not broadcast these awards is because the Motion Picture Academy doesn’t want the world to watch these ladies fumble thru trying to read their lines on national television. I’m also convinced that the Academy asks the ladies from Young Hollywood to host because the real actresses (you know, the ones that actually have a chance at winning Oscars sometime in their career) aren’t really interested … you gotta know that hosting the Geek Oscars is the only way some of these ladies (Alba, Johansson, Biel) will ever get their hands on actual Ocsars in their lifetime ;) In any event, Jessica Biel looked pretty amazing in her Oscar De La Renta and much congrats goes out to the talented tech folks who won Academy Awards this year.

[Photo credit: Wireimage; Source]