Oscars 2013: Ben Affleck thanks his wife, Canada in emotional acceptance speech

Academy voters made up for Ben Affleck's much-maligned Best Director snub by awarding "Argo" with this year's Best Picture Oscar on Sunday night. When the 40-year-old Cambridge native accepted his award, along with fellow "Argo" producers George Clooney and Grant Heslov, he sped through an unusual series of thank you's to Iranians, Canada and his wife, a beaming Jennifer Garner.

"I thank you everyone in the movie, on the movie, worked on the movie, did anything with this movie gets thanked," Affleck said during the speech. "I want to thank Canada. I want to thank our friends in Iran living in terrible circumstances right now."

"I want to thank my wife who I don't usually associate with Iran. I want to thank you for working on our marriage for 10 Christmases. It's good. It is work but it's the best kind of work and there's no one I'd rather work," Affleck continued.

Affleck also issued a veiled reference to his career low point -- the "Gigli" years.

"You have to work as hard as you possibly can. You can’t hold grudges—it’s hard, but you can’t hold grudges," he said. "It doesn’t matter how you get knocked down in life, because that is going to happen. All that matters is that you have got to get up."

But the "Argo" director really got emotional when he capped off his speech with a message for his three children.

"Violet, Sam and Sera, this is for you," he said.