The Coen brothers completed their journey from the fringes to Hollywood s mainstream, their crime saga “No Country for Old Men winning four Academy Awards, including best picture, in a ceremony that also featured a strong international flavor.
Europeans swept the acting categories Sunday night. British actor Daniel Day-Lewis and France s Marion Cotillard were best lead actor and actress.
The supporting actor and actress prizes went to Spain s Javier Bardem and British actress Tilda Swinton.
Bardem won for supporting actor in “No Country, which earned Joel and Ethan Coen best director, best adapted screenplay and the best-picture honor as producers.
Accepting the directing honor alongside his brother, Joel Coen recalled how they were making films since childhood.
“What we do now doesn’t feel that much different from what we were doing then, Joel Coen said. “We re very thankful to all of you out there for continuing to let us play in our corner of the sandbox.
Day-Lewis won his second best-actor Academy Award for the oil-boom epic “There Will Be Blood, while “La Vie En Rose star Cotillard was a surprise winner for best actress, riding the spirit of Edith Piaf to Oscar triumph over British screen legend Julie Christie, who had been expected to win for “Away From Her.
Swinton won for her portrayal as a malevolent attorney in “Michael Clayton.
Day-Lewis walked up the steps to accept his trophy from Helen Mirren, then went down on one knee before her, head bowed. Mirren, last year’s best-actress winner for “The Queen, picked up his cue, touching Lewis’s Oscar to his shoulders as she would a royal sword.
“That s the closest I ll ever come to getting a knighthood, the Englishman said.
Cotillard, the first winner ever for a French-language performance, tearfully thanked her director, Olivier Dahan.
“Maestro Olivier, you rocked my life. You have truly rocked my life, said Cotillard, a French beauty who is a dynamo as Piaf, playing the warbling chanteuse through three decades, from raw late teens as a singer rising from the gutter through international stardom and her final days in her frail 40s.
Heavies ruled the first acting prizes. Along with Day-Lewis’ greedy oilman, Bardem played an unshakable executioner in “No Country and Swinton played a conniving attorney who stops at nothing to achieve her goals in a $3 billion class-action lawsuit in “Michael Clayton.
“I have an American agent who is the spitting image of this, said Swinton, fondly looking at her Oscar statuette.
“Really, truly, the same shape head, and it has to be said, the buttocks. And I m giving this to him, because there’s no way I d be in America at all, ever, on a plane if it wasn t for him, said Swinton, who was born in London into a patrician Scottish military family.
Bardem won for his fearsome turn in No Country.
“Thank you to the Coens for being crazy enough to think I could do that and for putting one of the most horrible haircuts in history over my head, said Bardem, referring to the sinister variation of a page-boy bob his character sported.
“The Bourne Ultimatum won the editing Oscar and swept all three categories in which it was nominated, including sound editing and sound mixing.
Mickey Mouse gained a rival as Hollywood s favorite rodent as the rat tale “Ratatouille was named best animated film, the second Oscar win in the category for director Brad Bird.
The ceremony’s montage of photos and film clips of stars, filmmakers and others in cinema who died in the past year ended with a scene from “Brokeback Mountain featuring Australian actor Heath Ledger, who died of a prescription drug overdose last month.
Glen Hansard of the Irish band the Frames and Marketa Irglova, both non-actors who starred in the musical romance “Once, won the best-song Oscar for “Falling Slowly, one of several tunes they wrote for the film.The documentary prize went to “Taxi to the Dark Side, a war-on-terror chronicle that centers on an innocent Afghan cab driver killed while in detention.
Box-office dud “The Golden Compass scored an upset for visual effects over the blockbusters “Transformers and “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World s End.
Other early winners included “Elizabeth: The Golden Age for costume design, “La Vie En Rose for makeup and “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street for art direction.
