Day-Lewis and Swinton celebrate Oscars victory

Published on Monday 25 February 2008 07:31

DANIEL Day-Lewis and Tilda Swinton swept Britain to Oscar glory Sunday night in Hollywood while No Country For Old Men was the biggest film of the ceremony.

Day-Lewis, as predicted, won his second best actor Academy Award for his towering performance as a ruthless, malevolent oilman in There Will Be Blood.

Swinton landed the best supporting actress gong for her role as a ruthless corporate lawyer in the George Clooney movie Michael Clayton.

The 80th Academy Awards named French actress Marion Cotillard as best actress for her role as singer Edith Piaf in the biopic La Vie en Rose.

The 32-year-old beat Julie Christie to the title just weeks after her surprise victory over the British veteran at the Baftas.

The film that dominated the night at Hollywood's Kodak Theatre was No Country For Old Men, the Coen brothers' violent neo-western. It won four of its eight nominations, beating British film Atonement to best picture, and scooping best director. It also took the prize for best supporting actor for Spanish actor Javier Bardem, and adapted screenplay.

Swinton, born in London with a home in Scotland, provided one of the most amusing speeches of the ceremony when she thanked her agent, but not in the usual fashion, saying as she held up her statuette: "I have an American agent who is the spitting image of this.

"Really, truly, the same shaped head and it has to be said the buttocks.

I'm going to give this to him because there's no way I'd be in America, even on a plane, if it wasn't for him."

She also dedicated her award to Clooney, the film's producer and star, joking: "Seeing you climb into that rubber batsuit from Batman and Robin, the one with the nipples, every morning under your costume, on the set, off the set, hanging upside-down at lunch, you rock, man.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you."

Day-Lewis, who holds joint Irish and British citizenship, and received his first Oscar for My Left Foot in 1990, picked up his second Academy Award from Helen Mirren, recipient of last year's best actress gong.

"That's the closest I'll ever come to getting a knighthood, so thank you," he joked.

Perhaps drawing inspiration from his violent character Daniel Plainview in There Will Be Blood, he thanked "the members of the academy for whacking me with the handsomest bludgeon in town.

"I'm looking at this gorgeous thing you've given me and I'm thinking back to the first devilish whisper of an idea that came to him and everything since and it seems to me that this sprang like a golden sapling out of the mad, beautiful head of (director and writer) Paul Thomas Anderson," he said.

Cotillard was visibly shocked and moved to tears by her win and told the audience: "Thank you so much....I'm speechless... It is true there are some angels in this city."

Atonement, the film starring Keira Knightley and Glasgow's James McAvoy and adapted from the novel by Ian McEwan, only took one of its seven nominations, for best music (score).

But British names were rewarded in categories ranging from animated short-film to costume design.

AND THE WINNER IS...

BEST PICTURE

"No Country For Old Men" (Miramax and Paramount Vantage) A Scott Rudin/Mike Zoss Production: Scott Rudin, Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, producers

DIRECTOR

Joel Coen and Ethan Coen for "No Country For Old Men" (Miramax and Paramount Vantage)

LEAD ACTOR

Daniel Day-Lewis in "There Will Be Blood" (Paramount Vantage and Miramax)

LEAD ACTRESS

Marion Cotillard in "La Vie en Rose" (Picturehouse)

SUPPORTING ACTOR

Javier Bardem in "No Country For Old Men" (Miramax and Paramount Vantage)

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Tilda Swinton in "Michael Clayton" (Warner Bros)

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

"The Counterfeiters" – Austria (Sony Pictures Classics)

ANIMATED FEATURE

Brad Bird for "Ratatouille" (Walt Disney Pictures)

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

Alex Gibney and Eva Orner for "Taxi to the Dark Side" (THINKFilm) An X-Ray Production

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Diablo Cody for "Juno" (Fox Searchlight)

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Joel Coen and Ethan Coen for "No Country For Old Men" (Miramax and Paramount Vantage)

CINEMATOGRAPHY

Robert Elswit for "There Will Be Blood" (Paramount Vantage and Miramax)

ORIGINAL SCORE

Dario Marianelli for "Atonement" (Focus Features)

ORIGINAL SONG

"Falling Slowly" from "Once" (Fox Searchlight), music and lyrics by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova

ANIMATED SHORT FILM

Suzie Templeton and Hugh Welchman for "Peter & the Wolf" (BreakThru Films) A BreakThru Films/Se-ma-for Studios Production

DOCUMENTARY SHORT

Cynthia Wade and Vanessa Roth for "Freeheld" A Lieutenant Films Production

LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM

Philippe Pollet-Villard for "Le Mozart des Pickpockets (The Mozart of Pickpockets)" (Premium Films) A Kare Production

VISUAL EFFECTS

Michael Fink, Bill Westenhofer, Ben Morris and Trevor Wood for "The Golden Compass" (New Line in association with Ingenious Film Partners)

ART DIRECTION

Dante Ferretti for art direction and Francesca Lo Schiavo for set direction on "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" (DreamWorks and Warner Bros, Distributed by DreamWorks/Paramount)

COSTUME DESIGN

Alexandra Byrne for "Elizabeth: The Golden Age" (Universal Pictures)

MAKEUP

Didier Lavergne and Jan Archibald for "La Vie en Rose" (Picturehouse)

FILM EDITING

Christopher Rouse for "The Bourne Ultimatum" (Universal)

SOUND EDITING

Karen Baker Landers and Per Hallberg for "The Bourne Ultimatum" (Universal)

SOUND MIXING

Scott Millan, David Parker and Kirk Francis for "The Bourne Ultimatum" (Universal)