Day-Lewis, Coen brothers get top actor, director
LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) — It was a Country made for Oscar.
No Country for Old Men, the Coen brothers’ brutal tale of a man pursued by death and the law across the empty moonscapes of West Texas, won best picture at the 80th Academy Awards on Sunday.
The Coens also won best director and best adapted screenplay, and Javier Bardem, who played killer Anton Chigurh, won best supporting actor.
Daniel Day-Lewis won best actor for his performance as a misanthropic oilman in There Will Be Blood.
My deepest thanks to the members of the Academy for whacking me with the handsomest bludgeon in town, Day-Lewis said as he accepted the award. See the complete list of winners
As he accepted his first Oscar, Bardem, one of Spain’s top actors, thanked his directors and reflected on his role as a creepy killer with a bad haircut.
Thank you to the Coens for being crazy enough to think that I could do that, and to put one of the most horrible haircuts in history over my head, he said.
It was his second nomination, though, after being recognized in the lead actor category as Cuban poet Reinaldo Arenas in Before Night Falls.
French actress Marion Cotillard has won her first Academy Award for her portrayal of singer Edith Piaf in La Vie en Rose.
Early handicappers had bet heavily on veteran Julie Christie, who plays a woman falling victim to Alzheimer’s in Away from Her.
But Cotillard, who’s received raves for her performance as the French singer, had been considered a strong contender for best actress.
I’m speechless now … I … I … thank you life, thank you love, Cotillard exclaimed. And it is true, there are some angels in this city. Thank you so, so much!
The actress has appeared in dozens of films in her native France, but she may be most recognizable to American audiences for her performances in A Very Long Engagement (2004) and Big Fish (2003). See the actress discuss La Vie en Rose
In a highly competitive race, Tilda Swinton nabbed the best supporting actress Oscar for her portrayal as lawyer Karen Crowder in the legal drama Michael Clayton.
I have an American agent who is the spitting image of this. Really, truly, the same shape head and, it has to be said, the buttocks, she said, examining her new Oscar. 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. See Swinton on the red carpet
Swinton beat out 83-year-old Ruby Dee, who had been considered a sentimental favorite for her first Oscar nomination in the supporting actress category, playing Mama Lucas to Denzel Washington’s drug kingpin Frank Lucas in American Gangster. Watch Dee talk about her life and career
Swinton also beat Cate Blanchett (I’m Not There’s mid-’60s Bob Dylan) and Amy Ryan (Gone Baby Gone’s difficult working-class mother).
The big night opened with host Jon Stewart joking about the writers strike that ended last week.
Stewart, who is hosting the Academy Awards for the second time, and his writing staff had been rushed even more than usual this year because of the recently concluded writers strike, which threatened the Oscar telecast before a settlement was reached.
So despite a cloudy and chilly evening in Hollywood, what’s trumpeted as the entertainment community’s biggest — and brightest — night returned in all its glamour. Take an interactive tour of the red carpet
If the weather was a little chilling, the lead candidates for best picture at the 80th Academy Awards were even more so.
Two bloody, arresting films — one featuring a coldblooded killer, the other starring a coldblooded tycoon — were center stage, with some forecasting a surprise victory by a pregnant teenager, or even a soul-searching lawyer.
Tonight we look beyond the dark days to focus on happier fare: This year’s slate of Oscar-nominated psychopathic killer movies, Stewart joked. Does this town need a hug? What happened? ‘No Country For Old Men,’ ‘Sweeney Todd,’ ‘There Will Be Blood?’ All I can say is, thank God for teen pregnancy. I think the country agrees. Check out Oscar prep photos
Among the eight nominations for No Country for Old Men, the Coens had four: best picture with co-producer Scott Rudin, best director, best adapted screenplay and best editing (the latter under a longtime pseudonym, Roderick Jaynes, whom the Coens describe as an English curmudgeon who doesn’t like to travel). If they had swept, as a team they would have tied the record for the most Oscars won by a filmmaker in one year, set by Walt Disney in 1953.
If No Country is a modern Western, with a wanted man, a cold-blooded killer and a sheriff making their way across the scrubby Texas flatlands (with Coen-ish dollops of humor and odd characters thrown in), Blood is a modern morality tale, the story of a self-described oilman, played by Day-Lewis, who gains the world only to lose his soul — almost willingly, given the character’s personality.
Blood also had eight nominations, and Day-Lewis’ performance as Daniel Plainview won the best actor Oscar.
Day-Lewis beat out George Clooney (Michael Clayton), Viggo Mortensen (Eastern Promises), Tommy Lee Jones (In the Valley of Elah) and Johnny Depp (Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street). See the nominees in the major categories
The first award of the evening, for costume design, went to Elizabeth: The Golden Age.
The best animated feature went to Ratatouille, a computer-animated Pixar film directed and written by Oscar winner Brad Bird (The Incredibles). The rat-turns-chef movie beat out Persepolis, based on the graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi, and Surf’s Up, a computer-animated film about penguins.
The Counterfeiters from Austria took the best foreign-language film. The movie is based on a true story about a counterfeiter who, after being sent to a concentration camp, was employed by the Nazis to fake other countries’ currency.
Best original song was awarded to Falling Slowly from a small movie called Once. It beat out three songs from Enchanted, the Disney film about an animated princess come to life.
Juno has been the little movie that could all season. The film, which cost a relatively paltry $7.5 million, is the only best picture nominee to top $100 million at the box office, ensuring it a rooting interest from moviegoers.
Ellen Page has received plaudits for her performance as the title character, and screenwriter Diablo Cody — famously a former stripper — has become one of Hollywood’s it scribes. And now Cody’s also an Oscar winner for best original screenplay. Watch Juno’s director on the red carpet
This is for the writers. I want to thank all the writers. I especially want to thank my fellow nominees because I worship you guys and I’m learning from you every day, Cody said. E-mail to a friend
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