Los Angeles - No Country For Old Men dominated the Oscar prizes Sunday night, picking up awards for best motion picture, best director, best supporting actor and best adapted screenplay. The triumph represented a remarkable achievement for the film's creators, the brothers Joel and Ethan Coen, who were the first siblings ever to win a prize for best directors and who also wrote and produced the violent thriller set in a dysfunctional American milieu.
In the other major categories Daniel Day-Lewis won the best actor prize for his portrayal of a ruthlessly ambitious oil entrepreneur in There Will Be Blood, while Marion Cotillard of France won the Oscar for best actress for her performance in La Vie en Rose as legendary chanteuse Edith Piaf.
The best supporting actor award went to No Country's Javier Bardem, while Tilda Swinton picked up the supporting actress award for her portrayal of a cold-hearted attorney in Michael Clayton. Former stripper Diablo Cody picked up the best original screenplay award for Juno, an indie hit about a pregnant teenager.
The Coens, brothers who write and direct together, won for best adapted screenplay, dedicating the award to novelist Cormack McCarthy.
"Thanks for bringing us this novel and giving us the opportunity to make this movie," said Ethan Coen.
The first prize of the ceremony, the Oscar for costume design, went to Elizabeth: The Golden Age. The prize for best animated feature film went to the Disney-Pixar comedy Ratatouille. The best foreign film was named as Austria's The Counterfeiters.
Earlier, thousands of film fans and celebrity watchers braved rainy conditions to watch stars including George Clooney, Cameron Diaz, Jessica Alba, Daniel Day-Lewis and Jennifer Garner turn up in all their finery for the annual gala.
The red carpet outside the Kodak Theatre was covered with a huge plastic canopy to protect what has in recent years turned into the most-watched fashion show on earth.
The dour conditions in normally sunny Southern California reflected what is widely considered to be the grimmest slate of Oscar nominees in recent years, with the bleak frontrunners including No Country For Old Men, There Will Be Blood, Atonement and Michael Clayton.
The relative lack of box-office success among the top movies raised fears that the broadcast could register an all-time low in the ratings.
But with all the stars on parade, Oscars producer Sid Ganis was confident that the event would be a success, after earlier shows like the Golden Globes were squelched by the winter's just-ended strike by Hollywood writers.
"Not only have there not been any awards shows, but I think there's a good solid buzz about the strike being over (and) everybody back to work," Ganis said.
