LOS ANGELES -- Last night was a great time to be Joel and Ethan Coen, as the Minnesota-born brothers performed an Oscar hat-trick, collecting gold statuettes for producing, writing and directing 2007's best picture winner, No Country for Old Men.
The film, the story of a drug deal gone horribly bad and the aftermath gone even worse, was the evening's most-honored film, winning four Oscars.
European actors made a clean sweep of the acting awards, with the United Kingdom's Daniel Day-Lewis and Tilda Swinton, Marion Cotillard of France and Javier Bardem of Spain taking home the golden statuettes.
FOR THE RECORD - An article in yesterday's Today section about the Academy Awards misreported the winner of the best documentary feature award. Filmmakers Alex Gibney and Eva Orner won for Taxi to the Dark Side.
The Sun regrets the error.
The heavily favored Day-Lewis, who was named best actor of 1989 for My Left Foot, won last night for playing a perilously ruthless oil tycoon in There Will Be Blood. Cotillard was named best actress for playing French chanteuse Edith Piaf in La Vie en Rose, while No Country for Old Men's Bardem was named best supporting actor. And in an upset that left the winner's mouth agape, Michael Clayton's Swinton came out of nowhere to win for best supporting actress, maintaining the supporting Oscar categories' reputation for surprises.
Cotillard's win was the first acting Oscar awarded to a French-language film.
"I'm so proud of this film," Cotillard said backstage, still all but hyperventilating after her surprise win. "We had so much more than fun," she said, before regaling the backstage press with a few verses of what she said was her favorite Edith Piaf song, "Padam Padam."
Swinton, in winning for playing a corporate lawyer perhaps in over her head, bested co-favorites Amy Ryan (Gone Baby Gone) and Cate Blanchett (I'm Not There), as well as 83-year-old Ruby Dee, whose performance in American Gangster marked her first-ever nomination.
"I'm sort of stoked, as they say," said Swinton, who appeared stunned when her name was announced. "It's completely astonishing, and I'm amazed I'm still standing."
Noting that both supporting Oscars went to European actors, Swinton crowed backstage, "Dude, Hollywood is built on Europeans. I'm just sad I couldn't give a speech in Gaelic."
Minutes later, while Swinton was being interviewed backstage, Cotillard's win was announced.
"See what I'm saying about Europe?" she said with a smile.
Bardem's win for supporting actor was far more predictable. His turn as a psychopathic murderer in No Country for Old Men has garnered just about every supporting actor award there is. Accepting the award, Bardem used the occasion to thank his mother in his native Spanish.
