Europeans rule at 80th Annual Academy Awards

A European invasion swept into the 80th Academy Awards Sunday night, nabbing England's Daniel Day-Lewis the Best Actor spot and Spain's Javier Bardem Best Supporting Actor.

But big surprises came as France's Marion Cotillard got Best Actress and Brit Tilda Swinton won Best Supporting Actress.

Yet American-bred grittiness still grabbed the top spots, as long-predicted favorites Joel and Ethan Coen won Best Director for "No Country for Old Men," which also got Best Picture.

"We're very thankful to all of you out there for letting us continue to play in our corner of the sandbox," said Joel Coen, the (slightly) more talkative of the quirky, dry-witted siblings.

He said the movies the brothers make now "don't feel much different" than the ones they made as kids growing up in Minnesota.

Among the actors, a classic-looking Cotillard said through tears, "Thank you, life! Thank you, love! It is true that there is magic in this city!" She won for portraying Edith Piaf in "La Vie en Rose."

The first acting award of the night went to Spanish actor Bardem, the dead-on favorite by everyone for his role as a chilling killer in "No Country for Old Men."

He dedicated his award to his mother, who was in the audience, ending his speech with a heartfelt dedication to her in Spanish.

Swinton won Best Supporting Actress for playing a coolly calculating corporate lawyer in "Michael Clayton." She beat safe-bet nominees Cate Blanchett ("I'm Not There") and Ruby Dee ("American Gangster"). Day-Lewis, the no-doubt winner since "There Will be Blood" opened, said, "This is the closest I'll get to a knighthood," as he received his award from last year's Best Actress winner for "The Queen," Helen Mirren. Even a French rat was victorious, as Pixar's "Ratatouille" won its expected Best Animated Film statuette.

"Falling Slowly" from the Irish romance "Once" won Best Song. The weepy, smiling faces of musicians Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, who starred in the film, earned rousing applause. "We made this film two years ago, it took us three weeks to make, and we never thought we'd come into a room like this and be in front of you people," said Hansard. "This is amazing." After Hansard spoke, the duo was hurried off the stage by the Oscar musical cues; a few minutes later, a shyly smiling Irglova was welcomed back onstage by host Jon Stewart to give her part of the speech, a plea for artists to "keep dreaming."

Teams from overseas even triumphed with technical awards. "Elizabeth: The Golden Age" won for Best Costume Design; "La Vie en Rose" won Best Makeup; "The Golden Compass" won Best Visual Effects; Best Art Direction went to "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street." The Coens won Best Adapted Screenplay for "No Country." And stripper-turned-screenwriter Diablo Cody ("Juno") strutted up to the stage, complete with tiger-print dress and girl-power tattoo on her right arm, to accept the award for Best Original Screenplay, thanking her family for "loving me exactly the way I am."

Austria's "The Counterfeiters" won Best Foreign Language Film. "There Will Be Blood" won Best Cinematography. Dario Marianelli's music for "Atonement" won Best Score. Despite the international wins, New York was well-represented by several nominees, as well as the IMPACT Repertory Theater, a kids' music group from Harlem whose voices filled the Kodak Theatre as they performed Best Song nominee "Raise it Up," from "August Rush."
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