The King's Speech takes top gongs at the Oscars

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by Jennie Kermode

The King's Speech takes top gong at Oscars

The 83rd Oscar ceremony took place in Los Angeles last night, hosted by Ann Hathaway and James Franco, both of whom sported some spectacular evening dresses. As in 2010, 10 films were nominated for Best Film, but it was British favourite The King's Speech, recipient of an impressive 12 nominations, that took the big prize.

Tom Hooper won Best Director and Colin Firth took the Best Actor award for the same film. For Firth, the award followed disappointment last year when he had been hotly tipped to win for A Single Man. "I think this is my career peak," he joked as he came onstage to pick up his statuette.

Winning Best Actress for her performance as the tortured ballerina heroine of Black Swan, Natalie Portman gave credit to Darren Aronofsky as a visionary director, but also said she wanted to thank "the people on films who no-one ever talks about," naming several minor crew members whose assistance and energy had inspired her. Heavily pregnant by the film's choreographer, she said that she is now preparing for her most important role ever.

Those awards in full:

Best Film - The King’s Speech

Best Director - Tom Hooper - The King's Speech

Best Actor - Colin Firth - The King's Speech

Best Actress - Natalie Portman - Black Swan

Best Supporting Actress - Melissa Leo, The Fighter.

Best Supporting Actor - Christian Bale - The Fighter

Best Documentary - Inside Job

Best Foreign Language Film - In A Better World (Denmark)

Best Animated Feature - Toy Story 3

Best Original Screenplay - The King's Speech

Best Adapted Screenplay - The Social Network

Best Art Direction - Alice in Wonderland

Best Cinematography - Inception

Best Editing - The Social Network

Best Live Action Short - God of Love

Best Animated Short - The Lost Thing

Best Documentary Short - Strangers No More

Best Visual Effects - Inception

Best Make-Up - The Wolfman

Best Costume Design - Alice In Wonderland

Best Sound Mixing - Inception

Best Sound Editing - Inception

Best Original Score - The Social Network

Best Original Song - We Belong Together - Toy Story 3

Lifetime Achievement - Eli Wallach, Francis Ford Coppola, Jean-Luc Godard, Kevin Brownlow

For a full list of the nominations, click here

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