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Academy Wild For 'Old Men'

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By DAVID GERMAIN, The Associated Press

Published: February 25, 2008

Updated: 02/25/2008 12:23 am

LOS ANGELES - The Coen brothers have completed their journey from the fringes to Hollywood's mainstream, winning four Academy Awards for "No Country for Old Men," including best picture.

Javier Bardem won for supporting actor in "No Country," which earned Joel and Ethan Coen the best-picture honor as producers, best director and adapted screenplay.

Accepting the directing honor alongside his brother, Joel Coen recalled how they were making films since childhood, including one at the Minneapolis airport called "Henry Kissinger: Man on the Go."

"What we do now doesn't feel that much different from what we were doing then," Joel Coen said. "We're very thankful to all of you out there for continuing to let us play in our corner of the sandbox."

The Coens missed out on a chance to make Oscar history - four wins for a single film - when they lost the editing prize, for which they were nominated under the pseudonym Roderick Jaynes.

Daniel Day-Lewis won his second best-actor Academy Award on Sunday for the oil-boom epic "There Will Be Blood," while "La Vie En Rose" star Marion Cotillard was a surprise winner for best actress, riding the spirit of Edith Piaf to Oscar triumph over Julie Christie, who had been expected to win for "Away From Her."

While the quirky American Coens led the night, the Oscars had a strong international flavor, with all four acting prizes went to Europeans: Frenchwoman Cotillard, Spaniard Bardem, and Brits Day-Lewis and Tilda Swinton, the supporting-actress winner for "Michael Clayton."

As a raging, conniving, acquisitive petroleum pioneer caught up in California's oil boom of the early 20th century, Day-Lewis won for a part that could scarcely have been more different than his understated role as a writer with severe cerebral palsy in 1989's "My Left Foot."

"My deepest thanks to the academy for whacking me with the handsomest bludgeon in town," Day-Lewis said.

"The Bourne Ultimatum" won the editing Oscar and swept all three categories in which it was nominated, including sound editing and sound mixing.

Cotillard tearfully thanked her director, Olivier Dahan.

"Maestro Olivier, you rocked my life. You have truly rocked my life," said Cotillard, a French beauty who is a dynamo as Piaf, playing the warbling chanteuse through three decades, from late teens as a singer rising from the gutter through international stardom and her final days in her 40s.

"Thank you life, thank you love. And it is true that there are some angels in this city."

Heavies ruled the first acting prizes: The supporting-performer awards went to Bardem as an unshakable executioner in "No Country" and Swinton as a malevolent attorney in "Michael Clayton."

"I have an American agent who is the spitting image of this," said Swinton, fondly looking at her Oscar statuette.

Bardem won for his fearsome turn in "No Country," the first prize of the night for the Coen brothers' front-running crime saga.

"Thank you to the Coens for being crazy enough to think I could do that and for putting one of the most horrible haircuts in history over my head," said Bardem, referring to the sinister variation of a page-boy bob his character sported.

Bardem's character was a terrifying yet perversely amusing presence in "No Country," the best-picture favorite in which his character tosses a coin to decide whether some people he encounters should live or die.

Host Jon Stewart joked that Bardem's haircut in the film combined "Hannibal Lecter's murderousness with Dorothy Hamill's wedge-cut."

Mickey Mouse gained a rival as Hollywood's favorite rodent as the rat tale "Ratatouille" was named best animated film, the second Oscar win in the category for director Brad Bird.

Bird thanked his junior-high guidance counselor, who expressed repeated skepticism over his desire to become a filmmaker.

"It went on like this until we were sick of each other," said Bird, who also won the animation Oscar for 2004's "The Incredibles." "I only realized just recently that he gave me the perfect training for the movie business."

Glen Hansard of the Irish band the Frames and Marketa Irglova, both non-actors who starred in the music romance "Once," won the best-song Oscar for "Falling Slowly."

"What are we doing here? This is mad," Hansard said, recounting the low-budget history of "Once." "It took us three weeks to make. We made it for a hundred-grand. We never thought we'd come into a room like this and be in front of all you people."

One-time exotic dancer Diablo Cody won for best original screenplay for "Juno."

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