MOSCOW, February 25 (RIA Novosti) - Ben Affleck’s "Argo," a movie about the 1979 hostage crisis in Tehran, won the best picture prize at the 85th Academy Awards ceremony in Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre on Sunday night.
The winner was announced by first lady Michelle Obama from the White House. The film editing award also went to "Argo" - the fourth nomination and the first win for William Goldenberg. Film editing is closely tied to the best film award - in the 77 years that the film editing awards were handed out, 33 eventually went to the best picture winners.
“Argo” became the first movie since 1989's “Driving Miss Daisy” to win the best picture prize without its director being nominated for making it. The movie also won the adapted screenplay award.
“Life of Pi”, nominated for 11 Academy Awards, brought the best director award to Ang Lee. This is his second prize, after taking the same award for "Brokeback Mountain" in 2006.
The story about a man and a tiger who have to share a life raft after a shipwreck, also won the music original score and two more awards - for cinematography (Claudio Miranda) and for visual effects. The movie has earned nearly $600 million worldwide.
Daniel Day-Lewis received the best actor award for “Lincoln” and became the first actor ever to win in this nomination three times. The presidential biopic, with 12 Oscar nominations, also won the production design award.
The best actress award went to Jennifer Lawrence for her role in "Silver Linings Playbook".
“Amour” won in the best foreign film nomination. The film, submitted by Austria, was directed by German-born Austrian director Michael Haneke, but is in French and stars two prominent French actors. This is Austria’s second Oscar award, following "The Counterfeiters" in 2008.
The Oscar for original song went to "Skyfall". The movie also tied with "Zero Dark Thirty" for the best sound editing award. It was the first Oscar tie since 1969, since Katherine Hepburn and Barbara Streisand tied for best actress, and the first Oscar award for a Bond film since 1965's "Thunderball."
Christoph Waltz, who plays a German bounty hunter in Quentin Tarantino's “Django Unchained”, won this year’s Best Supporting Actor, his second Oscar. In 2010, he also won in the same nomination for another movie by Tarantino, “Inglorious Bastards.” The role brought him some other top awards this year, including the BAFTA and the Golden Globe.
“Django Unchained” also brought the original screenplay award to Tarantino. It was his fifth Oscar nomination and the first award since "Pulp Fiction" in 1995 in the same category.
Anne Hathaway won best supporting actress for her role in “Les Misérables”. She earlier won best supporting actress awards at the BAFTA and the Golden Globe.
“Les Misérables” has also won two technical awards - for the makeup and hairstyling and for sound mixing.
Disney’s Paperman won the animated short film award, while Disney/Pixar’s "Brave" won the best animated feature, beating "Wreck-It Ralph," "Frankenweenie," "Pirates: Band of Misfits" and "ParaNorman."
The live action short film award went to Shawn Christensen for his film “Curfew” about a young man on the verge of committing suicide, who receives a call from his sister asking him to babysit his niece.
Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine, who were previously nominated for their documentary feature in 2007, won this year’s Documentary Short award for “Inocente”, a story of a homeless immigrant teenage girl who wants to become an artist.
The costume award went to “Anna Karenina”. The documentary feature award went to “Searching for Sugar Man”, a movie about elusive singer-songwriter Rodriguez from early 1970s, by Malik Bendjelloul and Simon Chinn.
The 85th Oscar Ceremony, broadcast live in 225 countries, was watched by about 1 billion people worldwide, host Seth MacFarlane said. The event also celebrated the 50th anniversary of James Bond.
