Four Oscars for “No Country for Old Men”

The Coen brothers completed their journey from the fringes to Hollywood’s mainstream, their crime saga “No Country for Old Men” winning four Academy Awards, including best picture, in a ceremony that also featured a strong international flavour.

Europeans swept the acting categories on Sunday night. British actor Daniel Day-Lewis and France’s Marion Cotillard were best lead actor and actress. The supporting actor and actress prizes went to Spain’s Javier Bardem and British actress Tilda Swinton.

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

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

Swinton won for her portrayal as a malevolent attorney in “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.