France's Marion Cotillard won the best actress Oscar award yesterday for her role in "La Vie en Rose."
Acting as a French singer in the film, Cotillard beat favorite Julie Christie, who had been expected to grab a second Oscar for "Away From Her."
Christie played a heartbreaking turn as a woman succumbing to Alzheimer's in "Away From Her." She won best actress 42 years ago for "Darling."
Cotillard tearfully thanked her director, Olivier Dahan.
"Maestro Olivier, you rocked my life. You have truly rocked my life," said Cotillard, who is a dynamo as Piaf, playing the warbling chanteuse through three decades, from raw late teens as a singer rising from the gutter through international stardom and her final days in her frail 40s.
"Thank you life, thank you love. And it is true that there are some angels in this city."
A relatively fresh face in Hollywood, Cotillard has US credits that include "Big Fish," "A Good Year" and the upcoming "Public Enemies."
The best supporting-actor award went to Javier Bardem for his role as an unshakable executioner in "No Country for Old Men."
"This is pretty amazing," Bardem exclaimed, expressing thanks to, among others, his mother.
A Spanish actor, Bardem plays a terrifying yet perversely amusing character in "No Country for Old Men," one of the favorites for Oscard gold.
Tilda Swinton grabbed the best supporting-actress award for her role 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.
"Really, truly, the same shape head, and it has to be said, the buttocks. And I'm giving this to him, because there's no way I'd be in America at all, ever, on a plane if it wasn't for him," said the Scottish actress, who played a conniving attorney who stops at nothing to achieve her goals in a 3-billion-dollar class-action lawsuit.
Earlier in the evening, the bloody musical "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" was honored with an Oscar for art direction. Italian production designer Dante Ferretti and his wife, set designer Francesca Lo Schiavo, shared the honor.
"The Golden Compass" led to an Oscar for visual effects.
The Academy Award winner for best film editing is Christopher Rouse for "The Bourne Ultimatum."
The Oscar Academy Award for best animated feature film went to the rat tale "Ratatouille" directed by Brade Bird.
It was the second Oscar win in the category for director Bird who also won the animation Oscar for 2004's "The Incredibles."
"Ratatouille" tells the story of a gourmand rat who fulfills his dream of cooking in a Paris restaurant with help from a clumsy human youth.
The winner of the first Oscar of the night, for best costume design, is Alexandra Byrne for "Elizabeth: The Golden Age."
The Oscar for best makeup was awarded to Didier Lavergne and Jan Archibald for "La Vie en Rose."
The 80th Annual Academy Awards got underway beneath gray skies and drizzles at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood, downtown Los Angeles.