No Country Wins Big at Oscars

LOS ANGELES, February 25:
European stars swept the performance categories at the Academy Awards last
night, with a win for Spanish actor Javier Bardem for No Country for Old Men, which bagged a total of four Oscars, including
best picture and best director.

Joel and Ethan Coen walked
away with the best director and best adapted screenplay statuettes last night,
while No Country for Old Men
trumped There Will Be Blood, Michael
Clayton, Atonement and Juno in the best picture category. Star Javier Bardem scored a best
supporting actor win, while best supporting actress went to Tilda Swinton for Michael
Clayton. In the lead performance
categories, Daniel Day Lewis picked up the award for There Will Be Blood, while French actress Marion Cotillard scored for
playing Edith Piaf in La Vie en Rose. Best original screenplay went to the sleeper indie hit Juno by Diablo Cody. In the animated feature category,
Pixar’s Ratatouille scored over
Surf’s Up and Persepolis. And Austria’s The Counterfeiters picked up the win in the foreign film category.

For best documentary
feature, the night’s winner was Taxi to the Dark Side, which was recently picked up by HBO. One of the
filmmakers behind the acclaimed doc, Alex Gibney, will deliver the keynote
speech, titled “The Power of Documentary,” at this year’s MIPDOC on April 6.

—By Mansha Daswani