VOA常速英语:Big winners at Oscars

Filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen were big winners at this year's Academy Awards ceremony Sunday. Their grisly crime tale No Country for Old Men earned four of Hollywood's top honors. VOA 's Mike O'Sullivan has more on the Oscar winners from Hollywood.

Ethan and Joel Coen hold Oscars for Best Directing and Best Picture, 24 Feb 2008

A tale of a drug deal gone bad, No Country for Old Men was named best picture. Brothers Ethan and Joel Coen shared the honor of best director for the film, and earned Oscars for its screenplay, which was adapted from a novel by Cormac McCarthy.

Joel Coen said the brothers have made films since they were youngsters in Minnesota.

''Honestly, what we do now doesn't feel that much different from what we were doing then. We're really thrilled to have received it, and we're very thankful to all of you out there for continuing to let us play in our corner of the sandbox,'' he said.

The pair previously won the original screenplay Oscar for their 1996 film Fargo.

Javier Bardem was named best supporting actor for his role as a psychopathic killer in No Country for Old Men. Backstage, he praised the other actors in his category.

"Who should win? I don't know. This is a lottery. I won. That doesn't mean that I am better than the other ones, than the rest at all, that's for sure," he said.

Bardem is from Spain, and other Europeans also won top acting honors. Helen Mirren announced the winner for best actor.

"And the Oscar goes to Daniel Day-Lewis and There Will be Blood, " she said.

Britain's Daniel Day-Lewis was favored to win for his role as a ruthless prospector in the tale of the California oil boom. He thanked the film's director, Paul Thomas Anderson.

"I hope that all those to whom I owe and to whom I feel the deepest gratitude will forgive me if I say simply, thank you Paul," he said.

Marion Cotillard holds Oscar for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role for La Vie En Rose, 24 Feb 2008

French actress Marion Cotillard was named best actress for portraying singer Edith Piaf in the French language film La Vie En Rose.

"Thank you life. Thank you love. And it is true that there are some angels in this city. Thank you so, so much," she said.

Backstage, she was still excited.

"It feels so good. I'm totally overwhelmed with joy and sparkles and fireworks and everything which goes like bam, bam, bam," she said.

Britain's Tilda Swinton was named best supporting actress for her role as a ruthless corporate attorney in the thriller Michael Clayton.

The Austrian film The Counterfeiters, a tale of Nazi-era Europe, won the Oscar for best foreign-language film.

And screenwriter Diablo Cody, a former exotic dancer, won the Oscar for best original screenplay for Juno, the hit comedy about a pregnant teenager. The Oscar presentation was a night of celebration, coming shortly after the end of a three-month writer's strike.