Melissa Leo walked away with the first big prize at the 83rd Annual Academy Awards on Sunday (27Feb11), when she was named Best Supporting Actress for her role in THE FIGHTER.
The 50-year-old star capped off her amazing 2011 awards season by triumphing over her The Fighter co-star Amy Adams to claim Oscar gold. She also beat competition from Helena Bonham Carter (The King's Speech), Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit) and Jacki Weaver (Animal Kingdom).
Accepting the honour from 94-year-old acting icon Kirk Douglas, Leo paid tribute to her movie co-stars Adams and Mark Wahlberg, and thanked her family for their support.
But she also turned the air blue, swearing just moments into the live telecast as she marvelled at the packed audience inside the Kodak Theater, where the awards are taking place.
She gasped, "When I watched Kate (Winslet, 2008 Oscar winner) three years ago it looked so f**king easy!"
Anne Hathaway and James Franco opened the 83rd Annual Academy Awards by spoofing Best Picture nominee Inception and attempting to break into 2010 presenter Alec Baldwin's dreams to find the secrets to success as the co-hosts of the biggest prizegiving in Hollywood. Morgan Freeman also featured in the hilarious segment, which saw the young stars appear in clips from other top film nominees The Social Network, The Fighter, True Grit, The King's Speech and Black Swan.
The very first award of the night, for Best Art Direction, went to Robert Stromberg and Karen O'Hara for their work on Alice In Wonderland, while Inception's Wally Pfister landed Best Cinematography.
Toy Story 3 took home Best Animated Feature.
It's the early sixties and 17-year-old Cathleen Harris has decided on what she wants for...
Here's another remarkable biopic from Oliver Stone, who has used all-star casts and intensely pointed...
Edward Snowden always knew he wanted to serve his country and, as most young men...
It didn't seem possible, but somehow this action movie is even more preposterous than its...
Smart and snappy, this comedy is one of the scariest films of the year, using...
Gerard Butler, Morgan Freeman, Aaron Eckhart and Angela Bassett once again team up in the...
When Dr. Michael Burry discovered that the housing market in the US relied upon a...
In June 2013, a high-flying 29-year-old government employee named Edward Snowdon suddenly found himself the...
Shia LaBeouf is well-cast in this freewheeling combination of comedy, romance and action. He plays...
Little more than a paint-by-numbers action thriller, it's anyone's guess why the filmmakers have bothered...
Director Antoine Fuqua (Training Day, Olympus Has Fallen) talks about what makes The Equalizer (Denzel...
Hank Palmer is a ruthless but excellent lawyer, despised by many of his peers for...
Robert McCall has a modest job at a hardware store in Boston where he longs...