"No Country For Old Men" won the Oscar for best film and its makers, brothers Joel and Ethan Coen, were named best directors, giving the bleak crime drama four of the world's top movie awards.

Members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences honoured a wide range of movies, actors and actresses from several countries.

Briton Daniel Day-Lewis won the Oscar for best actor as a sadistic oil prospector in the early 20th century whose rise to wealth and power comes at a deep cost to his soul.

France's Marion Cotillard was named best actress, Britain's Tilda Swinton took supporting actress and Spain's Javier Bardem won supporting actor.

Cotillard earned her Academy Award portraying singer Edith Piaf in "La Vie en Rose" and became the first French actress to win the Oscar in that category since 1960.

"I'm speechless now," Cotillard said on stage, visibly surprised and overjoyed. "Thank you life, thank you love. It is true there (are) some angels in this city."

Swinton won supporting actress playing an ethically challenged corporate lawyer in the thriller "Michael Clayton" and Bardem was given his award for portraying a sadistic killer in "No Country For Old Men."

Bardem, who hails from a family of performers, took the occasion to thank his family in Spanish, apologizing in advance to the Hollywood audience.

"Mama, this is for you. This is for your grandparents and your parents," said Bardem. "This is for the comedians of Spain who like you have brought dignity and pride to our profession. This is for Spain and this is for all of you."

The fourth Oscar for "No Country For Old Men" also went to the Coen brothers for best adapted screenplay by basing their movie on the Cormac McCarthy novel of the same name. - Reuters