"No Country for Old Men,'' the Coen Brothers' bloody story of a drug deal gone bad, won four Oscars including best film as Hollywood focused on themes of betrayal, corruption and murder.
Joel and Ethan Coen were voted best directors and also won for best adapted screenplay at the 80th Academy Awards yesterday in Los Angeles. Javier Bardem won for his supporting role as an assassin in the film.
"No Country,'' based on the book by Cormac McCarthy, beat out ``There Will Be Blood,'' ``Michael Clayton,'' and Golden Globe-winner ``Atonement,'' three films that also featured dark themes. The fifth nominee, ``Juno,'' was a comedy about teen pregnancy.
All the movies nominated this year were really interesting to me personally,'' Joel Coen said afterward. ``We adapted a novel by a great American novelist.''
Daniel Day-Lewis won best actor for ``There Will Be Blood,'' about a ruthless oil man, and Marion Cotillard was named best actress for ``La Vie En Rose,'' the story of troubled French singer Edith Piaf. Tilda Swinton took best supporting actress for her portrayal of a crooked corporate attorney in ``Michael Clayton.''
With the Oscars going to the British-born Day-Lewis and Swinton, Spain's Bardem and France's Cotillard, no American took an acting award.
RARE FEAT
``No Country'' follows a hunter who must run for his life after finding a cache of drugs and a satchel of cash at a murder scene near the U.S.-Mexico border. The film stars Tommy Lee Jones as a sheriff and Bardem as a killer for hire.
With the award, the Coens become the second pair to share a directing Oscar. The others were Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins for ``West Side Story'' in 1961. The Coens previously won Oscars for their screenplay for ``Fargo,'' released in 1996.
Walt Disney Co. and Viacom Inc., which distributed ``No Country,'' won seven Oscars each last night, the most of the major studios. Films from Universal won five, Time Warner Inc. won four and News Corp. won two. Sony Corp. took one.
The fate of Hollywood's biggest annual celebration had remained in doubt until Feb. 12, when studios and writers reached a new labor agreement, ending a three-month strike. Performers including George Clooney, nominated for best actor for his role in ``Michael Clayton,'' threatened to boycott the ceremony.
CLOSE CALL
``The last three and a half months have been tough,'' host Jon Stewart said in his opening monologue. ``This town was torn apart by the writers strike. The fight is over, so tonight welcome to the make-up sex.''
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was preparing two telecasts, one with actors and another without, until members of the Writers Guild of America voted to end their walkout. Members of the Screen Actors Guild supported the writers by refusing to attend the Golden Globes.
Their boycott forced the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which hands out the awards, to cancel its usual three-hour telecast and instead hold a 30-minute news conference announcing winners.
The Academy Awards aired on Disney's ABC television network. The academy honored 98-year-old production designer Robert Boyle, who worked on Alfred Hitchcock's ``North By Northwest'' and ``The Birds,'' with an honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement.
``That's the good part of getting old,'' Boyle said, accepting the award. ``I don't recommend the other.''
ANIMATION
``Ratatouille'' from Disney's Pixar studio won the award for best animated feature. ``The Bourne Ultimatum,'' from General Electric Co.'s Universal Pictures, won for film editing, sound editing and sound mixing, all the categories in which it was nominated.
Studios use Oscar nominations to generate additional ticket sales for movies that are still in theaters and home-video sales for those that aren't. A best-picture win could mean as much as $60 million in additional revenue, said Dave Davis, managing director of Arpeggio Partners, a Santa Monica, California-based investment bank.
``The winner of best picture has a major economic effect on the box office and in later DVD sales of the film,'' Davis said.
Heading into last night's ceremony, ``No Country,'' released on Nov. 9, benefited the least. The film had $6.84 million in post-nomination sales, according to Nielsen EDI. Worldwide sales totaled $94.9 million, according to researcher Box Office Mojo LLC.
`Juno'
``Juno,'' awarded best original screenplay Oscar for the script by Diablo Cody, was the biggest box-office winner among the five best-movie nominees. The film took in $22.8 million over the three weekends following the Jan. 22 nominations announcement, according to box-office tracker Nielsen EDI.
``Juno'' also was the only film that beat the average post- nomination bump of $18.2 million for Oscar contenders between 1997 and 2006, according to researcher Media By Numbers LLC. Released Dec. 5 by News Corp.'s Fox Searchlight unit, ``Juno'' has had total U.S. sales of $130.4 million.
For the third-straight year, the academy's best-picture nominees largely dealt with malevolent themes. In ``No Country,'' Bardem leaves a trail of bodies in his wake while recovering cash from the drug deal.
``There Will Be Blood'' focuses on a man's ruthless drive to strike it rich in the oil fields.
``Atonement'' stars Keira Knightley as an upper-class British woman whose lover is falsely accused of a crime he didn't commit by her younger sister. The lie unalterably changes the lives of all three.
Clooney stars as ``Michael Clayton,'' an ethically challenged corporate attorney whose life is threatened after he discovers the company he represents is guilty of wrongdoing.
None of 10 top-selling films in the U.S. and Canada last year was nominated in the major categories of best performance by an actor or actress in a leading or supporting role, best film or achievement in directing.
Hey techies, don't bother putting money down on whether the Celtics are the future NBA champions. Not when you can place a bet on Steve Jobs.
