Coen brothers clean up at Oscars

The Coen brothers completed their journey from the fringes to Hollywood's mainstream, their crime saga No Country for Old Men winning four Academy Awards, including best picture, in a ceremony that also featured a strong international flavor.

Europeans swept the acting categories on Sunday night. British actor Daniel Day-Lewis and France's Marion Cotillard were best actor and actress. The supporting actor and actress prizes went to Spain's Javier Bardem and British actress Tilda Swinton.

The only other time in the Oscars' 80-year history that all four acting winners were foreign-born was 1964, when the recipients were Britons Rex Harrison, Julie Andrews and Peter Ustinov and Russian Lila Kedrova.

Bardem won for supporting actor in No Country, which earned Joel and Ethan Coen best director, best adapted screenplay and the best picture honor as producers.

Accepting the directing honor alongside his brother, Joel Coen recalled how they had made films since childhood, including one at the Minneapolis airport called Henry Kissinger: Man on the Go.

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

Day-Lewis won his second best-actor Academy Award for the oil-boom epic There Will Be Blood, while La Vie En Rose star Cotillard was a surprise winner for best actress, riding the spirit of Edith Piaf to Oscar triumph over Britain's Julie Christie, who had been expected to win for Away From Her.

Swinton won for her portrayal as a malevolent attorney in Michael Clayton.

As a raging, conniving, acquisitive petroleum pioneer caught up in California's oil boom of the early 20th century, Day-Lewis won for a part that could scarcely have been more different than his understated role as a writer with severe cerebral palsy in 1989's My Left Foot.

"My deepest thanks to the academy for whacking me with the handsomest bludgeon in town," Day-Lewis said.

Day-Lewis walked up the steps to accept his trophy from Helen Mirren, then went down on one knee before her, head bowed. Mirren, last year's best-actress winner for The Queen, picked up his cue, touching Lewis' Oscar to his shoulders as she would a royal sword.

"That's the closest I'll ever come to getting a knighthood," the Englishman said.

The Coens missed out on a chance to make Oscar history -- four wins for a single film -- when they lost the editing prize, for which they were nominated under the pseudonym Roderick Jaynes.

The Bourne Ultimatum won the editing Oscar and swept all three categories in which it was nominated, including sound editing and sound mixing.

Past winners for their screenplay to 1996's Fargo, Joel and Ethan Coen joined an elite list of filmmakers to win three Oscars in a single night, including Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather Part II), James Cameron (Titanic) and Billy Wilder (The Apartment).