Ethan Coen, Harvey Weinstein, and Joel Coen with their Oscars. Photo: Matt Petit / A.M.P.A.S.

It was the Coen brothers' night as they scooped the Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay awards at the Oscars last night. Javier Bardem, who plays a pyschopathic killer in No Country for Old Men, added to the film's haul by winning best supporting actor.

Joel Coen thanked everyone "for letting us continue to play in our corner of the sandbox."

"Ethan and I have been making stories with movie cameras since we were kids. In the late '60s when Ethan was 11 or 12, he got a suit and a briefcase and we went to the Minneapolis International Airport with a Super 8 camera and made a movie about shuttle diplomacy called Henry Kissinger, Man on the Go. And honestly, what we do now doesn't feel that much different from what we were doing then."

The makers of Brit pic Atonement had to console themselves with the Best Original Score award for composer Dario Marianelli out of its seven nominations (including Best Picture).

As expected, Daniel Day Lewis won the Lead Actor award for his portrait of a determined oil prospector in There Will Be Blood and Tilda Swinton won the Supporting Actress award for her role as a manipulative corporate lawyer in Michael Clayton.

The award for Foreign Language film went to Austrian production The Counterfeiters, a concentration camp drama based on a true story of the nazi plan to flood Allied countries with counterfeit money toward the end of World War 2.

French-Iranian animation Persepolis lost out to Brad Bird's entertaining Ratatouille for the Animation Award.

Indie hit comedy Juno, about teen pregnancy, won the Original Screenplay award, with Diablo Cody saying, "I want to thank my family for loving me exactly the way I am."

The winner in the documentary feature category was Taxi to the Dark Side, about an innocent Afghani taxi driver who was tortured and killed in 2002. In accepting the award Alex Gibney said:

"This is dedicated to two people who are no longer with us, Dilawar, the young Afghan taxi driver, and my father, a Navy interrogator who urged me to make this film because of his fury about what was being done to the rule of law. Let's hope we can turn this country around, move away from the dark side and back to the light."

OSCAR WINNERS 2008

Best Picture No Country for Old Men

Directing No Country for Old Men

Lead Actor Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood

Supporting Actor Javier Bardem in No Country for Old Men

Lead Actress Marion Cotillard in La Vie en Rose

Supporting Actress Tilda Swinton in Michael Clayton

Animated Feature Ratatouille

Art Direction Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Cinematography There Will Be Blood

Costume Design Elizabeth: The Golden Age

Documentary Feature Taxi to the Dark Side

Documentary Short Subject Freeheld

Film Editing The Bourne Ultimatum

Foreign Language The Counterfeiters

Makeup La Vie en Rose

Music (Original score) Atonement

Music (Original song) Falling Slowly from Once

Animated Short Peter & the Wolf

Live Action Short Le Mozart des Pickpockets (The Mozart of Pickpockets)

Sound Editing The Bourne Ultimatum

Sound Mixing The Bourne Ultimatum

Visual Effects The Golden Compass

Adapted Screenplay No Country for Old Men

Original Screenplay Juno

Honorary Award Robert Boyle