* Return Of The King joins Ben Hur (1959) and Titanic (1997) in sweeping 11 Oscars! Barrie M Osborne, Fran Walsh and Peter Jackson win the Best Film of the 76th Annual Academy Awards. The award was presented by award-winning director Steven Spielberg.

Jackson thanked the Academy for 'recognising the trolls and hobbits and elves' of ROTK.

* Last year's Best Actress Nicole Kidman (The Hours), called out the Best Actor this year: Sean Penn for what The New York Times called 'the best acting in 25 years.'

* Last year's Best Actor Adrien Brody (The Pianist) presented the Best Actress of the 76th Annual Academy Awards: Charlize Theron for her role as a serial-killing prostitute in Monster. As she said, "It's been an incredible year."

And no, in spite of splashing mouth freshner, Brody didn't go for the lip-smacking kiss with Theron, as he did Oscar-winning actress Halle Berry (Monster's Ball).

* 10 awards down and counting! Peter Jackson is Best Director, for his film, Return Of The King. Tom Cruise, star of The Last Samurai, presented the award.

* Academy Award-winning couple Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon announced 33-year-old, Sofia Coppola for the Best Original Screenplay, for her work in Lost In Translation. She is the youngest of the nominees and the first American woman in the Best Director category.

* Strike 9 for ROTK: Father and daughter, Francis Ford and Sofia Coppola, called on Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens and Peter Jackson for their Best Adapted Screenplay for Return Of The King, the third of the screen adaptations of J R R Tolkien's The Lord Of The Rings.

* Uma Thurman and Best Actor nominee Jude Law (Cold Mountain) called on Russell Boyd as the Best Cinematographer for Master And Commander: The Far Side Of The World. 

* Best Actress Nominee Charlize Theron (Monster, she won Screen Actor's Guild award for Best Actress), announced Denys Arcand's Best Foreign Language Film, The Barbarian Invasions. In her acceptance speech, Arcand remarked how grateful she was that ROTK was not nominated in the foreign film category :)

* Strike 8 for ROTK: Will Farrell and Jack Black call on Fran Walsh, Howard Shore and Annie Lennox, winners of Best Original Song, Into the west.

* Jamie Lee Curtis called on Michael McKean and Annette O'Toole to perform A kiss at the end of the rainbow, in Curtis's husband Christopher Guest's mockumentary, A Mighty Wind.

She also called on Benoit Charest to perform Bellville Rendez-vous, of The Triplets Of Belleville, nominated for Best Music (Song).

* Strike 7 for LOTR! Jamie Selkirk won for editing ROTK. The awards were presented by Pierce Brosnan and last year's Oscar nominee for The Hours, Julianne Moore.

* Strike 6 for LOTR: Sting and Phil Collins called on Howard Shore as winner of the Best Music Score for his work in ROTK. Shore earlier won the Oscar for his score in The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring.

* Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences president Frank Pierson presented a tribute to the Hollywood legend and former Academy president Gregory Peck, 'a man who not played legends on screen, but lived his life with decency, dignity and grace.' Peck passed away in the early hours of June 13, last year.

* Oscar nominees Naomi Watts (21 Grams) and Alec Baldwin (The Cooler) presented the Best Documentary Feature to Errol Morris and Michael Williams for The Fog Of War. Morris in his acceptance speech thanked the Academy for 'finally recognising my work after all these years.'

* John Cusack (Serendipity) and last year's Oscar-nominee Diane Lane (Unfaithful) announced Maryann DeLeo's Chernobyl Heart, as winners of the Best Documentary Short.

* America's favourite talk show host presented a clip from Dennis Lehane's Oscar-nominated Mystic River, directed by Clint Eastwood.

* Oscar-winning actress Julia Roberts for Erin Brockovich, presented a visual tribute to Hollywood great Katherine Hepburn, who passed away last year. She said the actress was most remembered for her 'irrepressible spirit' and 'a daring woman who was the first to wear pants.'

* Strike five for ROTK! Sandra Bullock and John Travolta announced Christopher Boyes, Michael Semanick, Michael Hedges and Hammond Peek as the winners for Sound Mixing, in ROTK.

Bullock and Travolta also annoucned Richard King, first time Oscar nominee, as winner of the Best Sound Mixing for his work in Peter Weir's Master And Commander: The Far Side Of The World.

* Strike four for ROTK: Scarlett Johansson announced the winners of the Best Makeup: Richard Taylor and Peter King. 

Her costar of Lost In Translation and Best Actor nominee Bill Murray introduced a clip from his movie which was shot over 27 days in Tokyo.

* Eighty-one year old Blake Edwards, director of 10, won the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 76th Annual Academy Awards are on at the Kodak Theatre, Los Angeles. Funnyman Jim Carrey presented the award.

Edwards thanked, among others, "the beautiful English broad with the... promiscuous vocabulary," his wife Julie Andrews, actress-singer of the famous musicals Sound Of Music and Mary Poppins.

* And the awards keep piling on for The Lord Of The Ring: Retun Of The King! Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith announced the winners of the Best Visual Effects to Jim Rygiel, Joe Letteri, Randall William Cook and Alex Funke, for their work in The Lord Of The Ring: Return Of The King. 

* Annie Lennox performed Into the west, which presenter Liv Tyler declared, 'has a very special place in my heart,' from The Lord Of The Rings: Return Of The King.

* Alison Krauss glittering in diamonds and a smashing white gown, performed to two of her numbers in Cold Mountain, You will be my ain true love, with Sting; and Scarlet tide, with T Bone Burnett and Elvis Costello.

* Renee Zellweger won the Best Supporting Actress for her work in Anthony Minghella's Cold Mountain.

The actress had earlier confessed: "I am terrified. If I could get that [award] right tonight, it would just be great." That's perhaps because she was nominated the last two years for Chicago (2003) and Bridget Jones's Diary (2002). This time, the statuette was finally hers!

* Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson, stars of the retro movie, Starsky and Hutch, presented the award to an overwhelmed Aaron Schneider and Andrew J Sacks who, in their thank you list, included Billy Crystal for his inspiring talk on joining film school, to the awed Andrew J Sacks.

* The two also announced Harvie Krumpet as the Best Animated Short.

* Ngila Dickson and Richard Taylor won the Oscars for Costume Design, for their work in Peter Jackson's The Lord Of The Ring: Return Of The King. Dickson was also nominated for her work in The Last Samurai.

* Andrew Stanton's Finding Nemo won the Best Animated Feature.

* Earlier, Angelina Jolie presented the Art Direction Oscar to Grant Major (Art Direction); Dan Hennah and Alan Lee (Set Decoration) for their work in Peter Jackson's The Lord Of The Rings: Return Of The King.

* A dazzling Catherine Zeta-Jones presented the first major award of the evening to Tim Robbins, for Best Supporting Actor.

* Irishman Sean Connery opened the Oscar ceremony at the Kodak Theatre, Los Angeles: "Our Academy invites the world to celebrate the joy of going to the movies. Enjoy!"

* An interesting medley by host of Billy Crystal, who called himself the "master and commander tonight... and well into tomorrow," sang odes to each nominee in popular English soundtracks, from These are a few of my favourite things, and the James Bond soundtrack.