Daniel-Day Lewis celebrates Oscar win

It was a great night for British actors at the Oscars with Daniel Day-Lewis celebrating his best actor triumph for his role as an oil baron in the epic drama There Will Be Blood.

After collecting the award from Dame Helen Mirren, the London-born actor quipped, "This is the closest I'll ever come to getting a knighthood," - referring obviously to the actress' Oscar winning role last year as the British Royal.

Tilda Swinton was the UK's other big winner, beating off hotly tipped favourite Cate Blanchett to scoop the best supporting actress Oscar for her role in Michael Clayton.

After her eccentric acceptance speech at the Baftas recently, she was even livelier last night: "I have an American agent who is the spitting image of this. Really, truly. The same shape head and, it has to be said, the buttocks," she said, referring to her statuette.

And thanking her co-star George Clooney, she joked about his role in the much criticised Batman and Robin, "Seeing you climb into that rubber batsuit from Batman and Robin, the one with the nipples, every morning under your costume, on the set, off the set, hanging upside-down at lunch... You rock, man." (You've got to love her).

All the acting prizes, somewhat surprisingly, went to Europeans, with French actress Marion Cottillard winning best actress for her performance in the Edith Piaf biopic La Vie En Rose, while Javier Bardem thanked his parents in Spanish after he was named best supporting actor for his performance in No Country For Old Men.

And Bardem wasn't the only one from the violent thriller that was celebrating. The brooding epic was the big winner of the night, scoring best film and best director for the Coen Brothers.

Brother Joel thanked the Academy, saying, "What we do now doesn't feel that much different from what we were doing then.

"We're very thankful to all of you out there for continuing to let us play in our corner of the sandbox."

Former stripper Diablo Cody won best screenplay for her first ever movie, quirky teen pregnancy movie Juno.

"I'm shocked by the popularity of the film," she said.

"I mean, when you write basically an independent movie about, you know, a pregnant teenager and you make it for seven million dollars you never, ever think it's going to become this phenomenon."

This year's show - in its 80th year - visibly bore the brunt of the recently ended writer's strike. Gone were the lavish and complex musical dance numbers and movie spoofs, with host Jon Stewart admitting, "These past three and a half months have been very tough. The town was torn apart by a bitter writers' strike.

"But I'm happy to say that the fight is over. So tonight, welcome to the make-up sex."

Even some of the glitzy Post-Oscar parties were cancelled because of the strike, including People magazine's party and the Vanity Fair bash. However, don't feel too sorry for the poor A-List celebs, music stars Prince and Madonna were among those who opened their Hollywood home doors for their own hastily arranged parties.