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British actor Daniel Day-Lewis, 55, scored a historic third Best Actor Oscar for his role as the 16th US President Abraham Lincoln in Steven Spielberg's civil-war set drama 'Lincoln'. His previous Oscars were for 'My Left Foot' in 1989 and 'There Will Be Blood' in 2007.
22-year-old Jennifer Lawrence emerged a winner for 'Silver Linings Playbook' in a tight Best Actress race by tripping strong contenders like Jessica Chastain, Emmanuelle Riva, Naomi Watts and Quvenzhane Wallis.
'Argo' saw off tough competition from eight other films -- including 'Lincoln', 'Life of Pi', 'Amour', 'Django Unchained' and 'Zero Dark Thirty'-- to walk away with the top award.
'Argo' was declared a winner by Jack Nicholson and First Lady Michelle Obama, who tuned in through a videolink, making an unprecedented appearance from White House in a shimmery silver gown.
The film, based on real incidents, narrates the near impossible escape story when CIA pulled out six US diplomats from Iran in 1979 by posing as a fake film crew. It won three trophies -- Best picture, best adapted screenplay and best editing -- out of its seven nominations.
Lee pulled of an upset by winning the Oscar, his second, over favourite Steven Spielberg and three others with his visually stunning, India-set 3D drama. The film also scored maximum wins of four awards -- Best director, best cinematography, music (original score) and visual effects -- out of its 11 nominations.
"Thank you, movie god. I need to thank Yann Martel for writing this inspiring book," said Lee before commending his Indian cast and crew and ending his speech with 'Namaste'.
Lee, 58, spent four years translating Martel's book to the screen and made several trips to India to shoot the film.
The director, a five-time Oscar nominee, previously won the best director trophy for his 2005 gay cowboy drama 'Brokeback Mountain'.
He shot the film, which earned $600 million worldwide, with an Indian cast that included newcomer Suraj Sharma, Irrfan Khan, Tabu and Adil Hussain.
Affleck, 40, who was famously snubbed from being nominated for the best director title despite winning every other award this season, made it up by scoring the top honour of the night over eight other films.
"I want to thank Canada. I want to thank our friends in Iran, who live under terrible circumstances," said Affleck, the co-producer with George Clooney and Grant Heslov.
Day-Lewis, who took almost six years to accept the role of Lincoln after refusing Spielberg three times, thanked the "spirit of Lincoln" for his win.
"I do know that I've received so much more than my fortune... My role was Steven's first choice for Lincoln... I'm so proud... I'd like to thank Kathleen Kenndey, our producer. I owe this to three men - Tony Kushner, Steven Spielberg and the spirit of Abraham lincoln," he said while accepting the best actor trophy.
Lawrence delivered an emotional speech. "This is embarrassing... It's nuts...Thank you to the Academy, to the women this year. Thank you to the best production team, our crew and my family... Thank you so much," she said.
Anne Hathaway's dream of winning an Oscar came true after she walked away with the Best Supporting trophy for her role of a fallen woman, Fantine', in 'Les Miserables'.
"'It came true... I hope sometime in near future. The misfortunes of Fantine will only be found in stories and not in real life,' Hathaway said.
Christoph Waltz won the best supporing Oscar, his second in the same category, for 'Django Unchained'.
Waltz, who previously won an Oscar for 'Inglourious Basterds', thanked his best original screenplay winning director Quentin Tarantino for his spaghetti western.
"My... My unlimited gratitude goes to Dr King Schultz (his character). That is, of course, to the creator and the creator of his awe-inspiring world – Quentin Tarentino," the actor said.
Tarantino, in an unusually long speech, said he was happy to win because the year saw some amazing writing.
"...This time did I do it... I would like to say it's such an honor to get it this year because in both the original and the adapted categories, the writing is just fantastic. This will be the writers' year, man. Thank you very much. I love the competition. You guys all wonderful," said the writer-director, who previously won in the same category for 'Pulp Fiction'.
The best adapted screenplay was won by Chris Terrio of 'Argo' who bested Tony Kushner for Lincoln, David Magee for 'Life of Pi' and David O Russell for Silver Linings Playbook among others. Terrio adapted the film from an article from Wired magazine and CIA man Tony Mendez's book 'The Master of Disguise'.
Music director Mychael Danna won an Oscar in the Best Original Score category for his work for 'Pi' but India's hopes were dashed after sole nominee Bombay Jayshri lost the Best Original Song trophy to British singer Adele, who won the statuette for her soulful rendition of James Bond theme 'Skyfall'.
'Amour', nominated in five categories including the best director and actress, won its lone award in the best foreign film category over Norway's Kon-Tiki, Chile's 'No', Denmark's 'A Royal Affair' and 'War Witch' from Canada'.
Claudia Miranda won the best cinematography trophy for his exceptional camera work in technically brilliant 'Life of Pi'. The film also brought Oscars for its visual effects team of Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron, Erik-Jan De Boer and Donald R Elliott.
