Million Dollar Baby knocked 'em dead at the 77th Annual Academy Awards.
The hard-hitting drama reeled in four golden guys Sunday night, nabbing Oscars for Best Picture, Best Actress for Hilary Swank, Best Supporting Actor for Morgan Freeman and Best Director for Clint Eastwood.
Eastwood's dual win for producer and director marks the second time he has pulled off the feat--he was also a double winner in 1992 for Unforgiven.
The 74-year-old Eastwood, the oldest Best Director winner ever, noted that his mother had been with him 13 years ago to see him accept his Oscars.
"She's here with me again tonight, so, at 96, I'm thanking her for her genes," Eastwood said. "I figure I'm just a kid. I've got a lot of stuff to do yet."
An emotional Swank, who turned in a muscular performance as a female boxer in Baby, started her acceptance speech by thanking her husband Chad Lowe, whom she famously forgot in her Best Actress acceptance for Boys Don't Cry five years ago.
"I like to think I learn from my mistakes," Swank said.
Swank's win represents the second time she's faced off against Annette Bening and triumphed in the Best Actress category.
"I don't know what I did in this life to deserve all this. I'm just a girl from a trailer park who had a dream," Swank said.
Freeman took home an Oscar for his turn as a sage ex-prizefighter and delivered a quick one-two punch of an acceptance speech.
"I want to thank everybody and anybody who ever had anything at all to do with the making of this picture. But I especially want to thank Clint Eastwood for giving me the opportunity to work with him again," said Freeman, who had previously worked with Eastwood on Unforgiven.
THE BIG WINNERSFilm
Oscars
The Aviator
5
Million Dollar Baby
4
The Incredibles
2
Ray
2
As expected, Jamie Foxx captured the Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of Ray Charles in the biopic Ray. Foxx, by now a frequent presence on this season's awards-show stages, delivered a heartfelt acceptance speech paying tribute to Charles and to his late grandmother, whom he said he talks to in his dreams.
"I can't wait to go to sleep tonight, because we've got a lot to talk about," a tearful Foxx said. "I love you."
The Aviator, the epic biopic of Howard Hughes that came in with a leading 11 nominations, nabbed five Oscars, including Best Supporting Actress for Cate Blanchett's portrayal of Katharine Hepburn, as well as Oscars for Cinematography, Costume Design and Film Editing.
"Thank you, of course, to Miss Hepburn. The longevity of her career I think is inspiring to everyone," Blanchett said. She also gave a shout-out to director Martin Scorsese, saying, "I hope my son will marry your daughter."
However, plans for an arranged marriage between Scorsese-Blanchett offspring likely did little to lighten the defeated director's spirits--Sunday's Oscars marked his fifth defeat in the Academy Awards directing category and seventh defeat overall.
The night proved brighter for Charlie Kaufman, who took home Best Original Screenplay for The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind after two previous Oscar losses. Longtime writing partners Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor shared the honors for Best Adapted Screenplay for Sideways, the only award for the critically adored wine-swilling comedy, which came into the night with five nods.
In the 'toon category, superhero pic The Incredibles took home the Best Animated Feature, beating out Shrek 2, despite the ogre oeuvre's monster box office in 2004. The Incredibles also took home the prize for Best Sound Editing.
"I don't know what's more frightening, being watched by millions of people, or the hundreds of people that are going to be annoyed with me tomorrow for not mentioning them," said Brad Bird, writer and director of The Incredibles.
The Sea Inside was named Oscar for Best Foreign-Language Film, while "El Otro Lado Del Río" from The Motorcycle Diaries was named Best Original Song.
Jan A.P. Kaczmarek took home the Oscar for Best Original Score for Finding Neverland.
Born into Brothels was named Best Documentary and Mighty Times: The Children's March won Best Documentary Short.
Despite much discussion of what improprieties first-time Oscar host Chris Rock might unleash upon the venerable awards show, the telecast was fairly benign.
Though the comedian created controversy by mocking the Oscars in an interview prior to the ceremony, he largely behaved himself onstage, as did celebrity presenters (including Robin Williams, whose SpongeBob SquarePants jokes were reportedly censored before the show) and Oscar recipients. The only sour note was struck when presenter Sean Penn took offense at a Rock joke in the opening monologue mocking Jude Law.
Almost having as much face time as Rock was Beyoncé Knowles, who performed three of the Best Song candidates.
Meanwhile, the experiment of presenting awards in the audience and gathering nominees en masse on stage for lower-key categories came off without a hitch, although it made for a disjointed ceremony.
The squeaky-clean broadcast likely left ABC breathing a sigh of relief in this age of heavy indecency fines, but forthcoming ratings will determine whether viewers were left sighing with boredom.
Complete list of winners at the 77th Annual Academy Awards.