Agence France Presse

Hollywood, March 1,

The last episode of the ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy scored a stunning Oscars clean-sweep, winning 11 awards and becoming the first fantasy film ever to win the coveted best picture trophy. ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King’ also took best director for Jackson, who spent seven years making the trilogy, tied the record for Oscar wins set by 1997’s ‘Titanic’ and 1959’s ‘Ben Hur’.

“I’m so honoured and that Academy and its members have seen past the trolls and the wizards and the hobbits and are recognising fantasy this year,” Jackson, 42, said as he received his Oscar as a producer of the best picture of 2003.

In a night in which all the predicted favourites won, Charlize Theron snatched the best actress Oscar for her role as a serial killer and prostitute in ‘Monster’, and former Hollywood bad boy Sean Penn was forgiven by Hollywood, winning best actor for Clint Eastwood’s drama ‘Mystic River’.

And fellow front-runners Renee Zellweger scooped the statuette for best supporting actress for Civil War drama ‘Cold Mountain’ and Tim Robbins won best supporting actor

for his role as a bereaved father in ‘Mystic River’.

The final ‘Rings’ spectacular picked up Oscars for best visual effects, best costume design for the double-nominated New Zealander Ngila Dixon, best original song and best original musical score for Howard Shore. It also won for film editing and for best art direction, best sound mixing and best make-up.

The outspoken Penn, who has long spurned Hollywood’s traditions, won the Academy Award with his fourth nomination, following nods for ‘Dead Man Walking’, ‘Sweet and Lowdown’ and “I Am Sam’. He accepted the award with a barb against the US administration over the Iraq war. “If there’s one thing that actors know — apart from the fact that there were

no WMDs,” he said in a nod to his fellow nominees “is that there are no bests in acting.”

A former South African farm girl Theron, the country’s first ever Oscar winner, was overcome. “This has been such an incredible year. I can’t believe this,” she said as she received the award, thanking her mother for having “sacrificed so much for me to make my dreams come true.”

Zellweger won for her role as a spirited country girl in Anthony Minghella’s Civil War drama ‘Cold Mountain’, while the outspoken Robbins won his first Oscar and Hollywood’s embrace for his supporting role as a man who was abused during childhood in Clint Eastwood’s drama ‘Mystic River’.

Green party activist Robbins, who caused a furore along with his partner Susan Sarandon in their opposition to the US-led war in Iraq last year, said backstage he was surprised Hollywood had finally blessed him.

‘Rings’ crushed the competition for best picture: Peter Weir’s 10-time-nominated seafaring adventure ‘Master and Commander: The Far Side of The World’ — which took only two minor Oscars — horse-racing epic ‘Seabiscuit’, which had seven nominations but won none, ‘Mystic River’, which had six nods and won two, and Sofia Coppola’s wistful comedy ‘Lost in Translation’, which had four nominations and won only one.

Theron beat 13-year-old New Zealander Keisha Castle-Hughes, the youngest ever nominee for best actress, for her role as a Maori girl in ‘Whale Rider’; Australian Naomi Watts, for ‘21 Grams’; Oscar-winner Diane Keaton, for ‘Something’s Gotta Give’; and Britain’s Samantha Morton, for ‘In America’.

Best actor winner Penn beat heartthrob Johnny Depp actor for ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl’, comic Bill Murray for ‘Lost in Translation’, and Britons Jude Law (‘Cold Mountain’) and Ben Kingsley (‘House of Sand and Fog’).

Canada’s ‘The Barbarian Invasions’, written and directed by Denys Arcand won best foreign language film.

Celebrated writer and director Blake Edwards, 81, received an honorary Oscar for his 50-year lifetime of work that includes ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’ and the ‘Pink Panther’ movies.

And Julia Roberts presented a moving tribute to four-time best actress Oscar winner Katharine Hepburn who died at 96 in June. There also were homages to Bob Hope and Gregory Peck, who both died last year.