Black actors' Oscars glory

Actress Halle Berry made Oscar history today by becoming the first black woman to win the best actress award.

Minutes later, Denzel Washington completed the triumph for black actors by taking the Academy Award for best actor, in Training Day.

Berry, 33, broke down and wept in one of the most emotional scenes ever witnessed at the Oscars. Shaking and overcome, at first she was unable to speak after learning she had captured the prize that has eluded a black actress for 74 years, sobbing "Oh my God" repeatedly as she clutched the precious statue, for Monster's Ball, to her chest.

Washington, who has been nominated five times before, and won a best supporting actor award, for Glory, lifted his Oscar in salute to Sidney Poitier, who had earlier been given an honorary Oscar, saying: "I've been chasing you all my life, Sidney." Poitier, 75, is the only other black star to win the Oscar for best actor, for Lilies Of The Field in 1963.

Washington's victory also meant there was no repeat of last year's win by Russell Crowe, nominated for A Beautiful Mind. But this year's Oscars, which, at close to four hours and 15 minutes, was the longest ceremony in the history of the awards, did see A Beautiful Mind take the prizes for best film and best director.

British triumphs included Jim Broadbent, who unexpectedly beat Sir Ian McKellen to the Oscar for best supporting actor in Iris and actor/writer Julian Fellowes who captured an Oscar for original screenplay with his first attempt at a Hollywood script with Gosford Park.

However, the night belonged to black actors, and above all Berry who turned her performance as the wife of a death row prisoner in the low budget £2 million drama Monster's Ball into a moment of Hollywood history.

The actress, who for nearly 30 seconds looked as she might not regain her composure, eventually recovered to thank her Englishborn mother Judith Hawkins, watching in the audience at the new Kodak Theatre, being used for the awards for the first time.

Berry, tears streaming down her cheeks, mouthed "Thank you, mom," and paid tribute to black actresses of the past, including Lena Horne and Diahann Carroll, saying: "This moment is so much bigger than me.

"It is for every nameless, faceless woman of colour that now has a chance because this door has been opened."

She beat Nicole Kidman in Moulin Rouge and favourite Sissy Spacek for In The Bedroom, in what was in effect a recognition that the Oscars have frequently overlooked black talent.

The biggest disappointment of the night was suffered by The Lord Of The Rings, which despite capturing best original score, cinematography, visual effects and make-up, failed to win any of the major categories.

Sir Ian McKellen had been seen as the almost unbeatable favourite for best supporting actor as wizard Gandalf but was beaten by Broadbent's performance as John Bayley, the husband of Iris Murdoch. Another Briton, Sir Ben Kingsley, had also been nominated in that category, for Sexy Beast.

Broadbent, clearly surprised and thrilled at his first Oscar, said simply: "Stone the crows" when he was handed the statue.

In another success for British talent, actor and screenwriter Julian Fellowes, whose wife Emma is a lady-in-waiting to Princess Michael, won the Oscar for original screenplay with his country house murder mystery, Gosford Park.

He told the audience he did not want to let go of the statue, adding: "I feel as though I'm in A Star Is Born and any minute now Norman Maine will come out and smack me in the mouth."

The first Briton to pick up an Oscar was Bristol-based wigmaker Peter Owen, who coaccepted the best makeup award for The Lord Of The Rings. Wearing an exotically fringed tuxedo, he said: "I just want to say I don't know why anyone gave me the job in the first place. I'm still recovering from that.

"I got an opportunity to go to the most beautiful country on earth, work with a genuine fellowship of people and torture a lot of actors. I can't thank the Academy enough for this. It is delirium."

Sir Paul McCartney also made his first appearance at the Oscars, sitting in the audience with his fiancÈe Heather Mills before performing the theme song to Vanilla Sky.'

In other awards, the first ever Oscar in the new animation category went to Shrek, while No Man's Land, a black comedy from Bosnia, beat the French favourite Amelie for best foreign film.

British stars Tom Wilkinson, for In The Bedroom, and Dame Judi Dench, for Iris, also missed out in the best actor and actress categories.

Kate Winslet, Helen Mirren and Dame Maggie Smith were beaten to the best supporting actress award by the hotly-tipped American-Jennifer Connelly, 31, for A Beautiful Mind.

The movie, based on the true story of Nobel Prize winner John Nash, was best film, and won best director for former Happy Days star Ron Howard.

Whoopi Goldberg presented the awards, and made a dramatic entrance from a trapeze lowered from the roof.

Wearing a feathered, silver showgirl outfit in a spoof nod to Nicole Kidman's entrance in Moulin Rouge, she told the audience: "Good evening darlings, I am the original sexy beast." She closed with a tribute to the New York emergency services, in memory of 11 September. Another tribute to the people of New York came on stage from Woody Allen, who traditionally snubs the Oscars when he is nominated.

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