The Departed, a story of corruption among the Boston police, was the winner of the best film Oscar at Hollywood's 79th annual Academy Awards ceremony Sunday.
The film's director, Martin Scorsese, also won the Academy Award for Best Director. It was Scorsese's first Oscar after losing on five previous occasions.
The best actor and actress awards went to Forest Whitaker and British actress Helen Mirren, both of whom played real-life characters. Whitaker portrayed former Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland. Mirren was Queen Elizabeth II in the royal drama, The Queen.
The Lives of Others, a look at life behind the Berlin Wall in 1984, won the best foreign-language film award.
The film Pan's Labyrinth won the Oscar for Art Direction at the start of the event, hosted by talk show host Ellen DeGeneres.
Alan Arkin won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Little Miss Sunshine. Happy Feet took the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.
Several hundred million people around the world were expected to watch the annual ceremony.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.
