Hollywood veterans Jeff Bridges and Sandra Bullock won their first Oscars. Bridges, a second-generation performer, won best actor for his role as Bad Blake, a boozy country music has-been, in Crazy Heart.
"Thank you, Mom and Dad, for turning me on to such a groovy profession," said the 60-year-old actor, whose first nomination was in 1971. "The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)," a ballad from the film, won original song.
Bullock, the Miss Congeniality of comic actors, proved that she was equally adept at drama as Leigh Anne Tuohy, the real-life adoptive mother of NFL star Michael Oher in The Blind Side.
"Did I really earn this, or did I just wear you all down?" joked Bullock, 45, accepting her award. On Saturday she won a Golden Raspberry as worst actress for All About Steve, making her the first performer to win an Oscar and Razzie in the same weekend.
The comedian Mo'Nique won the supporting-actress Oscar for her shattering performance as the abusive mother in Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire. She thanked the Academy for showing "it can be about the performance and not the politics."
Mo'Nique, 42, also cited Hattie McDaniel, the first African American to win an Oscar (Gone with the Wind), "for enduring all that she had to, so that I would not have to." Precious screenwriter Geoffrey Fletcher won for best adapted screenplay.
Christoph Waltz, 53, captured supporting-actor honors for his role as the nefarious Nazi in Inglourious Basterds.
Up, Pixar's soaring animation about a retiree who pursues a long-deferred adventure, took two Oscars, one for best animated feature, the other for Michael Giacchino's sprightly score.
