First-time nominee Octavia Spencer won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress at the 84th Academy Awards ceremony held at Hollywood & Highland Center in downtown Los Angeles Sunday night.

2012 Oscars: stars hit red carpet

Spencer, 39, has already won the Screen Actors Guild and Golden Globe awards.

Holding the Oscar Statuette in hand, Spencer said through tears that she thanked her family in Alabama, her "L.A. family" and her "Help family."

The Oscar ceremony was being hosted for the ninth time by comedian Billy Crystal. Only Bob Hope has hosted more Oscar ceremonies than Crystal -- 19 times between 1940 and 1978.

Christopher Plummer wins Oscar for Best Supporting Actor

Christopher Plummer, who acted in "The Beginners," won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor at the 84th Academy Awards ceremony held at Hollywood & Highland Center in downtown Los Angels Sunday night.

It's the 82-year-old actor's first win of the Award. He was also nominated in 2009 for his supporting role in "The Last Station."

In "Beginners," Plummer portrays Hal Fields, a widower who told his son several months after his wife died that he is gay and he has terminal cancer.

The veteran character actor also won the Golden Globe, the Screen Actors Guild Award and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts Award for the role.

Other actors nominated for the award were Kenneth Branagh for "My Week With Marilyn," Jonah Hill for "Moneyball," Nick Nolte for "Warrior" and Max von Sydow for "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close."

Plummer's nomination was the only Oscar nod for "Beginners." The Ewan McGregor-starring drama was written and directed by Mike Mills.

Meryl Streep wins Oscar for Best Actress

Meryl Streep, who plays in "The Iron Lady," has won the Oscar for Best Actress at the 84th Annual Academy Awards ceremony held at Hollywood & Highland Center in downtown Los Angeles Sunday night.

Jean Dujardin wins Oscar for Best Actor

Jean Dujardin who played in "The Artist," has won the Oscar for Best Actor at the 84th Annual Academy Awards ceremony held at Hollywood & Highland Center in downtown Los Angels on Sunday night.

Hazanavicius wins Oscar for Best Director

Michel Hazanavicius, who directed "The Artist," won the Best Director Award at the 84th Annual Academy Awards ceremony held at Hollywood & Highland Center in downtown Los Angeles on Sunday night.

It's the film's third Oscar of the night. The nearly silent, black-and-white film about a silent movie star whose life changes with Hollywood's transition, also won the awards for Costume Design and Original Score earlier at the ceremony.

Hazanavicius, 44, also wrote the screenplay and edited the film. The film, which stars the director's wife Berenice Bejo as ingenue Peppy Milleralso, has also brought Hazanavicius the BAFTA awards and the Directors Guild of America award.

Hazanavicius won the Oscar Best Director award after beating out Terrence Malick for "The Tree of Life," Woody Allen for "Midnight in Paris," Alexander Payne for "The Descendants" and Martin Scorsese who last month won the Golden Globe for directing "Hugo."

"The Artist" got 10 Academy Award nominations, including best picture, best actor, best supporting actress, and writing.

Iran's "A Separation" wins Oscar for best foreign language film

Iran's "A Separation" won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film at the 84th Academy Awards ceremony held at Hollywood & Highland Center in downtown Los Angeles Sunday night.

It was the first time that an Iranian film had won the honor in this category. "Children of Heaven" in 1998 was the only other Iranian film which had been nominated in the same category.

The widely-hailed movie was directed by Asghar Farhadi. It also won the best foreign film at the Golden Globes.

The other nominees of the award were Michael R. Roskam's crime drama "Bullhead" from Belgium; Philippe Falardeau's immigrant substitute teacher tale "Monsieur Lazhar" from Canada; Joseph Cedar's Talmudic scholar saga "Footnote" from Israel; and Agnieszka Holland's World War II drama "In Darkness" from Poland.

VietNamNet/Xinhuanet