Few surprises at Oscars 2006

The 78th Annual Academy Awards took place last night, but Oscar had few shocks in store with most of the favourites taking home the awards the critics and audiences had predicted.

In a year in which most of the nominees were based in a small crop of films - Brokeback Mountain, Crash, Capote and Walk The Line - the Academy spread the awards fairly evenly across the bunch, there being no dominant winner.

The award for best motion picture was probably the only surprise of the evening, going to Crash, Paul Haggis' drama about racial issues set in LA, rather than Ang Lee's revolutionary romantic drama about two shepherds, Brokeback Mountain. However, Lee was awarded the best director Oscar.

As well as the ceremony's most prestigious award, Crash also took the Oscar for best original screenplay for Paul Haggis and Bobby Moresco, whilst Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana won the award for best adapted screenplay for their reworking of Anne Proloux's short story Brokeback Mountain. Brokeback also took the award for best original score.

The acting honours were predictable, with the awards for best actor and actress going to favourites Philip Seymour Hoffman (Capote) and Reese Witherspoon (Walk The Line) respectively. Meanwhile, George Clooney's part in Syriana won him the best supporting actor Oscar, Rachel Weisz (The Constant Gardener) landing the award for an actress in a supporting role.

Both taking home three awards were Rob Marshall's Memoirs of a Geisha and Peter Jackson's King Kong remake. The artful aesthetically pleasing Geisha, much stronger in style than substance, took the awards for art direction, cinematography and costume design. Impressive for its CGI effects, Kong received awards for best sound editing and mixing as well as for visual effects.

In the animated feature category Oscar's darlings Wallace and Gromit took the award for The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Nick Park having previously taken Oscars for The Wrong Trousers and A Close Shave.

Click here for a blow-by-blow account of the night's events as they happened and here for a complete winners list.