Martin Scorsese's Irish-American gangster film 'The Departed' was the big winner at the Academy Awards last night, winning in four categories.
Having lost out on five previous occasions, Scorsese was finally honoured with the Best Director Oscar, while his film was also named Best Picture.
'The Departed' also took the awards for Best Adapted Screenplay (William Monahan) and Best Editing (Thelma Schoonmaker).
Favourites Helen Mirren and Forest Whitaker were also among the winners last night, winning the Best Actress and Actor awards respectively.
Mirren was honoured for her portrayal of British monarch Queen Elizabeth II in 'The Queen' while Whitaker was honoured for his portrayal of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in 'The Last King of Scotland'.
Both actors had won BAFTA and Golden Globe awards for their performances.
Irish hopes had focussed on Peter O'Toole, who was nominated in the Best Actor category for 'Venus', and Consolata Boyle, who was nominated for the Costume Design Oscar for her work on 'The Queen'.
Boyle lost out to Milena Canonero who won her third Oscar for her work on 'Marie Antoinette'.
Highlights of the Oscars can be seen on RTÉ Two tonight at 9pm.
The Oscar for Best Supporting Actor went to Alan Arkin for 'Little Miss Sunshine' while Jennifer Hudson was named Best Supporting Actress for 'Dreamgirls'.
'Little Miss Sunshine' was also honoured in the Best Original Screenplay category, with writer Michael Arndt winning the Oscar.
'An Inconvenient Truth' was named Best Documentary Feature Film while the German film 'The Lives of Others' won the Foreign Language Film award.
'Happy Feet' was named Best Animated Feature while the Best Animated Short Film award went to 'The Danish Poet'.
There were three awards for the acclaimed 'Pan's Labyrinth': Best Art Direction (Eugenio Caballero and Pilar Revuelta), Best Cinematography (Guillermo Navarro) and Best Makeup (David Marti and Montse Ribe).
Gustavo Santaolalla won Best Original Score for his work on 'Babel' and the Best Original Song Oscar went to Melissa Etheridge for 'I Need to Wake Up' from 'An Inconvenient Truth'.
'The Blood of Yingzhou District' was named Best Documentary Short and 'West Bank Story' won the award for Best Live Action Short Film.
The Visual Effects Oscar went to John Knoll, Hal Hickel, Charles Gibson and Allen Hall for their work on 'Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest' and the award for Best Sound Editing went to Alan Robert Murray and Bub Asman for 'Letters from Iwo Jima'.
Ennio Morricone was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Oscar.
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