The Kings Speech reigns at the Oscars

The King’s Speech came out on top at yesterday’s 83rd Academy Awards - but only just, earning itself four of the golden baldies, including the coveted Best Picture gong.

In a disappointingly conservative ceremony, the biggest surprise turned out to be that The King’s Speech only took home four awards despite being nominated for 12.

But it grabbed the ones that counted, mostly, with Colin Firth finally earning the Best Actor gong that was snaffled from him last year (by Jeff Bridges). Tom Hooper snatched the Best Director award, while his film also earned the Best Original Screenplay trophy.

Elsewhere, Natalie Portman bagged Best Actress for her virtuoso turn in Black Swan , Christian Bale and Melissa Leo’s performances in The Fighter earned them both Best Supporting statuettes, and Toy Story 3 won Best Animated Feature.

Happily, Inception wasn’t overlooked (despite that controversial Best Director nom snub for Chris Nolan), earning a clutch of technical prizes – four in total.

Meanwhile, The Social Network scooped three awards including Best Editing, Best Adapted Screenplay (for Aaron Sorkin) and Best Score - for Trent Reznor’s innovative, atmospheric and much-deserving soundtrack.

For the full list of winners, see below…

BEST PICTURE: The King’s Speech

BEST DIRECTOR: Tom Hooper, The King’s Speech

BEST ACTOR: Colin Firth, The King’s Speech

BEST ACTRESS: Natalie Portman, Black Swan

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Christian Bale, The Fighter

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Melissa Leo, The Fighter

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE: Toy Story 3

BEST ART DIRECTION: Alice in Wonderland

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: Inception

BEST COSTUME DESIGN: Alice in Wonderland

BEST DOCUMENTARY: Inside Job

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT: Strangers No More

BEST EDITING: The Social Network

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM: In a Better World

BEST MAKE-UP: The Wolfman

BEST SCORE: The Social Network

BEST SONG: Toy Story 3

BEST ANIMATED SHORT: The Lost Thing

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT: God of Love

BEST SOUND EDITING: Inception

BEST SOUND MIXING: Inception

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS: Inception

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: The Social Network

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: The King’s Speech

Josh Winning has worn a lot of hats over the years. Contributing Editor at Total Film, writer for SFX, and senior film writer at the Radio Times. Josh has also penned a novel about mysteries and monsters, is the co-host of a movie podcast, and has a library of pretty phenomenal stories from visiting some of the biggest TV and film sets in the world. He would also like you to know that he "lives for cat videos..." Don't we all, Josh. Don't we all.