Clint does his best to deliver Oscar knockout

HOLLYWOOD veteran Clint Eastwood contemplated how deserving he was to come away with his second best director Oscar for boxing tale Million Dollar Baby, which also won best picture.

“There’s a lot of great movies that have won the Academy Award, and a lot of great movies that haven’t,” said Eastwood, whose film also earned Hilary Swank her second best actress Oscar and Morgan Freeman the supporting actor prize.

Humbly, Eastwood added: “You just do the best you can.”

Other acting awards on Sunday night went to performers in real-life roles, Jamie Foxx as lead actor for his uncanny emulation of Ray Charles in Ray and Cate Blanchett for supporting actress as Katharine Hepburn in The Aviator.

Eastwood’s triumph meant more heartbreak for Martin Scorsese, whose Hughes epic The Aviator won the most awards with five but failed to bring him the directing Oscar that has eluded him throughout his distinguished career.

Scorsese, now a five-time loser, matched the record of Oscar futility held by a handful of legendary filmmakers such as Alfred Hitchcock and Robert Altman.

Eastwood, who directed a segment of Scorsese’s music-documentary TV series The Blues, had kind words for his rival backstage.

“I was kind of a little disappointed when they started building a competition between Marty and me,” Eastwood said. “I have the greatest respect for him and all the films he’s done over the years.”

Blanchett echoed Eastwood’s praise. “Certainly, working with Martin Scorsese was an absolute minute-by-minute education, without him ever being grandiose about it.”

The wins by Freeman and Foxx followed Denzel Washington and Halle Berry’s triumph three years ago for Training Day and Monster’s Ball, the only other time black actors claimed Oscars.

It was the second straight year an Eastwood film won two of the four acting Oscars. Last year, Eastwood’s Mystic River earned the lead actor prize for Sean Penn and the supporting actor award for Tim Robbins.

Swank once again beat out main rival Annette Bening, nominated for the theatre farce Being Julia. Bening had been the front-runner for American Beauty five years ago but lost to Swank.

With unremarkable career results since her first win, Swank had been in danger of becoming one of those actresses who fades from view after an Oscar success.

“The truth is, after Boys Don’t Cry, I realised how few and far between the great roles are,” Swank said. “I am beyond thankful for finding Million Dollar Baby.”

At 74, Eastwood became the oldest directing winner ever. Eastwood joked that it was a sign “we’re taking over. The (American Association of Retired Persons) and me.”

Oscars quotes

“THEY like to say there’s over 100 stars out tonight. No there’s not. There’s only four real stars. The rest are just popular people. Clint Eastwood is a star ... Tobey Maguire is just a boy in tights” - Oscar host Chris Rock.

“I want to thank everybody and anybody who ever had anything at all to do with the making of this picture. But I especially want to thank Clint Eastwood for giving me the opportunity to work with him again” - Million Dollar Baby supporting actor winner Morgan Freeman, who previously co-starred in Eastwood’s Unforgiven.

“It was so much love that was hidden underneath the bottom of the earth in America and all over the world for Ray Charles. We cracked it open with this movie and now it’s spilling out everywhere” - Jamie Foxx, who played Ray Charles in Ray.

“Thank you to the academy who know Katherine Hepburn so well and are so intimately acquainted with her work. This is an indescribable surprise” - Supporting actress winner Cate Blanchett, for The Aviator.

“I’m an environmentalist for life” - Leonardo DiCaprio, one of the celebrities who shunned the stretch limo and travelled to the Oscars in a fuel-efficient vehicle.

“I don’t know what I did to deserve this. I’m just a girl from a trailer park who had a dream” - Best actress winner Hilary Swank.

“Boy, am I glad there wasn’t a fourth episode of Lord of the Rings” - John Dykstra, visual effects Oscar winner for Spider-Man 2.

“I don’t know what’s more frightening, being watched by millions of people, or the hundreds of people that are going to be annoyed with me for not mentioning them” - Animated feature Oscar winner Brad Bird, writer-director of the The Incredibles.