Natalie Portman wins Best Actress, Tom Hooper wins Best Director at Academy Awards

(NewsCore) - LOS ANGELES -- Natalie Portman won Best Actress at the 83rd annual Academy Awards Sunday night, while Tom Hooper won Best Director for "The King's Speech."

After bagging the Golden Globe, SAG and BAFTA, Portman won for her role as an unhinged dancer in "Black Swan," and the pregnant star paid tribute to her fiance Benjamin Millepied, who co-starred and choreographed the film.

"You have now given me my most important role of my life," she said.

"This is insane and I truly, sincerely wish the prize tonight was to work with my fellow nominees. I am grateful I get to the do the job I do I love it very much."

She also thanked "Black Swan" director Darren Aronofsky, calling him a "visionary."

Earlier Hooper was the surprise winner of the director's gong ahead of "The Social Network's" David Fincher who had collected the Golden Globe and BAFTA directing trophies.

The 38-year-old dedicated the award to his Australian mother, who he said encouraged him to make the film after watching an unrehearsed, unproduced version of "The King's Speech" at a fringe theater in London.

"She has never been invited to a play reading in her entire life before, she almost didn't go because it didn't sound exactly promising, but thank God she did because she came home, rang me and said, 'I think I've found your next film,'" Hooper explained.

"The moral of the story is listen to you mother."

Earlier, "The Fighter" delivered a one-two punch with Christian Bale and Melissa Leo taking out the Best Supporting Actor and Actress trophies.

Bale won for his role as former boxer and struggling drug addict Dicky Eklund in the biographical sporting drama and Leo won for playing his mother.

Moments earlier, Leo dropped the F-bomb accepting her award, and the language was again colorful as Bale stepped up.

"Bloody hell. What a room full of talented and inspirational people. What the hell am I doing here? It's such an honor," the 37-year-old said.

"It was just incredible work from every actor. Melissa, I'm not going to drop the F-bomb like she did -- I've done that plenty before."

Bale was famously caught on tape delivering a profanity-laced tirade on the set of "Terminator: Salvation," and Leo ensured her speech would be one of the night's most talked-about, by dropping the F-bomb halfway through.

"When I saw Kate do this two years ago it looked so f*cking easy," she said, referring to previous Best Actress winner, Kate Winslet.

Leo, 50, was nominated that year for her role in "Frozen River," but Winslet took home the Oscar for "The Reader."

She later apologized for the profanity, saying "There's a great deal of the English language that is in my vernacular. I really don't mean to offend and it's probably a very inappropriate place to use that particular word," according to The Hollywood Reporter.

In the show's opening address, hosts James Franco, 32, and Anne Hathaway, 28, played on the fact they had been chosen to host over the traditional comedians and television hosts in an attempt to connect with younger movie fans.

When Franco, who is nominated for Best Actor for his role in "127 Hours," described Hathaway as looking very "hip," Hathaway said: "You look very appealing to a younger demographic as well."

But the biggest laugh came from Franco's grandmother. As Franco said hello to her in the crowd, she stood and, in a giddy voice, said: "I just saw Marky Mark," referring to "The Fighter" star Mark Wahlberg.

Later, Hathaway appeared in a tuxedo and Franco channeled Marilyn Monroe in a pink gown and blonde wig. "You got to wear a tuxedo, so I wore this," he told Hathaway. "The weird part is I just got a text message from Charlie Sheen," he added.

Despite missing out of nominations for its actors and director, "Inception" leads the night's tally with four Oscars -- for Best Cinematography, Visual Effects, Sound Editing and Sound Mixing.

"The Social Network" has three -- Best Original Score, Adapted Screenplay and Film Editing -- while "Alice in Wonderland" took out the first award of the night for Best Art Direction, and later added the Costume Design Oscar.

"The King's Speech" won Best Original Screenplay and "The Wolfman" won Best Makeup, while box office hit "Toy Story 3" took out the award for Animated Feature Film, along with Best Original Song for "We Belong Together."

Best Documentary (Short Subject) was won by "Strangers No More," "God of Love" won Best Live Action Short Film and "Inside Job" won Best Documentary (Feature).

"The Lost Thing" won the Short Film (Animated) Oscar and Denmark's "In a Better World" won Best Foreign Language Film.