Oscars 2011 Recap: King's Speech, Firth, Portman, Bale and Leo Stick to the Script

Kevin Winter/Getty Images

In the end, The King's Speech just had more friends.

The proper drama about Britain's King George VI working to overcome a debilitating stammer with the help of an unorthodox Australian speech therapist was named Best Motion Picture at the 83rd Annual Academy Awards.

The King's Speech, while seemingly pieced together with the help of An Idiot's Guide to WInning an Oscar, like George VI had to wait for a late-season changing of the guard in order to assume the throne, leaving The Social Network with only three wins to the King's mighty four.

As for the other major upsets...

Yeah, there just weren't any at all.

Natalie Portman capped off her awards season with both a truly great gown (finally) and the Best Actress Oscar for playing a tortured ballerina in Black Swan.
"This is insane and I truly, sincerely wish that the prize tonight was to get to work with my fellow nominees. I'm so in awe of you," the never-ugly duckling who became a beautiful swan nonetheless said in thanks. And boy did Portman thank everyone, from her cast and crew, to the choreographers, to her hair and makeup team, to The Professional director Luc Besson, "who gave me my first job when I was 11 years old."

Best Actor shoo-in Colin Firth gave a similar tribute to producer Harvey Weinstein, "who first took me on 20 years ago when I was a mere child sensation."

The Brit  was his usual show-stealing self, a comfort we've grown to look forward to all season.

"I'm afraid I have to warn you," he began, "that I'm experiencing stirrings in the upper abdominals which are threatening to form themselves into dance moves. Joyous as they may be for me, it would be extremely problematic if they make it to my legs before I get offstage."

The King's Speech led the field with 12 nominations and tied the technically savvy Inception with four Academy Awards, including Best Director for first-time nominee Tom Hooper and Best Original Screenplay for his fellow Oscar virgin David Seidler.

Alas, Firth couldn't be the voice of a nation tonight.
Colin Firth Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Despite a smidge of controversy over her self-produced "For Your Consideration" ads, Melissa Leo stayed the course and won Best Supporting Actress for playing a struggling boxer's fiercely protective and hairsprayed mom in The Fighter, meaning no gritty coup this year for Hailee Steinfeld.

"Oh my God! Oh wow! Really, really really, truly wow," rambled the F-bomb-dropping Leo, who though she won every major and less-major award leading up to the Oscars decided to pretend as if she'd just fallen off the acting truck.

"I am kind of speechless. Golly, there's people up there too," she added, peering upward toward the balcony.

This went on for awhile, possibly triggering a time crunch that resulted in Aaron Sorkin hearing "that music" midway through his acceptance for Best Adapted Screenplay and David Seidler having to cut things short just when it felt like the night was finally going to start being charming.

"My father always said to me, I would be a later bloomer," the 73-year-old penner of The King's Speech said of his first Oscar win (which came with his first-ever nomination). "I believe I am the oldest person to win this particular award. I hope that record is broken quickly and often."

Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Christian Bale continued his Goodwill 2011 tour as he accepted the Best Supporting Actor prize for his grueling role in The Fighter, profusely thanking his fellow cast, crew and family and even throwing in a plug for the real-life Dicky Eklund's website.

"I'm not going to drop the F-bomb like [Melissa Leo] did, I've done it plenty before," he said, wink-wink.

Inception collected a quartet of Oscars, for achievements in cinematography, sound mixing, sound editing and visual effects. The Social Network was next with three: Sorkin's writing trophy, Best Editing (for making typing strangely thrilling) and for Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross' Best Original Score.

Alice in Wonderland, a winner for Best Art Direction and Best Costume Design (Colleen Atwood designed Helena Bonham Carter's Oscar dress, too, and it showed), tied The Fighter and Toy Story 3 with two.

The Disney-Pixar fave, also a nominee for Best Motion Picture, was named Best Animated Feature as expected and "We Belong Together" composer Randy Newman won his second Oscar (in 20 tries) for Best Original Song.

Inside Job was named Best Documentary, the 2008 financial meltdown ultimately proving more compelling than the heart-gripping Afghan war tale told in Restrepo or the questionably serious art-biz critique Exit Through the Gift Shop.

The frontrunning Danish drama In a Better World improved on its Golden Globe victory to be named Best Foreign Language Film, meaning no shiny gold men tonight for Javier Bardem's dying-of-cancer-and-talking-to-the-dead tearjerker Biutiful.

The belly laughs were, sadly, few and far between this year (meanwhile, we're still treasuring Steve Martin's "There's that damn Helen Mirren" crack from 2010), but that made it easier to compile the best jokes right here:

• "Who were those people?" Alec Baldwin asked Morgan Freeman in the opening pretaped sketch after they offered hosting advice to Hathaway and Franco. "You know, I have no idea," Freeman replied.
Anne Hathaway AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill

• "Stand up straight. Mr. Spielberg is here," Hathaway's mom reminded the cohost when she pointed her mom out in the crowd.

• "Hugh Jackman is laughing. I don't know why everyone in Australia thinks I'm funny. Colin Firth isn't laughing. He's British," Kirk Douglas said in prolonging the agony for the Best Supporting Actress nominees.

AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill

• "[Long pause] I am Banksy," Justin Timberlake revealed, referring to the elusive art prankster behind the documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop. Of course, that joke had to be ruined too, by Mila Kunis informing him, "No you're not, Justin." Just let him be Banksy!

• "That's gross," Cate Blanchett responded to clips of The Wolfman that played before she handed out the Best Achievement in Makeup Oscar to the artists who thanklessly transformed Benicio Del Toro into a wolf for a critically panned film.

• "Good evening, I am George Clooney," Kevin Spacey greeted the audience.

• "You managed to scare an entire nation—with a haircut," Sandra Bullock said in addressing Best Actor nominee Javier Bardem, a previous supporting-actor winner for No Country for Old Men.

At least none of the winners this year will ever be overshadowed in the history books by the production. We can't be sure, but when Billy Crystal came out to present, we thought we heard a few audience members yelling "Save us!"

Natalie Portman, Colin Firth Are Top Oscar Winners

Natalie Portman and Colin Firth

The Oscars paid royal tribute to The King's Speech, honoring the drama about King George VI as Best Picture and shining gold upon its Best Actor Colin Firth, Director Tom Hooper and Screenplay writer David Seidler.

"I have a feeling my career's just peaked," Firth said on the stage of Hollywood's Kodak Theatre Sunday night, at the 83rd annual Academy Awards.

The British actor was so excited he admitted to "experiencing stirrings … in the abdominal region that are threatening to turn themselves into dance moves."

Natalie Portman, as the troubled dancer in Black Swan, was named Best Actress. "This is insane," she said in her speech. "I truly, sincerely wish the prize tonight was to work with my fellow nominees. I am in such awe of you." www.wdalaw.com The Fighter's Melissa Leo and Christian Bale took the Oscars for Supporting Actress and Actor.

Disney-Pixar's Toy Story 3 claimed the Animated Feature Oscar and another for composer Randy Newman's Best Song, "We Belong Together."

The technical awards were monopolized by Inception, with four, and Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, with three. Surprisingly, the Coen Brothers' True Grit, which went into the evening with 10 nominations (second only to the 12 for The King's Speech) ended up being entirely shut out.

Melissa Leo Drops F-Bomb
Over the course of the three-hour-plus evening, Leo was the first major winner. Reaching the Kodak Theatre stage and admitting the situation left her "shaking in my boots," Leo also dropped the F-bomb because of her excitement.

"When I watched Kate [Winslet, for The Reader] two years ago, it looked so [expletive deleted] ..." ABC bleeped out the words.

Speaking backstage to reporters afterwards, Leo – dressed in a Marc Bouwer gown with Jay Carlile for Forevermark earrings and diamond ring – said, "Those words – I apologize to anyone if they offend. There's a great deal of the English language that is in my vernacular. I really don't mean to offend, and probably a very inappropriate place to use that particular word."

When Best Supporting Actor Bale won later in the evening, the strongest phrase he used was "bloody hell." He did acknowledge costar Leo's speech, however.

"I'm not going to drop the F-bomb like she did. I've done that plenty before," said Bale, referring to an on-set, 4-minute rant two years ago, in which he was quoted as using the F-word 36 times during the making of Terminator Salvation.

In the Adapted Screenplay category, the winner was Aaron Sorkin for The Social Network. In his eloquent acceptance speech, he held his Oscar with pride, then addressed his daughter: "Roxy Sorkin, your father just won the Academy Award. I'm going to have to insist on some respect from your guinea pig."

And You Thought the Oscar Show Was Bad? Guess What Happened Backstage…

  

The Oscars were bad. (Or so we've read). James Franco and Anne Hathaway were terrible. (Ditto.) The backstage scene was...Well, it was weird.

Melissa Leo thanked Kirk Douglas for draaaaaagging out the suspense. Christian Bale sorta referenced his Terminator rant in a show of compassion for the F-bomb droppers of the world (like Leo). And a question about nothing more momentous than Natalie Portman's Oscar gown got worse reviews than the show. (Or maybe not.)

Here's what went down behind the scenes at the 83rd Annual Academy Awards:

5:45 p.m.: We can read lips probably about as well as you, so we make out some of what Leo says during her Best Supporting Actress acceptance speech (rhymes with "muck" or "tucking"), but we don't hear the unedited R-rated version: The audio on our TV feed was dropped out just the same as yours at home.

• When Leo arrives back here, our own Ted Casablanca is the first to congratulate her for dropping the F-bomb. Leo is not quite chagrined, but definitely not proud of the moment. "I had no idea," she says. "I apologize to anyone that they offend.…Probably a very inappropriate place to use that particular word in particular."

• The F-bomb's on Leo, but the show's run time is partly on Douglas, who wasn't the swiftest of presenters. Did Leo appreciate Douglas taking his own sweet ninetysomething time to announce her category? Surprisingly, we think, she did. "He's an old actor, [and] he was doing us this huge favor," she says. "The longer he strung it out, the calmer I got to be…He strung it out in a rather delightful way for me."

• What was that thing Robert Stromberg, the art-direction winner from Alice in Wonderland, put on top of his Oscar during his acceptance speech? "A little mad-hatter's hat," he tells us, then asks, "Could you not see it?" (Um, no, not really, although it shows up much better in person—and yes, his Oscar was still wearing its Lewis Carroll chapeau back here.)

• Wally Pfister, the cinematography winner for Inception, is doing his press conference when Oscar cohost Franco's Marilyn Monroe number comes on the TV, and it stops him cold: "James Franco's in drag right now? Wow? Gutsy."

• One point if you guessed Pfister was making a statement by thanking his "union" crew on the telecast. "I think what's going on in Wisconsin right now is madness," he says.

Twitter

 7 p.m. PT: Best Supporting Actor Bale isn't judging Leo, his Fighter mom, for dropping the F-bomb. You can almost hear his own infamous F-bombs detonating here as he sheepishly scratches his head, and admits, "I've laid down many of them myself. I've laid down many of them myself before, so I think I know what it was about."

• A reporter, apparently unfamiliar with the upcoming The Dark Knight Rises, asks Bale if his new status as an Oscar winner means "no more Batman." Bale assures him that after his current film wraps, he's "straight into Batman—so much more Batman."

• By the by, when Leo was searching for Bale during her acceptance speech, Bale was just outside the theater, having been locked out until the commercial break. "I was literally banging on the doors, saying, 'Let me in,' " he says.

• The official Oscar transcript of Leo's acceptance speech has arrived—and, like the broadcast, it's been sanitized for our protection. Here's how Leo's speech looks on paper, per the Academy:  "When I watched Kate two years ago, it looked so [EXPLETIVE DELETED]." That is f---in' messed up.

• Boy, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg must be ticked that The Social Network is having a good night, huh? Aaron Sorkin isn't be so sure. "I think he's been an extremely good sport," the Adapted Screenplay winner says.

8 p.m.:  "Won directing? Urgh."—Kirk Baxter, one of The Social Network's Oscar-winning editors, reacting to Tom Hooper's win for The King's Speech.

• Funnily enough, although not for Team Social Network, just minutes before Hooper's win seemed to seal the deal for the opposition, we asked Baxter and his coeditor if, given all his movie's wins, he thought a Best Picture upset was in the offing. ("Who knows?" Baxter shrugged.)

• It's not just your TV at home. "She has got to stop saying, 'Whoo!" groans a reporter who's had it with Hathaway's hosting, um, technique.

• Randy Newman is like his songs: brutally honest. So, for a change, it's not at all weird when the tunesmith says he "didn't totally expect" his Toy Story 3 win. (For the record, we totally celebrate the refreshing use of the word "totally.")

• If you can't believe Newman won for "We Belong Together," but lost for, say, his score for The Natural, then you're not alone. Says Newman even as he's holding his new shiny prize: "This isn't the most consequential thing I've done for a movie."

• There's buzz the very pregnant Portman won't make it back here, but she does, cradling her Best Actress statuette beneath her baby bump.

• Portman gets about as many baby questions as she does Black Swan questions. So, for the record, she's not naming the kid Oscar ("I think that's probably definitely out of the question."), she's not giving us any gender scoop ("I do not know the sex of my child."), and her kid, surprise of surprises, dug the show—well, part of it: "The baby was definitely kicking during the song portion of the show."

• Why wasn't Portman, the "face of Dior," wearing a Dior gown tonight? We don't know the answer to that one (exactly) because the Oscar police shut down the question, letting the at-a-loss-for-words Portman off the hook.

• The Dior question was a two-parter, also seeking Portman's opinion on suspended Dior designer John Galliano. (And, yeah, the controversy is why Portman didn't wear Dior tonight. Or so we guess.)

• His Best Actor win represents the end of awards season for Colin Firth—partly why, we surmise, he got choked up (for him) during his acceptance speech. "I've started having fantasies about when I don't have to talk to your lot," he admits.

• Yes, Firth played a king, but, no, The King's Speech star is not on Prince William's wedding guest list. "Mine most definitely is lost in the post," he says of the invite that never came.

• On a night of F-bombs, it's worth pointing out Firth is not behind the upcoming F-bomb-free version of The King's Speech. "I don't support it because I think the film has its integrity as it stands," he says.

• A weird night ends on a weird note: "When Tom Hooper won the directing award that increased our nerves," Best Picture-winning King's Speech producer Emile Sherman says, "because it was looking more likely."

Yeah, sure, there's nothing like success to make you nervous.

Weekend Wrap-Up: King's Speech Oscar'd, Eclipse Star Razzie'd, Charlie Sheen Raging

  

too busy planning that Oscar viewing bash to check out this weekend's hottest news? Don't fret. We've got all the scoop on the 83rd Annual Academy Awards, the anti-Academy Awards (aka the Razzies), the indie Academy Awards (aka the Spirits) and, of course, Charlie Sheen's latest shenanigans.

This weekend really was all about the build up to Oscar night, with the usual suspects taking home the top prizes. The King's Speech nabbed Best Picture, Colin Firth and Natalie Portman took home the lead-acting statuettes, and Melissa Leo and Christian Bale claimed the supporting prizes at Sunday's big show.

• As for the behind-the-scenes Oscar fodder, we've got our favorite red carpet quotes, backstage shockers, fashion hits and misses and what Justin Timberlake really thought about his sex scenes with Mila Kunis.

• Among the biggest losers of the weekend? The Last Airbender and Sex and the City 2 were the stars of the Razzies show Saturday, taking home the most "worst" nods. The Last Airbender was crowned Worst Picture of 2010, among other disses. Jackson Rathbone was doubly dissed for his work in Airbender and Eclipse. Ouch.

• Meanwhile, The Black Swan dominated at the Independent Spirit Awards, winning Best Feature, Best Lead Actress (Portman), Best Cinematography and Best Director (Darren Aronofsky). James Franco won Best Lead Actor.

• Speaking of Mr. Franco, we gave you a peek of him cutting off his own (faux) arm in an exclusive outtake from the 127 Hours DVD.

• In case you haven't heard, Charlie Sheen is "winning." He also admitted to being high…on himself. (And we know, that wasn't Jon Cryer tweeting about the Two and Half Men mess.)

• While the weekend box-office tally was rather low, Gnomeo & Juliet managed to come out on top with $14.2 million, followed by Hall Pass with $13.4 million and Unknown with $12.4 million.

• Charo had some interesting things to say about Lady Gaga...mainly that she "is Madonna with diarrhea."

• Chris Brown debuted his new blond hairstyle via Twitter (seriously).

• New Orleans rapper Juvenile was arrested for pot possession (again) Saturday.

• Ciara and Rihanna went head-to-head on Twitter, after Ciara made a comment on E!'s Fashion Police that didn't go over well with the "S&M" singer (to say the least).

• Is LaLa Vasquez the next Kim Kardashian? We took a look at five things you need to know about Kim's bestie.

• Lindsay Lohan took a little time out of her busy court schedule to shoot a public service announcement for the Creative Coalition.

Sandra Bullock returns triumphant to Oscar stage

 

 

LOS ANGELES – Sandra Bullock was an Academy Award winner even without a trophy in hand, returning with humor and verve to the stage where she trumped as best actress last year.

That professional peak, winning for "The Blind Side," was followed days later by personal depths as allegations of infidelity surfaced against her then-husband, Jesse James.

Bullock carried on with grace as a single mom to an adopted baby and didn't look back. Ceremony co-host Anne Hathaway tipped her hat to Bullock in her introduction.

"This is a special moment for me: a chance to introduce a woman who is at the top of her craft as a performer, yet who is perhaps admired even more for who she is as a person," Hathaway said.

James, a biker-businessman and reality TV star, and Bullock had been married for five years and brought home infant Louis Bardo Bullock the month before the Oscars. He later told ABC's "Nightline" that he was the most hated man in the world for undercutting Bullock's career high with his unfaithfulness.

James became engaged last month to tattoo artist Kat Von D.

Bullock, who presented the best-actor award that went to Colin Firth for "The King's Speech," was charmingly breezy as she introduced each of the nominees.

"Jeff, dude, dude ... How much is enough? Huh? Think about it," she said to Jeff Bridges, nominated for "True Grit" after winning last year for "Crazy Heart."
More in Entertainment
The New Royals: Insight on Prince William & Kate Middleton's wedding
Full coverage of the royal wedding on Yahoo! News
Complete entertainment coverage

Before the ceremony, Bullock — in a flaming, strapless red dress — didn't avoid the pre-show cameras.

Asked if motherhood has changed her as an actor, she replied: "It's made me a better person. I'm more patient."

The 46-year-old actress played it coy when asked about who she favored in the ceremony.

"I'm voting for me to have a really good time," she said. So, based on the warm applause she got, were her peers in the Kodak

Christian Bale Meltdown Advice for Charlie Sheen? "Impossible

Nobody understands "meltdown" better than Christian Bale. Not only is he genius at it onscreen, he's also had some personal experience, as anyone who heard his infamous on-set rant a while back.

But, now that Bale's added a very painful to watch chemically-infused descent (as he does in The Fighter, which won him a Best Supporting Oscar), what does he think when he witnesses real-life meltdown man Charlie Sheen?
"As I said, been in China," Bale said to great laughter backstage, where the handsome Welshman had explained he's been traveling abroad.

But then he added, perhaps more seriously, "Honestly, no clue, it's impossible [to say]."

To tell you the truth, I didn't think there was a chance in hell I was going to get anything with that question.

As soon as I said the word "meltdown," Bale, who's usually a bit more game, looked at me like I just said his big Oscar win was a mistake.

Too bad. Because it's clear we haven't even seen the half of what's in store for us with all things beyond crazy and Charlie.

Would have loved to hear what the experts who play these freaks have to say in the matter.

Wouldn't you?

Five Biggest Oscar Night Jaw-Droppers

AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill

 

Do you want to start the "Ricky Gervais in 2012!" petition, or should we?

We wouldn't exactly describe our jaws as "dropped" after witnessing the 83rd Annual Academy Awards. More like they're gaping open in horror and our eyebrows got lost in our hairline long ago, right around the time James Franco dressed in drag for no reason other than to make it onto Google Trends.

But there were some pedestrian surprises, as well, and we've got it all here for you in our round-up of the biggest head-scratchers and "Wha...?" moments from the 2011 Oscars:

MORE: Yes, it was that bad

1. Oscar Royalty: The King's Speech made good on all those last-minute bets that the British drama would kick The Social Network's arse when it counted (i.e., the Best Picture category). The night went along with favorite after favorite scooping up his or her predestined Oscar, with even the Academy's attempts at going rogue failing to shock. For instance, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross are Hollywood outsiders but their win for their Social Network score was well-deserved. And Exit Through the Gift Shop was the trendy fave but documentary features about the financial crisis—like ultimate winner Inside Job—are as scary as anything Darren Aronofsky is directing these days. But when Speech director Tom Hooper bested David Fincher for Best DIrector, it became apparent that The King's Speech was really going to make it happen. 2. We Could Be Heroes: Did you expect the saviors of the 2011 Oscars to be Robert Stromberg, David Seidler and Luke Matheny? Sure, Colin Firth and Christian Bale gave good speech, as always. But Stromberg, accepting Alice in Wonderland's win for art direction, opened the whole procession with the remark, "Why didn't I lose those 20 pounds?" Matheny, who directed the winning Live Action Short, God of Love, similarly lamented his lack of a haircut. He then  thanked his mom, who was in charge of craft services, and the lovely sounding girlfriend who scored his film. Seidler, who at 73 was a first-time Oscar nominee, let alone winner, for penning The King's Speech, had his wits about him enough to give both a touching and funny round of appreciation and poke fun at Melissa Leo for dropping an F-bomb.

3. Hairy Situation: Academy Award-winner The Wolfman? It's a fact. The critically panned and little watched horror-flick-masquerading-as-highbrow-culture was recognized for the one aspect it excelled at—makeup. Fair enough. But thanks to technical awards, The Wolfman has more Oscars than Winter's Bone, True Grit and The Kids Are All Right put together.

4. Substance Abuse: Sure, history tends to repeat itself (see: Charlie Sheen), but isn't Robert Downey Jr. off probation? In one of the wittier presentations of the night, Downey was teamed with Jude Law to present Best Achievement in Visual Effects and proceeded to interrupt him at every turn.

"I'm not here to be a part of your games so you get people coming up to you at the afterparty saying how witty you are or how charming you are," Law scolded his Sherlock Holmes costar. "It's their moment! If it wasn't for them, your closest association with a superhero would have been in 2001 when you got busted in a cheap hotel with a woman dressed as Batgirl."

To which Downey smoothly replied, "First of all, that cheap hotel room cost $1,250 a night with a corporate discount. Secondly, it was 2000, not 2001. And most importantly, she was dressed as Wonder Woman—and that attention to detail is what has won the respect of all the Academy voters for these fine men and women." Sure, it was funny because of the presenters' collective appeal, but when that is the night's comedic high point, you get...

5. Worst. Oscars. Ever?: Granted, we haven't seen every Academy Awards ceremony. The party in 1936 may have been a real stinker. Who knows? Tonight started off promisingly enough, with some fab gowns on the red carpet and an amusing opening sketch poking fun at the 10 Best Picture nominees, but it was all downhill from there.

Presenting the first two awards of the night, for art direction and cinematography, Tom Hanks was wasted on a sham of a spiel that included a useless flash of Gone With the Wind that you can find on any DVD cover and precious seconds devoted to a glimpse of Titanic (just the boat). We could break the flaws of this broadcast down, minute by minute, but we know you've probably got jobs to get to and kids to take care of, etc.

So we'll put it this way: The entire production—usually our favorite awards show of the year, FYI—was a mess, from the well-meaning but manic Anne Hathaway and her ventriloquist's dummy, James Franco, to the speeches (Melissa Leo, we know it's The Oscars, but you won every other major award and should have prepared a real speech that made sense, like Mo'Nique did last year) to the lack of both comedic and touching moments. The banter was largely soulless, too. When Josh Brolin needlessly remarked that he and Javier Bardem were presenting screenplay honors for the 83rd time in Oscar history, it felt more like the 83rd time in two hours. We can't blame each and every person who participated. But didn't, at some point during rehearsal, anyone realize how the collective whole was going to come off?

Et tu, Hanks?

Polanski and Tarantino feted at French film awards

  Polanski and Tarantino were among this year's Cesar recipients Roman Polanski has been named best director at the Cesar awards for his political thriller The Ghost Writer. The film, released as The Ghost in the UK, won three additional prizes for its screenplay, music and editing.
But Polanski missed out on the best film prize, which went instead to the French religious drama Of Gods and Men.
US director Quentin Tarantino received an honorary Cesar at the Paris event, where Facebook drama The Social Network was crowned best foreign film.

Jodie Foster presented Of Gods and Men director Xavier Beauvois with the best film award

Of Gods and Men, inspired by the murder of seven French monks in Algeria in 1996, had led the field ahead of the ceremony with 11 nominations.
Apart from its best film award, though, it only received two other prizes - one for supporting actor Michel Lonsdale and another for its cinematography.
The best actor prize went to Eric Elmosnino for his portrayal of French singer Serge Gainsbourg in a biopic named after him.
His compatriot Sara Forestier was named best actress for The Names of Love, about an activist who converts political opponents to her cause by sleeping with them.
Tarantino was presented his award by Diane Kruger and Christoph Waltz, two of the stars of his 2009 war movie Inglourious Basterds.
Two-time Oscar winner Jodie Foster introduced the event, with French comedian Antoine de Caunes serving as master of ceremonies.

Intel launches high speed Thunderbolt connector

  Future versions of Thunderbolt will use fibre optics 

Chip manufacturer Intel has announced it is to roll out a new technology for connecting computers and peripherals. www.wdalaw.com The system, known as Thunderbolt, promises transfer speeds twice as fast as USB 3.0.
However it won't reach its theoretical maximum because Intel has opted to use copper wires rather than fibre optic cables.
The company said it would gradually move to higher speeds over time.
Apple will become the first manufacturer to use Thunderbolt, on its Macbook Pro computers.
The Cupertino firm is said to have been a major driver of its development, although it remains to be seen how may other manufacturers will adopt the new standard.
Light Peak Intel has been working on the technology for several years.
It was first announced, under the codename Light Peak in 2009.
At launch, its top speed will be limited to 10 Gigabits per second - twice as fast as USB 3.0, but still well below the theoretical maximum using optical cables.

• All methods for connecting computers to external devices have a theoretical top speed for transferring data
• USB 2.0 - 480 Mb/second
• Firewire 800 - 800 Mb/second
• USB 3.0 - 4.8 Gb/second
• Thunderbolt copper - 10 Gb/second
• Thunderbolt fibre optic - 100 Gb/second

Intel claims that future versions will be able to reach 100 Gb/sec.

The faster data transfer rates are likely to be welcomed by those consumers who use high-definition video, said Sarah Rottman Epps, an analyst with Forrester Research.
"This isn't an innovation that consumers have been asking for, but it's one they'll appreciate," she said.
"Especially when transferring video, as that's when [USB] starts to feel slow."
The system also promises to reduce the number of cables a user has connecting their computer setup.
It is able to carry multiple signal types at the same time, enabling power, display and peripherals to use a single cable.
However, in the short term, users may need to invest in special adaptors to connect their older devices onto Thunderbolt sockets.
Its arrival on the consumer market also raises questions about the future of other connector standards, such as USB and Firewire.
Thunderbolt's most high profile supporter, Apple, is expected to gradually transition to a single connector, according to Karen Haslam, editor of Macworld UK.
"In the long run there will be no need for Apple to support these multiple formats with individual ports - existing products can run through an adaptor," she said.
Not everyone is convinced that Thunderbolt will become the lone standard.
Ian Chiu, editor of the website Everythingusb.com told BBC News that the cost of components could put off some manufacturers.
"I don't really know how Intel will make Thunderbolt appealing to all the other first-tier PC manufacturers," he said.
"HP, Sony, Dell, Acer, Asus make most of their money from the low-end and medium-end notebooks.
"On the other hand, Apple's Macbook Pro line-up is targeted at the prosumers, professionals and other people who aren't so price conscious," said Mr Chiu.