Veteran Christopher Plummer, a star of old school classic film "The Sound of Music," won his first ever Oscar for his portrayal of an elderly gay man who comes out to his family in "Beginners," making Oscar history becoming the oldest ever Academy Award winner at age 82. "You're only two years older than me, darling. Where have you been all of my life," he said, looking at the golden statute.

Spencer, a relative newcomer in contrast to Plummer, had to hold back tears as she accepted her Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her portrayal of a black, southern maid in civil rights drama, "The Help."

Christopher Plummer, winner of Best Supporting Actor for his role in "Beginners", poses with his award backstage with presenter Melissa Leo during the 84th Academy Awards in Hollywood, California February 26, 2012. [China.org.cn]

"Thank you Academy for putting me with the hottest guy in the room," she said holding her Oscar in her hand. She then went on to talk about her family in Alabama and could not hold back her tears as she joyously accepted her trophy.

In other major wins, the foreign language film award went to Iranian divorce drama "A Separation," which previously won a Golden Globe.

"I proudly offer this award to the people of my country, the people who respect all cultures and civilizations and despise hostility and resentment," said its director Ashgar Farhadi.

Chinese director Zhang Yimou's war epic "The Flowers of War" never made it into the Academy Awards' nomination shortlist. After encountering difficulties for distribution in the U.S., its producer Zhang Weiping recently denounced Hollywood politics and U.S. film critics for their "prejudice," which "favored" Japan's point of view rather than China's about the truth of the Nanjing Massacre in December 1937.

The Oscar gala reached a climax as Chinese acrobats from Shandong Province, along with acrobats from Russia, France, Brazil and Ukraine, performed at the Academy Awards for the first time Sunday on the stage of the Kodak Theater. They were part of the Cirque du Soleil show at the Oscars.

"The Academy is trying something new this year because we are an international show and because there are over 1.2 billion people in China, they've asked me to speak a bit about this category in Mandarin Chinese. Luckily I speak it fluently," pretending to speak in Mandarin Chinese, 47-year-old actress Sandra Bullock joked, then she said a few sentence in German.

"One quick note, as my mother spoke German to us as we were growing up, my Chinese has a very slight German accent." She said and the audiences laughed.

Asghar Farhadi, director of Iranian film "A Separation", poses with his trophy after winning Best Foreign Language Film at the backstage of the 84th Annual Academy Awards in Hollywood, California, the United States, Feb. 26, 2012. [Xinhua]

"Rango," featuring Johnny Depp as the voice of a pet chameleon and directed by Gore Verbinski, the man behind the three blockbuster "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies that also star Depp, won the Oscar for best animated feature film.

"Someone asked me if this film was for kids," Verbinski said as he accepted the award. "It was certainly created by a bunch of grown-ups acting like children."

This marks end to Pixar Animation Studios' worst award season performance with its disappointing "Cars 2." Pixar's co-founder, the late Apple Inc. chief Steve Jobs, was in a tribute on the big screen along with other prominent figures who died last year including Elizabeth Taylor, Whitney Houston.

The Oscar for film editing went to the team behind the thriller "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo." It's the same team that won last year for "The Social Network." Both films were directed by David Fincher.

"The Descendants," the 69th Golden Globe Awards big winner, only won one award for its writers Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash for adapted screenplay. While the "The Muppets" won the Best Original Song for the song "Man or Muppet."

The most disappointed man may well be Steven Spielberg. His epic adventure "War Horse" was nominated six times but got no wins. The film will hit Chinese screens Tuesday.