Great night for Brits as Daniel Day-Lewis makes Oscar history

The 55-year-old picked up the Best Actor prize for his towering performance as American president Abraham Lincoln.

There was also success for Adele, who won best song as Skyfall became the first James Bond film ever to collect two Oscars.

The British success continued, with four awards for UK-made hit musical Les Miserables, and a prize for the former BBC pair Lisa Westcott and Julia Dartnell for their costume and make-up on period drama Anna Karenina.

Day-Lewis, who previously won best actor for My Left Foot in 1990 and There Will Be Blood in 2008, gave a humble speech after picking up his award from Meryl Streep.

He joked: "It's strange because, three years ago, before we decided to do a straight swap, I had actually been committed to play Margaret Thatcher and Meryl was Steven Spielberg's first choice for Lincoln. I'd have liked to see that version."

Adele, who had earlier delivered a spine-tingling live performance of her Skyfall song, gave a tearful but brief acceptance speech, thanking her co-writer Paul Epworth for 'believing in me all the time'. She said: "This is just amazing."

On a night when the awards were spread among many different movies, the biggest winner was Ang Lee's Life of Pi, which picked up four Oscars including the best director award.

Ben Affleck's political drama Argo was named best picture, beating Lincoln, which had been up for 12 Oscars but walked away with only two.

First Lady Michelle Obama joined Jack Nicholson, courtesy of a live video link from the White House, to help present the best picture prize. Jennifer Lawrence won best actress for her role as a troubled young widow in Silver Linings Playbook – but was red-faced after tripping up over her flowing Dior dress on her way to the stage.

The 22-year-old quickly regained her composure as the audience gave a standing ovation to joke: "You guys are just standing up because you feel bad that I fell over and that's embarrassing."

Anne Hathaway and Christoph Waltz won the support acting awards for their roles in Les Miserables and Django Unchained – the latter film also earning a screenplay prize for Quentin Tarantino.

The show's host Seth MacFarlane, the man behind hit cartoon Family Guy, started proceedings by poking fun at the Academy for not nominating Affleck for his directing Argo which about a CIA scheme to free American hostages in Iran, saying the plan was "so top secret the film's director is unknown to the academy".

He also performed a musical number name-checking all the A-list women in the audience who had gone topless in films.

The Oscar for animated feature film went to Brave – a cartoon set in the Scottish Highlands and featuring the voices of Billy Connolly, Emma Thompson and Julie Walters.

All the winners:

Actor in a Leading Role:

Daniel Day-Lewis in Lincoln

Actor in a Supporting Role:

Christoph Waltz in Django Unchained

Actress in a Leading Role:

Jennifer Lawrence in Silver Linings Playbook

Actress in a Supporting Role:

Anne Hathaway in Les Miserables

Directing:

Ang Lee for Life Of Pi

Music (Original Score):

Mychael Danna for Life Of Pi

Music (Original Song):

Adele Adkins and Paul Epworth for Skyfall from Skyfall

Best Picture:

Argo

Animated Feature Film:

Mark Andrews and Brenda Chapman for Brave

Cinematography:

Claudio Miranda for Life Of Pi

Costume Design:

Jacqueline Durran for Anna Karenina

Documentary Feature:

Malik Bendjelloul and Simon Chinn for Searching For Sugar Man

Documentary Short Subject:

Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine for Inocente

Film Editing:

William Goldenberg for Argo

Foreign Language Film:

Amour

Makeup and Hairstyling:

Lisa Westcott and Julie Dartnell for Les Miserables

Production Design:

Lincoln

Animated Sort Film:

John Kahrs for Paperman

Live Action Short Film:

Shawn Christensen for Curfew

Sound Editing:

Skyfall and Zero Dark Thirty

Sound Mixing:

Les Miserables

Visual Effects:

Life Of Pi

Adapted Screenplay:

Chris Terrio for Argo

Original Screenplay:

Quentin Tarantino for Django Unchained