And the Oscar goes to...

BEST ACTOR: British actor Eddie Redmayne won the best actor Oscar for his convincing portrayal of famed astrophysicist Stephen Hawking as a talented young student grappling with a progressive motor neuron disease in "The Theory of Everything". The 33-year-old actor was in a neck-to-neck fight with Michael Keaton of "Birdman" in the tightly contested category but was being seen as a frontrunner by picking up all the other trophies -- Bafta, Golden Globe and Screen Actors' Guild in the run up to the Academy awards. A visibly nervous Redmayne thanked his director, Hawking, his "partner in crime" Felicity Jones and wife as he took to the stage to claim the trophy.