Octavia Spencer from the HELP wins.

Octavia Spencer, the full-figured actress who stole scenes as the sassy maid in the civil rights drama The Help, was named Sunday as Best Supporting Actress at the 84th Academy Awards.

Spencer, who was favoured to win the award, gave a tearful speech in which she thanked everyone from her family in Alabama to the entire state of Alabama.

In the early technical awards, it looked as if the (ital)other(unital) movie-about-movies, Hugo, was going to eclipse the pre-Oscar favourite The Artist. Martin Scorsese's 3-D tribute to the history of film - set in a stylized Paris train station in the 1930s - won four early Oscars, for its art direction and for the cinematography of Robert Richardson, plus sound editing and sound mixing, while The Artist won one award, for Mark Bridges' costume design.

The Iron Lady - which took Meryl Streep's Margaret Thatcher from middle age to old age - won the Oscar for best makeup. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo won the award for editing.