Small, at least by Hollywood standards, proved to be beautiful at the Academy Awards ceremony yesterday. Shakespeare In Love routed Steven Spielberg's war epic to win best picture, and carried off a further six Oscars to boot, while Roberto Benigni's Life Is Beautiful, already the most profitable subtitled picture ever released in the United States, picked up three key prizes.

Shakespeare's UK contingent received their honours in a very English way, devoid of histrionics. Dame Judi Dench, best supporting actress for her role as Elizabeth I, said: 'I feel for eight minutes on the screen I should only get a little bit of him [the Oscar].'

Likewise, Sir Tom Stoppard managed to contain himself when he shared the prize for best original screenplay. 'I'm behaving like Roberto Benigni underneath,' he told the industry's old-school reunion of big-screen alumni, Jack Nicholson and Sophia Loren, Nicolas Cage and Meryl Streep, Liam Neeson and Goldie Hawn.

But Gwyneth Paltrow, hair scraped back tightly and wearing a pink Ralph Lauren gown and $110,000 worth of Jimmy Choo closed-toe sandals with a 40-carat diamond ankle-strap, could not have been more American when she accepted the best actress Oscar. Ms Paltrow, who seemed to have mastered the technique of weeping without producing tears, said: 'Grandpa, I want you to know that you've created a beautiful family who love you more than you know.' She had to be steadied by Nicholson as she mentioned her dead cousins.

Saving Private Ryan had been expected to be voted best picture by the 6,000-plus members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and was certainly the punters' favourite, beating Shakespeare by 36 per cent to 10.2 per cent in a Reuters poll.

Benigni became the first movie-maker since Laurence Olivier and Hamlet, 50 years ago, to direct his own Oscar-winning performance. The actor-director, laughing, shouting, and throwing his arms in the air, bounded over the seats on his route to the stage. He received the award from Sophia Loren, clad in black Armani with an illusion neckline, the only other performer in a foreign language film to win an acting Oscar, for Two Women in 1961.

'This is a moment of joy and I want to kiss everyone," he shouted. (Loren was first, General Colin Powell among the last.)

Terrence Malick took the precaution of not turning up at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles for fear that he would see his estranged producers pick up the best film award for The Thin Red Line. He need not have worried. The picture took nothing.

But the event's other controversy unfolded according to plan. About 250 people protested outside against the lifetime achievement Oscar for Elia Kazan, director of On the Waterfront and A Streetcar Named Desire, who named eight people as Communists before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1952 and contributed to the blacklist that ruined many careers.

Robert De Niro, nervous in a severe haircut, and Martin Scorsese, who seemed to want to get it over as quickly as possible, presented the 89-year-old with his prize as Warren Beatty led the tribute, rising from his seat and applauding. Nick Nolte, Ed Harris and Holly Hunter folded their arms and sat still. Steven Spielberg, the great populist, applauded but failed to rise.

'I want to thank the Academy for its courage, generosity,' said Kazan. 'I think I can just slip away now.'

But not everyone was engrossed in Hollywood's orgy of self-justification. When publisher and Republican presidential candidate Steve Forbes was asked who he thought would win the best actor Oscar he replied: 'Good one who played the lead in Private Ryan? You got me on that one.' Advertisers such as Kodak and The Gap, who paid $1 million for 30-second TV slots, will not be too pleased.

And the winners are...

Best Film: Shakespeare In Love

Best Actor: Roberto Benigni

Best Actress: Gwyneth Paltrow

Best Supporting Actor: James Coburn

Best Supporting Actress: Dame Judi Dench

Best Director: Steven Spielberg

Art Direction: Martin Childs and Jill Quertier, Shakespeare In Love

Cinematography: Janusz Kaminski, Saving Private Ryan

Costume Design: Sandy Powell, Shakespeare In Love

Documentary Feature: The Last Days

Documentary Short Subject: The Personals

Film Editing: Michael Kahn, Saving Private Ryan

Foreign Language Film: Life Is Beautiful

Make-up: Jenny Shircore, Elizabeth

Live Action Short Film: Election Night

Sound: Gary Rydstrom, Gary Summers, Andy Nelson and Ronald Judkins, Saving Private Ryan

Visual Effects: Joel Hynek, Nicholas Brooks, Stuart Robertson and Kevin Mack, What Dreams May Come

Screenplay Adaptation: Bill Condon, Gods And Monsters

Screenplay, Original: Marc Norman and Sir Tom Stoppard, Shakespeare In Love