Tarantino also made it to the podium in yet another upset of the night, winning Original Screenplay for Django Unchained.

“I think if people know about my movies 30 or 50 years from now, it’s because of the characters that I create,” said Tarantino, who previously won an Oscar in this category for Pulp Fiction. “And I only really get one chance to get it right. I have to cast the right people to make those characters come alive and hopefully live for a long time. And boy this time, did I get it right.”

As expected, Anne Hathaway won Supporting Actress for her portrayal of the doomed Fantine in Les Misérables.

“It came true!” Hathaway said as she took the stage and thanked her fellow nominees. “Here’s hoping that some day in the not too distant future, the misfortunes of Fantine will only be found in stories and nevermore in real life.”

Michael Haneke’s devastating Amour, the story of a married couple confronting the indignities of old age and sickness, won the Foreign Language prize as expected, becoming the second film from Austria to win in the category (the first was 2008’s The Counterfeiters).

Searching for Sugar Man, the gripping tale about the disappearance of 1970s folk singer Rodriguez, who was rumored to have committed suicide onstage during his final performance, won for Best Documentary. The wizards at Pixar Animation Studios won their seventh Oscar for Best Animated Feature with Brave, the story of the relationship between a young princess and her mother.

Adele’s Skyfall won the Original Song category — the first time a theme song from a James Bond movie has snagged the prize.

For the third time in Oscar history, one category ended in a tie: Zero Dark Thirty and Skyfall shared the Sound Editing award. Previously, Wallace Beery ( The Champ) and Frederic March ( Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde) tied for Best Actor in 1932 and Katharine Hepburn ( A Lion in Winter) and Barbra Streisand ( Funny Girl) tied for Best Actress in 1968.

Streisand also made a rare appearance at the show to pay tribute to the late composer Marvin Hamlisch, who died in August, by performing The Way We Were, which won him an Oscar for Original Song in 1973.

The telecast was hosted by Seth MacFarlane, creator of TV’s Family Guy . MacFarlane’s edgy brand of humor made for an uneven unopening: His performance of a song called We Saw Your Boobs, which called out specific actresses by name, went over like a funeral. But he regained his footing with classy musical numbers featuring Channing Tatum and Charlize Theron dancing to The Way You Look Tonight from Swing Time.