Actress Hilary Swank accepts the Oscar for best actress at the 77th Academy Awards in Hollywood February 27. Swank won the best actress Oscar for her role in "Million Dollar Baby," the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Sunday evening in Hollywood. (Reuters)

Actress Hilary Swank arrives for the 77th Academy Awards 27 Feb. 2005, at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood, California. Hilary Swank won the Academy Award as best actress on Sunday for playing a plucky pugilist in the boxing drama "Million Dollar Baby."  (AFP)

Actress Hilary Swank arrives for the 77th Academy Awards 27 February at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood. (AFP)

    LOS ANGELES, Feb. 27 (Xinhuanet) -- Hilary Swank won the best actress Oscar for her role in "Million Dollar Baby," the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Sunday evening in Hollywood.

    The film, directed and co-starred by former Hollywood tough-guy Clint Eastwood, had been projected as a hot spot in the 77th Oscar awards. It also won an Oscar for best supporting actor for veteran star Morgan Freeman.

    Swank, who took the Golden Globe award for best actress for this film in January, had previously won the best-actress Oscar for "Boys Don't Cry."

    Once again she beat out main rival Annette Bening, nominated for the theater farce "Being Julia." Bening had been the front-runner for "American Beauty" five years ago but lost to underdog Swank.

    "I don't know what I did in this life to deserve all this. I'm just a girl from a trailer park who had a dream," said Swank.

    But the biggest rival of "Million Dollar Baby," "The Aviator," took the Oscar for best cinematography, marking the film's fifth win in Sunday evening,

    It's also the second Oscar for cinematographer Robert Richardson, who won previously for "JFK." Chinese cameraman Zhao Xiaoding, nominated for "House of Flying Daggers" in January and invited to the ceremony, failed in the ballot.

    "Ray" starred by Jami Foxx received its first Oscar of the night for sound mixing, and "The Incredibles" won another Oscar for sound editing.

    The Oscar for best documentary short subject went to "Mighty Times: The Children's March," while "Ryan" won an award for animated short film.

    "Finding Neverland" received its first Oscar for Jan Kaczmarek's musical score. The Academy Award for best original song went to "Al Otro Ado Del Rio" from "The Motorcycle Diaries," with music and lyric by Jorge Drexler.

    Charlie Kaufman, Michel Gondry and Pierre Bismuth have receivedthe best original screenplay Oscar for "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," and the Spanish film "The Sea Inside" received the Oscar for best foreign language film after having won the Gold Globe award. Enditem