DAME Helen Mirren was crowned queen of the Oscars today as she won the award for best actress.Cop thriller The Departed won best picture and a long-awaited best director award for Martin Scorsese.

DAME Helen Mirren was crowned queen of the Oscars today as she won the award for best actress.

Cop thriller The Departed won best picture and a long-awaited best director award for Martin Scorsese.

Forest Whitaker was named best actor for his role as Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland.

Jennifer Hudson won the best supporting actress award for Dreamgirls.

Veteran screen actor Alan Arkin, 72, won best supporting actor for his comic turn as a heroin-addicted grandfather in Little Miss Sunshine.

See tonight's Evening Star for our four-page Oscar pullout