"The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" won a record-tying 11 Academy Awards on Sunday, including best picture and director and becoming the first fantasy to win the top Oscar.

In the acting categories, all the winners took home their first Oscars: Charlize Theron won best actress for her transformative performance as serial killer Aileen Wuornos in "Monster," and Sean Penn was named best actor for playing a vengeful ex-hoodlum who falls back on his criminal ways in "Mystic River."

Tim Robbins won the supporting-actor prize for his performance as an emotionally crippled murder suspect in "Mystic River," and Renee Zellweger took supporting actress as a hardy Confederate survivor in "Cold Mountain."