Sea creature romance wins Oscar

HOLLYWOOD, Mar 05 (AFP): "The Shape of Water" on Sunday won top honours at the Oscars including the coveted best picture statuette, bringing the curtain down on a Hollywood awards season overshadowed by scandal over sexual misconduct in showbiz.

Guillermo del Toro's fairy tale romance led the charge going into the show with 13 nominations, and took home best picture -- the top prize of the night -- as well as best director and statuettes for production design and best original score.

In an night of honors being shared fairly evenly among several candidates, Martin McDonagh's dark crime comedy "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri" had to settle for best actress for Frances McDormand and best supporting actor for Sam Rockwell. Christopher Nolan's World War II thriller "Dunkirk" also picked up three awards, but in the less glitzy technical categories, while several movies ended the evening with two trophies.

"I am an immigrant," an emotional Del Toro said in collecting his first prize of the night, praising the power of filmmaking to "erase the line in the sand" between people of different countries and cultures.

"I want to dedicate this to every young filmmaker -- the youth that is showing us how things are done," he said.

"I thought this could never happen. It happens. And I want to tell you, everyone that is dreaming of using fantasy to tell the stories about the things that are real in the world today -- you can do it."