The King's Speech beat Facebook flick The Social Network to grab the best picture prize at the Oscars on Sunday night.

The tale of the reluctant king overcoming his stutter also earned Colin Firth a best actor award, making him the first Brit since Anthony Hopkins in 1992 to pick up the coveted gong.

The King's Speech also picked up best director and best screenplay awards while The Social Network earned best adapted screenplay for West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin, and two other awards in less prestigious categories.

Sci-Fi flick Inception earned four awards in technical categories (cinematography, visual effects, sound mixing and sound editing), the same number as The King's Speech.

Natalie Portman, as expected, picked up best actress award for her turn as a troubled ballerina in Black Swan.

Two stars from boxing flick The Fighter, Melissa Leo and Christian Bale, picked up supporting actor awards while Toy Story 3 earned the best animated film award.

Leo swore during her acceptance speech, enlivening what reports paint as an otherwise fairly predictable awards ceremony where almost all the awards went to pre-race favourites.

As a welcome antidote to all the self-congratulatory gloss of Sunday night, the Golden Raspberry awards on Saturday night celebrated the worst in movie-making.

Razzie repeat offender M Night Shyamalan’s “re-imagining” of the animated TV series The Last Airbender performed especially strongly, picking up worst director, worst picture, worst screenplay awards. It also picked up the first award in a new Razzie category, "worst eye-gouging misuse of 3-D". The award committee described the film as a "jumbled, jump-cut mess of a movie".

Other major "awards" went to "bling-obsessed superslick chick flick" Sex & the City 2, which was named worst sequel, worst screen ensemble (for its entire cast) and worst actress (jointly awarded to its four main stars).

A full run-down of the winners at the 31st annual Razzie awards can be found here. ®