The disaster epic Titanic has swept the board at the Oscars taking 11 awards to tie with the record set by the 1959 Ben Hur.

The most expensive film ever made won the much-coveted Oscar for best film and the director's award for its creator James Cameron.

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Titanic also collected the awards for best cinematography, score, sound, sound effects, costume design, art direction, visual effects and editing.

The award for best song was also added to the movie's trophy cabinet for My Heart Will Go On, sung by Celine Dion.

Collecting his statuette for best movie, Cameron called for a few moments silence in memory of those who died on the real Titanic.

He said that amid the euphoria of the awards it should not be forgotten that the film was "based on a real event in which real people died".

Despite its 14 nominations, Titanic's dominance was not total.

It lost out on the acting honours to As Good as it Gets which scooped both the best actor and actress awards.

Helen Hunt won the best actress Oscar, a prize for which she was the only non-British nominee.

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In her speech she paid tribute to her co-nominees Helena Bonham Carter, Julie Christie, Dame Judi Dench and Kate Winslet.

Jack Nicholson snatched best actor award for As Good As It Gets - the third Oscar of his career.

Hollywood's perennial bad boy faced competition from Dustin Hoffman, Robert Duvall and Peter Fonda.

The only youngster in the category was Matt Damon nominated for Good Will Hunting.

He and fellow actor Ben Affleck received the award for writing the best original screenplay for that movie beating James Cameron.

Titanic also missed the boat in the best supporting actress award, which went to Kim Basinger for LA Confidential.

Basinger beat off competition from the highly-favoured 87-year-old Gloria Stuart who was nominated for Titanic.

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The other nominees were Minnie Driver for Good Will Hunting, Julianne Moore in Boogie Nights and Joan Cusack for In & Out.

In her acceptance speech Basinger said: "I want to thank everyone I've ever met in my entire life."

LA Confidential also picked up another award for best adapted screenplay from the novel by James Elroy.

Robin Williams picked up the best supporting actor for his performance in Good Will Hunting.

Burt Reynolds had been hotly tipped for Boogie Nights. The other nominees were Robert Forster in Jackie Brown, Sir Anthony Hopkins for Amistad and Greg Kinnear, As Good as it Gets.

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British talent was rewarded with the Oscar for the best original musical or comedy score, which went to Anne Dudley for the low-budget hit The Full Monty.

An honorary Oscar was presented to director Stanley Donen, in recognition of his work on such classics as Singin' in the Rain, On the Town and Funny Face.

The science fiction comedy Men in Black took the award for best make-up.

The best live action short film award went to Visas and Virtue. Geri's Game was best animated short film.

An estimated one billion people followed the ceremony on television around the world.