Harrison Ford presented Polanski with the Oscar in Deauville, France

Polanski, who lives in France, was not at the Academy Awards in March because he could be arrested on child sex charges if he ever goes back to the US.

So the director was presented with the statuette by Harrison Ford at the Deauville Film Festival in France.

Polanski, who also made Chinatown, fled the US in 1978 to escape sentencing for having sex with a 13-year-old girl.

This was Polanski's first Oscar after being nominated three times dating back to 1969.

He is now chairing the jury of the Deauville festival, in northern France, which celebrates American cinema.

Ford, who starred in the director's 1988 film Frantic, was in town after his latest movie, Hollywood Homicide opened the event on Friday.

The Pianist star Adrien Brody won the Oscar for best actor

Polanski watched the Oscars ceremony at the Plaza Hotel in Paris with friends.

The Pianist was based on the memoirs of Wladyslaw Szpilman, a Polish Jewish musician who survived Nazi-occupied Warsaw, but it also drew on the director's own experiences.

The 70-year-old film-maker was born in France to Jewish parents but returned to Poland before World War II. His mother died in a concentration camp.

After the Academy Award win, he said: "I am deeply touched to have received the Oscar for best director for a film which recounts events which are so close to my personal experience."

He added that his experiences helped him "understand that art can transcend pain".