Cate Blanchett wins best actress Oscar for 'Blue Jasmine'

Los Angeles: Australian actress Cate Blanchette won the best actress Oscar for her brilliant portrayal of a high-society woman who has fallen on hard times in Woody Allen's "Blue Jasmine".

The actress, who previously won an Oscar for playing Katharine Hepburn in "The Aviator", was an outright favourite to pocket the golden statuette this year by winning almost all the awards in the run-up to the Oscars -- SAG, the Critics Choice and the Golden Globes awards.

There were fears that the renewed allegations of sexual abuse by Allen's adopted daughter may hurt the actress at the Oscars but Blanchett managed to overcome the odds.

There was also lot of mystery surrounding her acceptance speech with many speculating that she might steer clear of mentioning her director's name in the wake of the controversy surrounding his personal life.

Blanchett, however, did not forget to thank Allen for his "extraordinary screenplay".

"I am here accepting award in an extraordinary screenplay by Woody Allen... Thank you so much Woody for casting me. I truly appreciated and so very proud that the film 'Blue Jasmine' stayed in the cinemas for so long," Blanchett said as she was presented her trophy by last year's best actor winner Daniel Day-Lewis.

She also acknowledged fellow nominees and formidable competitors like Meryl Streep ("August Osage County"), Sandra Bullock ("Gravity"), Amy Adams ("American Hustle") and veteran actress Judi Dench ("Philomena").

Dench did not turn up for the Oscars as she is busy shooting in India for the sequel of "The Best of Exotic Marrigold Hotel", a sequel to her 2012 movie.

Blanchett said as "random and subjective" as the Oscars were she considered it a great honour to win the trophy.

As someone who has made a career out of playing difficult roles be it British Queen Elizabeth twice in Shekhar Kapoor's movies, Bob Dylan in "I'm Not There" or Blanche DuBois from "A Streetcar Named Desire" onstage, Blanchett is brilliant as Jasmine.

She has given her career's best performance as Jasmine, a Park Avenue princess who loses her wealth but not her sense of entitlement even when she is dependent on others in the movie which is Allen's nod to Tennessee Williams' heroine DuBois.

Blanchett has been nominated at the Oscars six times. She lost in the best actress race in 2007 to Gwyneth Paltrow ("Shakespeare in Love") despite turning up with an acclaimed performance "Elizabeth: The Golden Age". She was also nominated for "Elizabeth" in 1998.

She was nominated in the supporting actress category for "I'm Not There" and "Notes on a Scandal", finally winning in the best supporting category for Martin Scorsese directed "The Aviator" in 2004.