Mark Rylance has won an Oscar for best supporting actor - one of the big surprises of the 88th Academy Awards.
Fellow Brit Sam Smith was also victorious, picking up the best original song prize for Writing's On The Wall from the Bond film Spectre.
Gasps went around Los Angeles' Dolby Theatre as Rylance was named the winner for his part in Cold War-era drama Bridge of Spies.
Sylvester Stallone had been considered the front runner in the category for reprising the role of Rocky Balboa in Creed.
But Stallone missed out on winning his first acting Oscar, and Ashford-born Rylance took home his first instead.
"I've always just adored stories: hearing them, seeing them, being in them," Rylance, who has enjoyed an acclaimed career as a stage actor and playwright, said in his acceptance speech.
Smith took to the stage with Briton Jimmy Napes, who co-wrote Writing's On The Wall, and paid tribute to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community.
"I read an article a few months ago by Sir Ian McKellen and he said that no openly gay man had ever won an Oscar," Smith said.
"If this is the case, and even if this isn't the case, I want to dedicate this to the LGBT community all around the world.
"I stand here tonight as a proud gay man and I hope we can all stand together as equals one day."
Smith responded with profanities, and laughter, when he was later informed by a reporter that he was not the first openly gay Oscar winner.
He added: "I wanted to show how much I care about my community. In the past in my career, people said I didn't care.
"But I really do care about the LGBT community."
Previous Oscar winners include Sir Elton John, who won best original song for The Lion King's Can You Feel The Love Tonight in 1994, and Dustin Lance Black, who took home the best original screenplay Oscar for Milk in 2009 and is the fiance of swimmer Tom Daley.
Sir Ian had recently suggested in an interview with The Guardian that prejudice was the reason no openly gay man had won the best actor Academy Award.
"No openly gay man has ever won the Oscar; I wonder if that is prejudice or chance," he said.
Briton Jenny Beavan also won an Oscar for best costume design for her work on Mad Max: Fury Road.
Beavan, who was described as a "bag lady" by Stephen Fry at the BAFTAs over the way she dressed, said: "I want to say one quite serious thing, but it could be horribly prophetic, Mad Max, if we are not kinder to each other and if we don't stop polluting our atmosphere."
Asked backstage about her choice of Oscars outfit, Beavan said: "I am very happy to talk about it. I don't do frocks and absolutely don't do heels, I have a bad back.
"I look ridiculous in a beautiful gown. This was a homage to Mad Max and I obviously didn't get it quite right at the BAFTAs, the scarf was meant to be an oil rag."
Amy, an intimate look at the life of singer Amy Winehouse directed by British filmmaker Asif Kapadia, won best feature documentary.
The prize for visual effects went to the British team of Andrew Whitehurst, Paul Norris, Mark Ardington and Sara Bennett for Ex Machina.
Other Brits weren't so lucky on Hollywood's big night.
Eddie Redmayne, who won the best actor Oscar last year for The Theory Of Everything, failed to make it two in a row. He had been nominated for The Danish Girl.
Despite winning a BAFTA and Golden Globe for her role in Steve Jobs, nominee Kate Winslet lost to Alicia Vikander, the Swedish star of The Danish Girl in the best supporting actress category.
Veteran actress Charlotte Rampling also missed out in the best actress category, which was won by Brie Larson.
:: Watch Oscars 2016: Highlights, a two-hour special programme, on Sky Movies Oscars tonight from 8pm in the UK and Ireland.
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