The first Oscars of the film awards season have been handed out at ceremonies on both sides of the Atlantic.

The Academy has held its annual Governor’s Awards dinner in Los Angeles — but one of those honoured couldn’t be there, as he was on stage in London.

At a black-tie dinner in Hollywood, an honorary Oscar was handed to the make-up artist Dick Smith and the TV personality and executive Oprah Winfrey was given the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award for her work for the community.

But the other honorary Oscar was to be awarded to the veteran actor James Earl Jones, but he was on stage at London’s Wyndam’s Theatre, starring in Driving Miss Daisy. As he finished the show, the actor Sir Ben Kingsley presented him with his Oscar statuette.

Smith was NBC’s first make-up man when he started working there in 1945 and he won an Oscar in 1984 for his work on Amadeus. He also worked on films including The Godfather, The Exorcist and Taxi Driver.

Winfrey’s film credit’s include an Oscar-nominated supporting role in The Color Purple, in 1985.

Jones, who’s eighty, has worked on more than fifty films, including Field of Dreams, Patriot Games, The Hunt for Red October and The Great White Hope, for which he was nominated for an Oscar in 1971. But it’s as the voice of Darth Vader that he’ll be best known.

After receiving his award, he said he’d been delighted not to have had to compete for the honour — as it meant no-one had to lose for him to win.