Argo, Ben Affleck's fact-based thriller about the Iranian hostage crisis, rode to victory at the 85th Academy Awards, taking the crowning best picture Oscar to complete a night of triumph. The film was the bookies' favorite going into the event, having already been named best film at the Baftas and best drama at the Golden Globes, The Guardian reports.

Played out against the backdrop of the 1979 hostage crisis, Argo spins the account of a joint Hollywood-CIA mission to spring six imperiled Americans from revolutionary Iran, using a fake movie production as a decoy. The film stars director Affleck as a CIA agent, while the supporting cast includes John Goodman, Bryan Cranston and Alan Arkin. It is Affleck's third stint in the director's chair – after Gone Baby Gone and the Boston crime drama The Town – and by far his most successful.

Argo was first touted as a possible Oscar contender when it premiered at last autumn'sToronto film festival, although it initially struggled to outpace its closest rival, Steven Spielberg's historical saga Lincoln. Its final Oscar victory, however, sets it firmly on a pedestal all of its own.