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Forget Slumdog Millionaire and Kate Winslet. The other big British winner at the Oscars last night was upstaged by a French acrobat who balanced the statuette on his chin.

The award for Best Documentary was picked up by the British director James Marsh for Man on Wire, which tells the story of Philippe Petit's 1974 tightrope walk between the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center, an illegal stunt that the Frenchman planned as carefully as a bank heist.

The film had already won a Bafta for outstanding British film and grabbed a clutch of other awards, including two prizes at the Sundance Film Festival. It was only the second film after Pixar's Toy Story 2 to achieve a 100-per cent rating on the website Rotten Tomatoes meaning that, of 137 major critics surveyed, not one gave Man on Wire a negative review.

In The Times on Saturday, Marsh wrote about how, if he did win the award, he would love to have Petit up on stage beside him but knew that would be against the strict rules of the Academy Awards. "I'd love to think we could plot something - he is, of course, the master plotter - but I think the Oscars are finally his match," he said.

By last night, Marsh had changed his mind. "It doesn't feel right to be up here on my own, so Philippe you got about 20 seconds to get up here, as you do," he said as Petit ran down the stairs and up to the stage at the Kodak Theatre.

After a round of thanks from the film's producer, Simon Chinn, Petit was called to the microphone, where he announced "the shortest speech in Oscar history: 'Yes!'.

Enlivening an otherwise restrained evening, Petit then took from his pocket a gold coin given to him by Werner Herzog, his fellow nominee, and made it disappear in his palm as he thanked the Academy "for believing in magic".

Clearly relishing the spotlight, Petit went one step further: taking Marsh's Oscar statuette and balancing it upside-down on his chin.

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