Heath Ledger, an Aussie, won best actor posthumously in 2009 for his phenomenal portrayal of the deranged Joker in The Dark Knight, a Batman movie unlike any other ever made. It was sad and ironic that after a short but brilliant career, Ledger would win the award but not live to receive it. It was a clean sweep that year for foreign Oscar winners as British born actress Kate Winslet won Best Actress for her role as a German woman who seduces a boy and is later found to have ties to the Nazis and tried as a collaborator. She also won a Golden Globe, a BAFTA, and a SAG award the same year.
It goes to reason that most of the great oscar winners of all time have been from the United States of America. After all, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is based and headquartered in Beverly Hills.

In 2008 Marion Cottilard from France joined the growing list of foreign Oscar winners when she won Best Actress for her electrifying performance as Edith Piaf in La Vie en Rose. Also in 2008 another Australian, the actress Cate Blanchett was nominated for Best Actress honors for her role as the besieged Queen in Elizabeth.
More Oscar winners that are not from the U.S. include Jim Broadbent who won Best Actor in 2003 for a foreign film that nobody saw called Iris, and 2002 saw New Zealander Russel Crowe win Best Actor honors for the film everyone saw, Gladiator.

It also won for Best Picture that year. Best Supporting actor in 2002 went to the versatile Puerto Rican actor, Benicio del Toro, who wowed audiences in 2010 as The Wolfman.