Madrid - Spanish movie professionals, officials and media were Monday euphoric over the Oscar awarded to Penelope Cruz, 34, the first Spanish actress to win an Academy Award.

Cruz took the Oscar for best supporting actress for her role in US director Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona, which was shot in Spain.

Culture Minister Cesar Antonio Molina described the Oscar as the culmination of an "impeccable career" and as a tribute to Spanish cinema.

Director Pedro Almodovar, who played a key role in Cruz' rise to fame, said he had cried of joy on hearing the news.

"Penelope's Oscar is the triumph of talent, ambition, tenacity and an extraordinary talent for comedy," Almodovar said in a press release.

Cruz "plunges head-on and without parachutes into very risky roles," Almodovar said.

On receiving the Oscar at an overnight ceremony in Los Angeles, Cruz recalled her modest origins in Spain.

The daughter of a hairdresser and a salesman grew up in the Madrid suburb of Alcobendas, where winning an Oscar "was not a very realistic dream," she said.

"I believe in destiny and work," Cruz told Spanish journalists after the ceremony.

The daily El Pais described Cruz as "the only Spanish actress of global dimensions."

Cruz was the second Spaniard to win an Oscar after her partner Javier Bardem, who took the award for best supporting actor a year earlier for Joel and Ethan Coen's movie No Country for Old Men. (dpa)