Upon accepting his first Oscar at the Academy Awards on Sunday, filmmaker Ben Affleck thanked his wife in his acceptance speech for putting in the effort needed to make their marriage work.

He thanked his wife and the mother of his three children Jennifer Garner. who was sitting in the audience at the Dolby Theatre, for "working on our marriage for 10 Christmases."

He said "it's work, it's the best kind of work...and there's no one else I'd rather work with."

Affleck took to the stage with the cast and crew of Argo to win Best Picture at the end of the night. The film is about the 1980 joint CIA-Canadian secret operation to rescue six fugitive American diplomatic personnel out of revolutionary Iran and bring them back to the United States without being stopped. Affleck not only directed the film but also starred in it, acting as the lead CIA official on the mission to Iran and back.

Following the award ceremony, Affleck explained the comments he made about his marriage saying, "All relationships, to a certain extent, require your work."

"We work on it together, we try our best, nobody's perfect... She's more perfect than I am," he added.

Affleck and Garner began dating after they starred together in the 2003 movie Daredevil. They married in 2005 and have three children - Violet, Seraphina Rose and Samuel.

Argo had two award nominations and took home three Oscars on Sunday, following its Best Drama win at the Golden Globes in January. In his acceptance speech on Sunday Affleck talked about his experience at the Academy Awards 15 years ago where he said he was "just a kid" not knowing what he was doing. He then encouraged viewers against "holding grudges" and discussed getting knocked down in life.

Watch his full speech in the video below.  

Tags: Ben Affleck oscars 2013 Jennifer Garner