In a show that brought back some of Hollywood's Golden Age charm, "The Artist" won five Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director (Michael Hazanavicius), Best Leading Actor (Jean Dujardin), Best Costume Design and Best Original Score. Another five Oscars were awarded to Martin Scorsese's "Hugo", all of them in the technical categories : Visual Effects, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, Cinematography and Art Direction.
As expected, Christopher Plummer won Best Supporting Actor for "Beginners" and Octavia Spencer received the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for "The Help". In a bit of an upset (although I was expecting it) Meryl Streep earned her third Academy Award (Best Leading Actress) for her performance as Margaret Thatcher in "The Iron Lady". "The Descendants" writers Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash received the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, and Woody Allen was rewarded for his original "Midnight in Paris" screenplay. This is Allen's second writing Oscar since his 1987 win for "Hannah and Her Sisters". As usual, he did not attend the ceremony. The Iranian drama "A Separation" ended its incredible awards season performance with the crowning achievement, the Best Foreign Film Academy Award. And last, but not least, in the Animated Feature category, Gore Verbinski took home the Oscar for "Rango".
Billy Crystal was a much better Oscars host than any of his recent predecessors, proving once more why he's hosted the show nine times, so far. His jokes were for the most part on the safe side of Hollywood humor, with a few sharper puns here and there to spice things up, but his overall demeanor was charming and pleasant, and fit in well with the Hollywood Classics theme that included the theater's new look, the skits and the cool actor interviews. It wasn't the best ever Oscars show, but it was certainly an improvement from previous years.
Read on for the full list of Oscar winners :
BEST PICTURE: The Artist
BEST DIRECTOR:
Michael Hazanavicius – The Artist
BEST ACTOR:
Jean Dujardin – The Artist
BEST ACTRESS:
Meryl Streep – The Iron Lady
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR:
Christopher Plummer – Beginners
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS:
Octavia Spencer – The Help
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Midnight in Paris
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: The Descendants
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM: A Separation
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE: Rango
BEST ART DIRECTION: Hugo
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: Hugo
BEST COSTUME DESIGN: The Artist
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE: Undefeated
BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT: Saving Face
BEST FILM EDITING: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
BEST MAKEUP: The Iron Lady
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE: The Artist
BEST ORIGINAL SONG: The Muppets
BEST SHORT FILM (ANIMATED): The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore
