Silent no more! 'The Artist' roars at the 84th Academy Awards!

There was an air of nostalgia weaving through this year's Academy Awards,  and it's not simply because of the oh so safe return of Billy Crystal as host. Old Hollywood and paying tribute to the history of cinema was the theme of the night thanks to the steamroller that was Michel Hazanavicius' silent film, The Artist, as well as Martin Scorsese's Hugo.  By any measure, these were the two contenders expected to walk away with the most Oscars by night's end, and that turned out to be the case, although they dominated two totally different areas.

Hugo started off like a house of fire, picking up five wins in short order. However, they all were in the technical categories, and the film wasn't heard from for the rest of the night. That was when The Artist started to show it's dominance, taking wins in for Hazanavicius in the Best Director category, Best Picture, and also Best Actor for Jean Dujardin in what some would consider an upset.

Overall, surprises were few and far between. The only real shocker, if you can call Meryl Streep winning anything a shocker, was her victory over the heavily favored Viola Davis. Streep had been gaining momentum for her performance as Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady, but Davis had been expected to win since last summer for her powerful turn in The Help. Out of a whopping 17 nominations over her career, the win is Streep's third and her first since Sophie's Choice in 1982.

The Academy played it safe with Billy Crystal as host, after last year's failed youth movement. He helped keep the pace more brisk than usual, but a good portion of his jokes fell flat and overall tone was old-fashioned and outdated. Crystal hung his hat on making fun of The Hollywood and Highland Center, formerly the Kodak Theater, changed when Kodak filed for bankruptcy.


The rest of the night's winners in full....

Best Picture

• The Artist (WINNER)
• The Descendants
• Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
• The Help
• Hugo
• Midnight in Paris
• Moneyball
• The Tree of Life
• War Horse

Best Director

• Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist (WINNER)
  
• Alexdander Payne, The Descendants
• Martin Scorsese, Hugo
• Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris
• Terrence Malick, The Tree of Life

Best Actor In a Supporting Role

• Kenneth Branagh, My Week With Marilyn
• Jonah Hill, Moneyball
• Nick Nolte, Warrior
• Christopher Plummer, Beginners (WINNER)
  
• Max von Sydow, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

Best Actress in a Supporting Role

• Bérénice Bejo, The Artist
• Jessica Chastain, The Help
• Mellisa McCarthy, Bridesmaids
• Janet McTeer, Albert Nobbs
• Octavia Spencer, The Help (WINNER)
  

Best Actor in a Leading Role

• Demian Bichir, A Better Life
• George Clooney, The Descendants
• Jean Dujardin, The Artist (WINNER)
  
• Gary Oldman, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
• Brad Pitt, Moneyball

Best Actress in a Leading Role

• Glenn Close, Albert Nobbs
• Viola Davis, The Help
• Rooney Mara, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
• Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady (WINNER)
  
• Michelle Williams, My Week With Marilyn

Animated Feature Film

• A Cat in Paris, Alain Gagnol and Jean-Loup Felicioli
• Chico & Rita, Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal
• Kung Fu Panda 2, Jennifer Yuh Nelson
• Puss in Boots, Chris Miller
• Rango, Gore Verbinski (WINNER)

Cinematography

• The Artist, Guillaume Schiffman
• The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Jeff Cronenweth
• Hugo, Robert Richardson (WINNER)
• The Tree of Life, Emmanuel Lubezki
• War Horse, Janusz Kaminski

Foreign Language Film

• Belgium, “Bullhead”, Michael R. Roskam, director
• Canada, “Monsieur Lazhar”, Philippe Falardeau, director
• Iran, “A Separation”, Asghar Farhadi, director (WINNER)
• Israel, “Footnote”, Joseph Cedar, director
• Poland, “In Darkness”, Agnieszka Holland, director

Music (Original Song)

• “Man or Muppet” from The Muppets, Music and Lyric by Bret McKenzie (WINNER)
• “Real in Rio” from Rio, Music by Sergio Mendes and Carlinhos Brown, Lyric by Siedah Garrett

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

• The Descendants, Screenplay by Alexander Payne and Nat Faxon & Jim Rash (WINNER)
• Hugo, Screenplay by John Logan
• The Ides of March, Screenplay by George Clooney & Grant Heslov and Beau Willimon
• Moneyball, Screenplay by Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin.  Story by Stan Chervin
• Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Screenplay by Bridget O’Connor & Peter Straughan

Writing (Original Screenplay)

• The Artist, Written by Michel Hazanavicius
• Bridesmaids, Written by Annie Mumolo & Kristen Wiig
• Margin Call, Written by J.C. Chandor
• Midnight in Paris, Written by Woody Allen (WINNER)
• A Separation, Written by Asghar Farhadi

Art Direction

• The Artist: Laurence Bennett (Production Design); Robert Gould (Set Decoration)
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2: Stuart Craig (Production Design); Stephenie McMillan (Set Decoration)
• Hugo: Dante Ferretti ; Francesca Lo Schiavo  (WINNER)
• War Horse: Rick Carter (Production Design); Lee Sandales (Set Decoration)

Costume Design

• Anonymous, Lisy Christl
• The Artist, Mark Bridges (WINNER)
• Hugo, Sandy Powell
• Jane Eyre, Michael O’Connor
• W.E., Arianne Phillips

Documentary Feature

• Hell and Back Again
• If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front
• Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory
• Pina
• Undefeated (WINNER)
  

Documentary Short

• The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement, Robin Fryday and Gail Dolgin
• God is the Bigger Elvis, Rebecca Cammisa and Julie Anderson
• Incident in New Baghdad, James Spione
• Saving Face, Daniel Junge and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy (WINNER)
• The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom, Lucy Walker and Kira Carstensen

Film Editing

• The Artist, Anne-Sophie Bion and Michel Hazanavicius
• The Descendants, Kevin Tent
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall (WINNER)
• Hugo, Thelma Schoonmaker
• Moneyball, Christopher Tellefsen

Makeup

• Albert Nobbs, Martial Corneville, Lynn Johnston and Matthew W. Mungle
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, Nick Dudman, Amanda Knight and Lisa Tomblin
• The Iron Lady, Mark Coulier and J. Roy Helland (WINNER)

Music (Original Score)

• The Adventures of Tintin, John Williams
• The Artist, Ludovic Bource (WINNER)
• Hugo, Howard Shore
• Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Alberto Iglesias
• War Horse, John Williams

Short Film (Animated)

• Dimanche/Sunday, Patrick Doyon
• The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg (WINNER)
• La Luna, Enrico Casarosa
• A Morning Stroll, Grant Orchard and Sue Goffe
• Wild Life, Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby

Short Film (Live Action)

• Pentecost, Peter McDonald and Eimear O’Kane
• Raju, Max Zähle and Stefan Gieren
• The Shore, Terry George and Oorlagh George (WINNER)
• Time Freak, Andrew Bowler and Gigi Causey
• Tuba Atlantic, Hallvar Witzø

Sound Editing

• Drive, Lon Bender and Victor Ray Ennis
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Ren Klyce
• Hugo, Philip Stockton and Eugene Gearty (WINNER)
• Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Ethan Van der Ryn and Erik Aadahl
• War Horse, Richard Hymns and Gary Rydstrom

Sound Mixing

• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, David Parker, Michael Semanick, Ren Klyce and Bo Persson
• Hugo, Tom Fleischman and John Midgley (WINNER)
• Moneyball, Deb Adair, Ron Bochar, Dave Giammarco and Ed Novick
• Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Greg P. Russell, Gary Summers, Jeffrey J. Haboush and Peter J. Devlin
• War Horse, Gary Rydstrom, Andy Nelson, Tom Johnson and Stuart Wilson

Visual Effects

• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, Tim Burke, David Vickery, Greg Butler and John Richardson
• Hugo, Rob Legato, Joss Williams, Ben Grossman and Alex Henning (WINNER)
• Real Steel, Erik Nash, John Rosengrant, Dan Taylor and Swen Gillberg
• Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Joe Letteri, Dan Lemmon, R. Christopher White and Daniel Barrett
• Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Dan Glass, Brad Friedman, Douglas Trumbull and Michael Fink