Entertainment

‘The Artist’ Cleans Up: Wins 5 Academy Awards Including Best Picture, Actor and Director

The Artist Wins Academy Award for Best Picture, Actor and Director

(AP) — “The Artist” won five Academy Awards on Sunday including best picture, becoming the first silent film to triumph at Hollywood’s highest honors since the original Oscar ceremony 83 years ago.

Among other prizes for the black-and-white comic melodrama were best actor for Jean Dujardin and director for Michel Hazanavicius.

The other top Oscars went to Meryl Streep as best actress for “The Iron Lady,“ Octavia Spencer as supporting actress for ”The Help“ and Christopher Plummer as supporting actor for ”Beginners.”

“The Artist” is the first silent winner since the World War I saga “Wings” was named outstanding picture at the first Oscars in 1929 had a silent film earned the top prize.

“I am the happiest director in the world,” Havanavicius said, thanking the cast, crew and canine co-star Uggie. “I also want to thank the financier, the crazy person who put money in the movie.”

The other wins for “The Artist” were musical score and art direction. Martin Scorsese’s Paris adventure “Hugo” also won five Oscars, all in technical categories.

Streep’s win was her first Oscar in 29 years, since she won best actress for “Sophie’s Choice.” She had lost 12 times in a row since then. Streep also has a supporting-actress Oscar for 1979′s “Kramer vs. Kramer.”

“When they called my name, I had this feeling I could hear half of America go, `Oh, no, why her again?’ But whatever,” Streep said, laughing.

“I really understand I’ll never be up here again. I really want to think all my colleagues, my friends. I look out here and I see my life before my eyes, my old friends, my new friends. Really, this is such a great honor but the think that counts the most with me is the friendship and the love and the sheer job we’ve shared making moves together,” said Streep, the record-holder with 17 acting nominations.

Streep is only the fifth performer to receive three Oscars. Jack Nicholson, Ingrid Bergman and Walter Brennan all earned three, while Katharine Hepburn won four.

It was a night that went as expected, with front-runners claiming key prizes. Streep’s triumph provided a bit of drama, since she had been in a two-woman race with Viola Davis for “The Help.”

The biggest surprise may have been the length of the show, which clocked in at about three hours and 10 minutes, brisk for a ceremony that has run well over four hours some years.

The 82-year-old Plummer became the oldest acting winner ever for his role as an elderly widower who comes out as gay in “Beginners.”

“You’re only two years older than me, darling,” Plummer said, addressing his Oscar statue in this 84th year of the awards. “Where have you been all my life? I have a confession to make. When I first emerged from my mother’s womb, I was already rehearsing my Oscar speech.”

The previous oldest winner was best-actress recipient Jessica Tandy for “Driving Miss Daisy,” at age 80.

Completing an awards-season blitz that took her from Hollywood bit player to star, Spencer won for her role in “The Help” as a headstrong black maid whose willful ways continually land her in trouble with white employers in 1960s Mississippi.

Spencer wept throughout her breathless speech, in which she apologized between laughing and crying for running a bit long on her time limit.

“Thank you, academy, for putting me with the hottest guy in the room,” Spencer said, referring to last year’s supporting-actor winner Christian Bale, who presented her Oscar.

Dujardin became the first Frenchman to win an acting Oscar. French actresses have won before, including Marion Cotillard and Juliette Binoche.

“Oh, thank you. Oui. I love your country!” said Dujardin, who plays George Valentin, a silent-film superstar fallen on hard times as the sound era takes over. If George Valentin could speak, Dujardin said, “he’d say … `Merci beaucoup, formidable!’”

Claiming Hollywood’s top-filmmaking honor completes Hazanavicius’ sudden rise from popular movie-maker back home in France to internationally celebrated director.

Hazanavicius had come in as the favorite after winning at the Directors Guild of America Awards, whose recipient almost always goes on to claim the Oscar.

The win is even more impressive given the type of film Hazanavicius made, a black-and-white silent movie that was a throwback to the early decades of cinema. Other than Charles Chaplin, who continued to make silent films into the 1930s, and Mel Brooks, who scored a hit with the 1976 comedy “Silent Movie,” few people have tried it since talking pictures took over in the late 1920s.

The only other filmmaker from France to win the directing Oscar is “The Pianist” creator Roman Polanski, who was born in France, moved to Poland as a child and has lived in France since fleeing Hollywood in the 1970s on charges he had sex with a 13-year-old girl.

Hazanavicius, known in his home country for the “OSS 117” spy comedies but virtually unheard of in Hollywood previously, won a prize that eluded half a dozen of France’s most-esteemed filmmakers, including Jean Renoir, Francois Truffaut and Louis Malle, who all were nominated for directing Oscars but never won.

The five Oscars for “Hugo,” which led contenders with 11 nominations, included cinematography, art direction and visual effects.

The visual-effects prize had been the last chance for the “Harry Potter” franchise to win an Oscar. The finale, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2,” had been nominated for visual effects and two other Oscars but lost all three. Previous “Harry Potter” installments had lost on all nine of their nominations.

The teen wizard may never have struck Oscar gold, but he has a consolation prize: $7.7 billion at the box office worldwide, including $1.3 billion from “Deathly Hallows: Part 2,” last year’s top-grossing movie.

“And yet they only paid 14 percent income tax,“ Oscar host Billy Crystal joked about the ”Potter” franchise.

Another beloved big-screen bunch, the Muppets, finally got their due at the Oscars. “The Muppets” earned the best-song award for “Man or Muppet,” the sweet comic duet sung by Jason Segel and his Muppet brother in the film, the first big-screen adventure in 12 years for Kermit the frog and company.

Earlier Muppet flicks had been nominated for four music Oscars but lost each time, including the song prize for “The Rainbow Connection,” Kermit‘s signature tune from 1979’s “The Muppet Movie.”

“I grew up in New Zealand watching the Muppets on TV. I never dreamed I’d get to work with them,“ said ”Man or Muppet” writer Bret McKenzie of the musical comedy duo Flight of the Conchords,” who joked about meeting Kermit for the first time. “Like many stars here tonight, he’s a lot shorter in real life.”

Filmmaker Alexander Payne picked up his second writing Oscar, sharing the adapted-screenplay prize for the Hawaiian family drama “The Descendants” with co-writers Nat Faxon and Jim Rash. Payne, who also directed “The Descendants,“ previously won the same award for ”Sideways.”

Payne said he brought along his mother from Omaha, Neb., to the Oscars, and that she had demanded a shout-out if he made it onstage.

“She made me promise that if I ever won another Oscar I had to dedicate it to her just like Javier Bardem did with his Oscar. So mom, this one’s for you. Thank you for letting me skip nursery school so we could go to the movies.”

Woody Allen earned his first Oscar in 25 years, winning for original screenplay for the romantic fantasy “Midnight in Paris,” his biggest hit in decades. It’s the fourth Oscar for Allen, who won for directing and screenplay on his 1977 best-picture winner “Annie Hall” and for screenplay on 1986′s “Hannah and Her Sisters.”

Allen also is the record-holder for writing nominations with 15, and his three writing Oscars ties the record shared by Charles Brackett, Paddy Chayefsky, Francis Ford Coppola and Billy Wilder.

No fan of awards shows, Allen predictably skipped Sunday’s ceremony, where he also was up for best director and “Midnight in Paris” was competing in vain for best picture.

Best-picture front-runner “The Artist,“ which ran second to ”Hugo” with 10 nominations, won Oscars for musical score and costume design.

“Rango,” with Johnny Depp providing the voice of a desert lizard that becomes a hero to a parched Western town, won for best animated feature.

“Someone asked me if this film was for kids, and I don’t know. But it was certainly created by a bunch of grown-ups acting like children,“ said ”Rango” director Gore Verbinski, who made the first three of Depp’s “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies.

Crystal got the show off to a lively start with a star-laden montage in which he hangs out with Justin Bieber and gets a nice wet kiss from George Clooney.

Back as Oscar host for the first time in eight years, Crystal also did his signature introduction of the best-picture nominees with a goofy song medley.

Spoofing a scene from “Midnight in Paris,” Bieber told Crystal he was there to bring in the 18-to-24-year-old demographic for the 63-year-old host.

Crystal’s return as host seemed appropriate on a night that had Hollywood looking back fondly on more than a century of cinema history.

The top two nominees – “Hugo” and “The Artist” – are both love songs to early cinema.

Add the Marilyn Monroe tale “My Week with Marilyn” – which earned Michelle Williams a best-actress nomination as the Hollywood’s greatest sex goddess and Kenneth Branagh a supporting-actor nomination as Oscar winner Laurence Olivier – and the show’s producers had a ready-made script for a night of fond recollection and backslapping about show business.

Comments (50)

1 2
  • SouEu
    Posted on February 27, 2012 at 12:01pm

    What was the deal with all the sexual innuendo and jokes? I felt embarrassed for them. Glad my kids didn’t see it. It just gets worse every year. Movies are getting worse, more vile and raunchy, and the Academy Awards as well. Nothing but crap from Hollywood these days. Crappy remakes of everything (have they lost ALL creativity?), more violence, more sex, more vulgarity. Even the kids movies are full of liberal preaching and indoctrination. Nothing but CRAP coming out of Hollywood!

    Report Post »  
  • Hank919
    Posted on February 27, 2012 at 11:21am

    Just another liberal progressive love fest. Black and white? Meryl Steep? Woody Allen? Ughhhhhhhhhhhhh. Like watching paint dry.

    Report Post »  
  • gr8t2bfree
    Posted on February 27, 2012 at 10:58am

    Gag me!

    Report Post » gr8t2bfree  
  • GrayPanther
    Posted on February 27, 2012 at 10:48am

    I enjoyed the Oscars this year. No political outbursts by the air-heads. And the women were very nicely dressed for a change. Having not seen any of the movies that won, I better keep my mouth shut. I am curious who voted for the “Best Foreign Film”.

    Report Post » GrayPanther  
  • Lesbian Packing Hollow Points
    Posted on February 27, 2012 at 10:14am

    I didn’t even know Prince was nominated.

    Report Post » Lesbian Packing Hollow Points  
  • In a Bunker
    Posted on February 27, 2012 at 9:57am

    O.K., I know that hollywood is a 4 letter word these days, but I did see the Artist. The Artist actually is a movie that celebrates the past and has a good positive message. It about the individual struggle – couldn’t find a liberal theme in it. I just see a lot of knee-jerk reactions here – same as the left tard trolls. Don’t be like them – please. It’s embarrassing.

    Report Post » In a Bunker  
  • aBritishTenther
    Posted on February 27, 2012 at 9:12am

    And as for Angelina Ho-lie…..seen nicer legs and thighs at KFC.

    Report Post »  
  • IAMIR
    Posted on February 27, 2012 at 8:36am

    UMMMMMMMMMMMM, Who cares?

    Report Post » IAMIR  
  • medic506
    Posted on February 27, 2012 at 8:23am

    Now, like successful ball players, let’s drug test them and put them before a Congressional committee.

    Report Post »  
  • blanco5
    Posted on February 27, 2012 at 7:03am

    Ooooooh you just KNOW that Act of Valor will sweep the oscars next year!!! We really need a “sarcasm font” badly!!!!!

    Report Post »  
    • AOL_REFUGEE
      Posted on February 27, 2012 at 8:05am

      A silent film. WHAT A GIMMICK! Hey, what about THIS? (Pffft!) Ahhhh. Oooh…the smelll…so sweet. And it came from out my ass! Take THAT, Borat, you BORing Ass!

      Report Post » AOL_REFUGEE  
    • AOL_REFUGEE
      Posted on February 27, 2012 at 8:13am

      No audio? Hey! How’s about a no-video movie, too! People will pay a big chunk-o-change to look at a blank screen, won’t they? After all, we’re all a bunch of Hollywood @sswype sheep, aren’t we?

      Report Post » AOL_REFUGEE  
    • SoNick
      Posted on February 27, 2012 at 1:35pm

      Sarcasm aside, that movie (Act of Valor) is a complete dud. Nay, a flaming turd, whose “director” thought its patriotic message meant that he didn’t really need an actual screenplay. And I really don’t get why having “active duty Seals” play in it is supposed to make it better. Would you send an actor on an assassination mission?

      Report Post »  
  • SpankDaMonkey
    Posted on February 27, 2012 at 7:02am

    .
    The Whole Oscar thing is Racist. Where was the Best Porn Award? After all there movies too…..

    Report Post » SpankDaMonkey  
    • Cat
      Posted on February 27, 2012 at 8:21am

      Spank >

      That industry has their own award programs … And post award program gatherings.

      Report Post » Cat  
  • AmeriCat
    Posted on February 27, 2012 at 5:58am

    So The Blaze CAN talk about a movie….

    Act of Valor starring Navy Seals has been out since Friday,
    This is Monday morning.
    Still nothing on Glenn Beck’s sites about Act of Valor!

    Saw it Friday, opening day!
    Captivates to your very soul!
    Incredible ACTION with out-of-the-box instant thinking by our Seals.
    Inspirational, powerful, humbling, proud-to-be-an-American movie!

    Act of Valor is a movie for ALL Americans to go see…
    TOP BILLING for this weekend. $25 +Million!
    Knocked the socks off all other movie competitors!

    Now…we want to see it again, and this time we will be able to watch
    the power-packed action of our Navy Seals with open eyes, the entire time!.

    Report Post »  
  • hogtrashhd
    Posted on February 27, 2012 at 5:12am

    Nobody’s seen it, nobody’s going to see it .. and it’s the kiss of death for the dude who starred in it…

    Report Post »  
    • Gonzo
      Posted on February 27, 2012 at 7:36am

      Come on, he’ll be a household name like Gerard Depardieu!

      Report Post » Gonzo  
  • bates8963
    Posted on February 27, 2012 at 5:02am

    Hey NELBERT……
    That is funny as hell…….. “And if you don’t care, why leave a comment? You‘re like an atheist angry about a God in which you don’t believe.”
    How perfect is that?……..

    Report Post »  
  • Albear
    Posted on February 27, 2012 at 3:49am

    Of course Hollywood honored Streep for The Iron Lady. Margaret Thatcher descending into dementia makes it their “Feel Good Movie of the Year.”

    As for The Artist, I loved that movie…when it was called “Singing in the Rain.” Seriously, is it any surprise that Hollywood celebrated a movie that celebrates Hollywood?

    And Christopher Plummer? Now they give him an Oscar for playing an old guy who comes out of the closet? Where were they when he was singing, standing up to Nazis and marrying a virgin?

    Report Post »  
  • randy
    Posted on February 27, 2012 at 2:15am

    Stupid movie for mindless progressive idiots

    Report Post » randy  
    • SoNick
      Posted on February 27, 2012 at 8:47am

      excuse me? Have you seen the movie? I thought conservatives would be all over a film that celebrates the good old days of movie making. Ah but it was made by French people! With Jewish American money! So it has to be a commie plot! What was I thinking!

      Report Post »  
  • OhSnappage
    Posted on February 27, 2012 at 2:05am

    Billy Crystal has really lost his edge, should have stayed in retirement Billy.

    This years Oscars was really, really, bad. It was not at all entertaining. It was very self indulgent to progressive elites and just so damn dull.

    Report Post » OhSnappage  
  • lukerw
    Posted on February 27, 2012 at 1:58am

    It seems to me that the Liberal PROGRESSIVES… are leading us backward: Reducing Energy avialability… increasing Debt and Tax… giving Government HealthCare alike Slave Owners… and now Silent Movies in Black & White. Next, Cave Living will be all the style!

    Report Post » lukerw  
    • nelbert
      Posted on February 27, 2012 at 2:14am

      Really?

      That’s your fear – that a film about the silent film era heralds the collapse of the industrialized world?

      Report Post » nelbert  
    • SoNick
      Posted on February 27, 2012 at 9:26am

      First it’s Doctor Seuss, now those evil French silent movies! Where will the destruction of America’s soul end? And you have the gall to complain about progressives getting caught up in stupid debates?

      Report Post »  
  • mharry860
    Posted on February 27, 2012 at 1:55am

    People actually care about this crap?

    Report Post » mharry860  
    • nelbert
      Posted on February 27, 2012 at 2:16am

      Well you clicked on the link, bright boy. No one held a gun to your head and certainly no one sought your opinion.

      Report Post » nelbert  
    • AmeriCat
      Posted on February 27, 2012 at 6:51am

      Exactly, we care about none of it!

      Act of Valor is the real deal, folks!
      Go see it.
      Not only inspirational, but instructive…on many levels!
      God bless our Navy SEALS and all our warriors!

      Report Post »  
  • jpsays
    Posted on February 27, 2012 at 1:52am

    The best film actually won. Uggie stole my heart.

    Report Post »  
  • JR1984
    Posted on February 27, 2012 at 1:43am

    The The Iron Lady won an Oscar….Sounds like the same criteria was used that gave Obama a Nobel Peace Prize. None

    Report Post »  
    • Komponist-ZAH
      Posted on February 27, 2012 at 3:33am

      No, Meryl Streep won an Oscar. Would you contend she did not deserve it?

      Report Post »  
  • wordweaver
    Posted on February 27, 2012 at 1:31am

    You need to proofread your articles, Blaze. Too many typos.

    Report Post » wordweaver  
  • sermaus
    Posted on February 27, 2012 at 1:20am

    I went to the movies this weekend and saw “Act of Valor” great movie, but it would have been better if
    Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Samuel Jackson, Sean Penn, and maybe some other Hollywood actors would have played the part of the Seals in the movie, then it would have been a masterpiece, (sarcasm)
    all joking aside, thank you to all the men and women of the armed forces for your service and sacrifie,
    May the Lord keep you, bless you and protect you.

    Report Post »  
    • mharry860
      Posted on February 27, 2012 at 1:56am

      Exactly, this film will be non existent to Hollyweird.

      Report Post » mharry860  
    • AmeriCat
      Posted on February 27, 2012 at 7:15am

      Act of Valor was the top at the box office this weekend!

      Hollywood doesn’t know a good thing when it comes along,
      nor how truly fortunate they are….
      Thanks to our Navy SEALS, ALL our warriors who have kept us free,
      thus far….

      Ha! Imagine Hollywood in China, North Korea, or Iran….
      They wouldn’t be living so high on the hog,
      nor able to crow against their government!
      How quickly they would beg to return to the freedoms and opportunities of America….
      so once again they could be…..the 1% !

      Act of Valor is MORE than a mere Hollywood action movie
      where for the first time in almost 100 years…live ammunition is used.
      It’s an eye-opener to reality, both inspiring and sobering,
      with a welling up of gratitude and pride in those who keep us safe.

      Our warriors, our Navy SEALS KNOW what they’re defending.
      It’s time we Americans remember, as well.

      Report Post »  
    • midwesthippie
      Posted on February 28, 2012 at 1:50am

      …AMERICAT…china,north korea and iran all have their version of “hollywood”. and what’s wrong with the chinese?

      Report Post » midwesthippie  
  • R.A. Bullseye
    Posted on February 27, 2012 at 1:05am

    I’d like to see Iron-lady but God knows how they probably put a very liberal twist on it making conservatives look as bad as they can.

    Report Post »  
    • CatB
      Posted on February 27, 2012 at 1:14am

      I agree .. have not seen it and don’t plan to … why raise my blood pressure if I don’t have to.

      You might be interested in this however ….

      http://www.monumentalmovie.com/

      Report Post »  
    • Komponist-ZAH
      Posted on February 27, 2012 at 1:45am

      Hopefully not, but…

      Report Post »  
    • SoNick
      Posted on February 27, 2012 at 1:40pm

      yes, let‘s all be really judgemental towards movies we haven’t seen! Ignorance is bliss!

      Report Post »  
  • HorseCrazy
    Posted on February 27, 2012 at 12:51am

    who cares? anyone?

    Report Post »  
    • CatB
      Posted on February 27, 2012 at 1:04am

      I think this version of the movie is better … please watch ….

      http://conartist.raisingred.com/

      Report Post »  
    • nelbert
      Posted on February 27, 2012 at 2:19am

      Then why did you click on the link? It didn’t misrepresent the topic of the article, so why are you upset? And if you don’t care, why leave a comment? You‘re like an atheist angry about a God in which you don’t believe.

      Report Post » nelbert  
    • HorseCrazy
      Posted on February 27, 2012 at 11:40am

      nelbert go watch more tv. got to love more promotion of hollywood nuts promoting themselves.

      Report Post »  
  • kaydeebeau
    Posted on February 27, 2012 at 6:50am

    We shouldn’t even buy them from the $5 bin. They will stop making the trash when we stop paying for it.

    For all the “sabre rattling” from fellow conservatives (?) if we all actually acted on what we say we believe with our wallets, we could dramatically alter the course we are on. I am always stunned when box office receipt reoorts are in for the crap coming out of hollywierd. Those numbers can only be achieved if we are going and letting our kids go

    Report Post » kaydeebeau  
1 2

Sign In To Post Comments! Sign In

Sign Up For Our Newsletter!

Glenn Beck Radio

Listen to Glenn Beck 24/7 Listen Now
Restoring Love