The Artist and Hugo top 2012 Oscars with 5 nods each

It seems the movie analysts and critics got it right this year at the Oscars as the favorites came out tops at Sunday night’s 84th Academy Awards. The Artist, the French-made black-and-white homage to silent cinema, was the big winner with a total of five Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Directing (by Michel Hazanavicius). The film’s charming star, Jean Dujardin, won Best Actor, while Meryl Streep accepted her first Oscar in 29 years — and her third overall — for playing former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady. At the age of 82, Christopher Plummer became the oldest person to receive an acting Oscar by winning Best Supporting Actor for Beginners. And an emotional Octavia Spencer finished her dominant awards season by picking up the Best Supporting Actress trophy for The Help. Tying The Artist with five Oscars was Martin Scorsese’s Hugo, also a tribute to early cinema. The 3-D family film earned awards for its art direction, cinematography, sound mixing, sound editing, and visual effects. Check out the complete list of winners below: Best Picture The Artist — Thomas Langmann Best Directing Michel 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 Adapted Screenplay The Descendants — Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, and Jim Rash Best Original Screenplay Midnight in Paris — Woody Allen Best Animated Feature Rango — Gore Verbinski Best Documentary Feature Undefeated — Daniel Lindsay, T.J. Martin, and Rich Middlemas Best Foreign Language Film A Separation (Iran) — Asghar Farhadi Best Cinematography Hugo — Robert Richardson Best Film Editing The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo — Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter Best Art Direction Hugo — Dante Ferretti and Francesca Lo Schiavo Best Costume Design The Artist — Mark Bridges Best Makeup The Iron Lady — Mark Coulier and J. Roy Helland Best Original Score The Artist — Ludovic Bource Best Original Song “Man or Muppet,” The Muppets — Bret McKenzie Best Sound Mixing Hugo — Tom Fleischman and John Midgley Best Sound Editing Hugo — Philip Stockton and Eugene Gearty Best Visual Effects Hugo — Robert Legato, Joss Williams, Ben Grossmann, Alex Henning Best Animated Short Film The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore — William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg Best Documentary Short Subject Saving Face — Daniel Junge and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy Best Live-Action Short Film The Shore — Terry George and Oorlagh George]]>