The Artist takes best picture, best director and best actor at the 84th Oscars, while Martin Scorsese's Hugo cleans up in the technical categories
Andrew Pulver
guardian.co.uk, Monday 27 February 2012 04.48 GMT
The 84th Academy Awards wrapped up tonight at the Hollywood and Highland Center, with the Martin Scorsese 3D kids fantasy Hugo and French black-and-white silent The Artist finishing the evening with five Oscars each.
The evening kicked off with Hugo actor Sacha Baron Cohen having to be escorted from the red carpet as he carried out his threat to turn up in costume as the lead character in his forthcoming film. The Dictator.
Hosting duties were back in the safe hands of Billy Crystal, after last year's embarrassing experiment with James Franco and Anne Hathaway, and he duly gave his audience what they wanted: having himself edited into a series of clips and ribbing his audience.
As the first awards were given out, Hugo shot into an early lead as it picked up most of the technical awards, winning for best art direction, best sound editing and best visual effects among others.
Asghar Farhadi, winner of the best foreign language film with A Separation, became the first Iranian director honoured by the Academy. Farhadi used his podium appearance to plead for tolerance between the Iran and the US, telling his audience that his country was "spoken here through her glorious culture, a rich and ancient culture that has been hidden under the heavy dust of politics."
The evening's first major acting award went to Octavia Spencer, for best supporting actress for The Help. Spencer cut an excitable figure as she accepted her award, exclaiming "I'm freaking out!" Christopher Plummer, in contrast, accepted his best supporting actor award for Beginners with the gravity befitting his 82 years – becoming, in the process, the oldest ever winner of an Academy award – telling his statuette: "You're only two years older than me,"
It became clear early on that this was not going to be a good night for the British – Northern Irish director Terry George was probably the most high-profile UK recipient of an Oscar, for his short film The Shore.
As the evening reached its second half, where the more significant awards were clustered, the game turned more serious. The fashion highlight of the evening, arguably, was Angelina Jolie's slashed-to-the-hip dress as she presented the two screenplay awards.
Woody Allen won the best original screenplay award for the third time for Midnight in Paris – but did not, as is his habit, turn up to accept it.
Another notable absentee was the director Terrence Malick, who was nominated for best director – but no excuses were needed for him as The Artist's Michel Hazavanicius walked off with the best director
award.
At the business end of the evening, the two major acting prizes followed the form book. Both Jean Dujardin and Meryl Streep, for The Artist and The Iron Lady respectively, were Bafta winners for best actor and best actress, and so it proved at the Oscars.
As the final award, best picture, approached, The Artist was trailing Hugo 4 to 5. As the two leading contenders, a win for either would result either in a tie or a comfortable win for Martin Scorsese's film. As presenter Tom Cruise read out the winner, The Artist took the nod, meaning that the result was 5-all – a dead heat.
