Movies about movies were all the rage Sunday night at the 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
WINNER: The Artist — Thomas Langmann
The Descendants
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
The Help
Hugo
Midnight in Paris
Moneyball
The Tree of Life
War Horse
Best Directing
Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris
WINNER: Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist
Terrence Malick, The Tree of Life
Alexander Payne, The Descendants
Martin Scorsese, Hugo
Best Actor
Demián Bichir, A Better Life
George Clooney, The Descendants
WINNER: Jean Dujardin, The Artist
Gary Oldman, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Brad Pitt, Moneyball
Best Actress
Glenn Close, Albert Nobbs
Viola Davis, The Help
Rooney Mara, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
WINNER: Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady
Michelle Williams, My Week With Marilyn
Best Supporting Actor
Kenneth Branagh, My Week With Marilyn
Jonah Hill, Moneyball
Nick Nolte, Warrior
WINNER: Christopher Plummer, Beginners
Max von Sydow, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
Best Supporting Actress
Bérénice Bejo, The Artist
Jessica Chastain, The Help
Melissa McCarthy, Bridesmaids
Janet McTeer, Albert Nobbs
WINNER: Octavia Spencer, The Help
Best Adapted Screenplay
WINNER: The Descendants — Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, and Jim Rash
Hugo
The Ides of March
Moneyball
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Best Original Screenplay
The Artist
Bridesmaids
Margin Call
WINNER: Midnight in Paris — Woody Allen
A Separation
Best Animated Feature
A Cat in Paris
Chico & Rita
Kung Fu Panda 2
Puss in Boots
WINNER: Rango — Gore Verbinski
Best Documentary Feature
Hell and Back Again
If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front
Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory
Pina
WINNER: Undefeated — Daniel Lindsay, T.J. Martin, and Rich Middlemas
Best Foreign Language Film
Bullhead (Belgium)
Footnote (Israel)
In Darkness (Poland)
Monsieur Lazhar (Canada)
WINNER: A Separation (Iran) — Asghar Farhadi
Best Cinematography
The Artist
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
WINNER: Hugo — Robert Richardson
The Tree of Life
War Horse
Best Film Editing
The Artist
The Descendants
WINNER: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo — Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter
Hugo
Moneyball
Best Art Direction
The Artist
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
WINNER: Hugo — Dante Ferretti and Francesca Lo Schiavo
Midnight in Paris
War Horse
Best Costume Design
Anonymous
WINNER: The Artist — Mark Bridges
Hugo
Jane Eyre
W.E.
Best Makeup
Albert Nobbs
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
WINNER: The Iron Lady — Mark Coulier and J. Roy Helland
Best Original Score
The Adventures of Tintin
WINNER: The Artist — Ludovic Bource
Hugo
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
War Horse
Best Original Song
WINNER: “Man or Muppet,” The Muppets — Bret McKenzie
“Real in Rio,” Rio
Best Sound Mixing
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
WINNER: Hugo — Tom Fleischman and John Midgley
Moneyball
Transformers: Dark of the Moon
War Horse
Best Sound Editing
Drive
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
WINNER: Hugo — Philip Stockton and Eugene Gearty
Transformers: Dark of the Moon
War Horse
Best Visual Effects
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
WINNER: Hugo — Robert Legato, Joss Williams, Ben Grossmann, Alex Henning
Real Steel
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Transformers: Dark of the Moon
Best Animated Short Film
Dimanche/Sunday
WINNER: The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore — William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg
La Luna
A Morning Stroll
Wild Life
Best Documentary Short Subject
The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement
God Is the Bigger Elvis
Incident in New Baghdad
WINNER: Saving Face — Daniel Junge and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy
The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom
Best Live-Action Short Film
Pentecost
Raju
WINNER: The Shore — Terry George and Oorlagh George
Time Freak
Tuba Atlantic
Get full coverage of the 2012 Academy Awards:
Check out our live blog of the red carpet arrivals and ceremony, live at 6pm ET/3pm PT
Get up to speed on this year’s Best Picture nominees
Great movies from 2011 that were ignored by Oscar!
