The Artist and Hugo take 5 Oscars
French silent film The Artist picked up five Oscars for best picture, best director for Michel Hazanavicius, costume design and original score at last night's 84th Academy Awards. The Artist, a black-and-white tale of a fading star who finds redemption through romance in the era when silent movies were overtaken by talkies, added to its best film victory with Oscars for its French star Jean Dujardin and director Michel Hazanavicius.
Martin Scorsese's Hugo, which tells of a boy lost in a train station and serves as an ode to early filmmaking, also took five of the world's top movie honors on a night where stories about movies felt the love of Hollywood. The film was awarded for cinematography, art direction, sound editing and mixing and visual effects.
Meryl Streep won Best Actress for her storming portrayal of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady.
Jean Dujardin named best actor for his performance in The Artist.
Iranian director Asghar Farhadi received Oscar for best foreign film for A Separation. Unfolding a large piece of paper, he read out a carefully worded plea for peace "at the time when talk of war, intimidation, and aggression is exchanged between politicians."
Rango was named Best Animated Feature Film.
Octavia Spencer was named Best Supporting in The Help Actress and Christopher Plummer (aged 82) became the oldest person ever to win an Oscar for his role in Beginners when he picked up his Best Supporting Actor prize.
