2012 Academy Awards winners

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences held their 84th Annual Academy Awards tonight and The Artist by Michel Hazanavicius and Martin Scorsese's Hugo were the big winners taking five awards each. They had led the nominations with ten and eleven nominations respectively.

The Artist, however, claimed the more high-profile prizes. It won Best Picture, Director and Actor (Jean Dujardin), as well as Costume Design and Original Score. It becomes the first black-and-white silent film since Wings won Most Outstanding Production at the first ever Academy Awards in 1929. It also becomes the first film to win Best Picture at each of the Oscars, Indie Spirit Awards, César Awards, BAFTAs and Golden Globes among its many other wins. Jean Dujardin is the first ever French winner for Best Actor.

Although Hugo led with eleven nods, it received no acting nominations and its wins were in the technical categories. It won for Cinematography, Art Direction, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing and Visual Effects.

The only other multiple-winner was The Iron Lady, which won for Best Makeup and a somewhat surprising win for Meryl Streep as Best Actress for her portrayal of Margaret Thatcher. It is her third win after a three decade drought since 1982's Sophie's Choice.

The winner for Best Documentary was the rousing Undefeated by TJ Martin, Dan Lindsay and Richard Middlemas. TJ Martin becomes the first Black director to win an Oscar. Documentary Short was won by Daniel Junge and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy's Saving Face. Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy is Pakistan's first winner. She has been a resident of Toronto since 2004 and is now a Canadian citizen.

Canada's Christopher Plummer won Best Supporting Actor for his role in Beginners. At the age of 82, he becomes the oldest actor to win an Oscar. None of the other Canadian nominees including Howard Shore, Philippe Falardeau, Patrick Doyon, Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby were Oscar-winners.

It was a very good night for The Weinstein Company which represented The Artist, The Iron Lady and Undefeated. Harvey's exaggerated reputation is as an overly-aggressive dirty campaigner, but he actually ran very clean campaigns while being the target of dirty campaigning from others (such as Kim Novak).

Complete nominations for the 84th Academy Awards

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Complete list of winners for the 84th Annual Academy Awards

Best Picture
The Artist – Thomas Langmann, Producer

Actor in a Leading Role
Jean Dujardin in The Artist

Actor in a Supporting Role
Christopher Plummer in Beginners

Actress in a Leading Role
Meryl Streep in The Iron Lady

Actress in a Supporting Role
Octavia Spencer in The Help

Animated Feature Film
Rango – Gore Verbinski

Art Direction
Hugo – Production Design: Dante Ferretti; Set Decoration: Francesca Lo Schiavo

Cinematography
Hugo – Robert Richardson

Costume Design
The Artist – Mark Bridges

Directing
The Artist – Michel Hazanavicius

Documentary (Feature)
Undefeated – TJ Martin, Dan Lindsay and Richard Middlemas

Documentary (Short Subject)
Saving Face – Daniel Junge and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy

Film Editing
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall

Foreign Language Film
A Separation – Asghar Farhadi, Iran

Makeup
The Iron Lady – Mark Coulier and J. Roy Helland

Music (Original Score)
The Artist – Ludovic Bource

Music (Original Song)
"Man or Muppet" from The Muppets – Music and Lyric by Bret McKenzie

Short Film (Animated)
The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore – William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg

Short Film (Live Action)
The Shore – Terry George and Oorlagh George

Sound Editing
Hugo – Philip Stockton and Eugene Gearty

Sound Mixing
Hugo – Tom Fleischman and John Midgley

Visual Effects
Hugo – Rob Legato, Joss Williams, Ben Grossman and Alex Henning

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
The Descendants – Screenplay by Alexander Payne and Nat Faxon & Jim Rash

Writing (Original Screenplay)
Midnight in Paris – Written by Woody Allen