Writ­ten by Paul Stathakis  |  Feb­ru­ary 27, 2012

 

Some notes on yes­ter­day’s Oscars cer­e­mo­ny (for com­plete list of win­ners, please scroll down):

 

- Cer­e­mo­ny score: A+. It was classy, sharp, and all about Old Hol­ly­wood. Bil­ly Crys­tal made things fun and “The Artist” received all the awards it deserved!

- ‎“The Artist” won 5 Acad­e­my Awards last night includ­ing Best Pic­ture, Best Direc­tor, and Best Actor! I won’t hide it: I was real­ly root­ing for “The Artist” this year, espe­cial­ly Jean Dujardin.

- Bil­ly Crys­tal’s score as host of the Oscars: A+. He was calm, cool, fun­ny, ani­mat­ed, and every­one seemed to enjoy see­ing him on stage again. He involved the stars, he sang, and he pre­pared a nice intro­duc­tion too.

- Best Oscar moments: there were a few. For starters, Bil­ly Crys­tal open­ing the cer­e­mo­ny in clas­sic Broad­way fash­ion. He sang a song which sub­se­quent­ly pre­sent­ed the 9 nom­i­nat­ed films. He also brought back the mind-read­ing skit where he reads the thoughts of cer­tain actors. Pret­ty fun­ny. Emma Stone and Ben Stiller’s lit­tle skit was sim­ply hilar­i­ous. Will Fer­rell and Zach Gal­i­fi­anakis show­ing up on stage with cym­bals was a hilar­i­ous moment. I was in tears when Gal­i­fi­anakis dropped his cym­bals, twice. 82-year-old Christo­pher Plum­mer, who is Cana­di­an, win­ning for Best Sup­port­ing Actor for his work in “Begin­ners” was a touch­ing moment. With this win, Plum­mer not only won his first Oscar but entered the Oscar’s his­to­ry book as the old­est actor to win an Acad­e­my Award. And then came three of the best wins: Jean Dujardin win­ning the Oscar for Best Actor, Michel Haz­anavi­cius win­ning for Best Direc­tor, and “The Artist” win­ning for Best Picture.

- My Oscar pre­dic­tions score: 8/9. I called Best Actress in Vio­la Davis’ favor for her per­for­mance in “The Help” but Meryl Streep instead won for her per­for­mance as for­mer U.K. Prime Min­is­ter Mar­garet Thatch­er in “The Iron Lady.”

 

Com­plete list of winners:

 

BEST PICTURE

““The Artist”

 

BEST DIRECTOR

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”

 

ANIMATED FILM

““Ran­go”

 

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

““A Sep­a­ra­tion”, Iran

 

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Alexan­der Payne, Nat Fax­on, and Jim Rash, “The Descendants”

 

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

““Mid­night in Paris” by Woody Allen

 

DOCUMENTARY

““Unde­feat­ed”

 

ORIGINAL SCORE

Ludovic Bource, “The Artist”

 

ORIGINAL SONG

““Man or Mup­pet” from “The Mup­pets,” music and lyrics by Bret McKenzie

 

ART DIRECTION

Dante Fer­ret­ti and Francesca Lo Schi­a­vo, “Hugo”

 

CINEMATOGRAPHY

Robert Richard­son, “Hugo”

 

COSTUME DESIGN

Mark Bridges, “The Artist”

 

FILM EDITING

Kirk Bax­ter and Angus Wall, “The Girl with the Drag­on Tattoo”

 

MAKEUP

Mark Couli­er and J. Roy Hel­land, “The Iron Lady”

 

VISUAL EFFECTS

Rob Lega­to, Joss Williams, Ben Gross­man and Alex Hen­ning, “Hugo”

 

SOUND EDITING

Philip Stock­ton and Eugene Gearty, “Hugo”

 

SOUND MIXING

Tom Fleis­chman and John Midg­ley, “Hugo”

 

DOCUMENTARY SHORT FEATURE

““Sav­ing Face”