'The Artist' & 'Hugo' win big at Oscars
February 27, 2012

'The Artist' & 'Hugo' win big at Oscars

HOLLYWOOD — The 84th Annual Academy Awards took place last night, and while Hugo ( see article) came into the evening with the most nominations (11) and took home statuettes for VFX, Sound Editing and Sound Mixing, it was clearly The Artist’s night, winning Best Director, Best Actor and the coveted Best Picture honors.

Director Michel Hazanavicius beat out veterans Martin Scorsese (Hugo) and Woody Allen (Midnight in Paris) for the Best Director Oscar, showing that his French perspective on old-time Hollywood truly resonated with Academy members. (Hugo's VFX winners L-R: Joss Williams, Rob Legato and Ben Grossmann are pictured left.)

Editing honors once again went to the team of Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall. The team followed up last year’s win for The Social Network with this year’s honors for their work on The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (see article).

And Gore Verbinski’s Rango (see article) was honored with the Best Animated Feature Oscar ( see article). The film marked ILM’s first feature length, fully animated film, and beat out Kung Fu Panda 2 and Puss In Boots ( see article).

The complete list of winners (*) and nominees (-) follows.

Actor in a Leading Role
- Demián Bichir in "A Better Life"
- George Clooney in "The Descendants"
* Jean Dujardin in "The Artist"
- Gary Oldman in "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy"
- Brad Pitt in "Moneyball"

Actor in a Supporting Role
- Kenneth Branagh in "My Week with Marilyn"
- Jonah Hill in "Moneyball"
- Nick Nolte in "Warrior"
* Christopher Plummer in "Beginners"
- Max von Sydow in "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close"

Actress in a Leading Role
- Glenn Close in "Albert Nobbs"
- Viola Davis in "The Help"
- Rooney Mara in "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo"
* Meryl Streep in "The Iron Lady"
- Michelle Williams in "My Week with Marilyn"

Actress in a Supporting Role
- Bérénice Bejo in "The Artist"
- Jessica Chastain in "The Help"
- Melissa McCarthy in "Bridesmaids"
- Janet McTeer in "Albert Nobbs"
* Octavia Spencer in "The Help"

Animated Feature Film
- "A Cat in Paris" Alain Gagnol and Jean-Loup Felicioli
- "Chico & Rita" Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal
- "Kung Fu Panda 2" Jennifer Yuh Nelson
- "Puss in Boots" Chris Miller
* "Rango" Gore Verbinski

Art Direction
- "The Artist" 
Production Design: Laurence Bennett; Set Decoration: Robert Gould
- "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2" 
Production Design: Stuart Craig; Set Decoration: Stephenie McMillan
* "Hugo" 
Production Design: Dante Ferretti; Set Decoration: Francesca Lo Schiavo
- "Midnight in Paris" 
Production Design: Anne Seibel; Set Decoration: Hélène Dubreuil
- "War Horse" 
Production Design: Rick Carter; Set Decoration: Lee Sandales

Cinematography
- "The Artist" Guillaume Schiffman
- "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" Jeff Cronenweth
* "Hugo" Robert Richardson
- "The Tree of Life" Emmanuel Lubezki
- "War Horse" Janusz Kaminski

Costume Design
- "Anonymous" Lisy Christl
* "The Artist" Mark Bridges
- "Hugo" Sandy Powell
- "Jane Eyre" Michael O'Connor
- "W.E." Arianne Phillips

Directing
* "The Artist" Michel Hazanavicius
- "The Descendants" Alexander Payne
- "Hugo" Martin Scorsese
- "Midnight in Paris" Woody Allen
- "The Tree of Life" Terrence Malick

Documentary (Feature)
- "Hell and Back Again" 
Danfung Dennis and Mike Lerner
- "If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front" 
Marshall Curry and Sam Cullman
- "Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory" 
Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky
- "Pina" 
Wim Wenders and Gian-Piero Ringel
* "Undefeated" 
TJ Martin, Dan Lindsay and Rich Middlemas

Documentary (Short Subject)
- "The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement" 
Robin Fryday and Gail Dolgin
- "God Is the Bigger Elvis" 
Rebecca Cammisa and Julie Anderson
- "Incident in New Baghdad" 
James Spione
* "Saving Face" 
Daniel Junge and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy
- "The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom" 
Lucy Walker and Kira Carstensen

Film Editing
- "The Artist" Anne-Sophie Bion and Michel Hazanavicius
- "The Descendants" Kevin Tent (see article)
* "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall (pictured)
- "Hugo" Thelma Schoonmaker
- "Moneyball" Christopher Tellefsen

  Foreign Language Film
- "Bullhead" Belgium
- "Footnote" Israel
- "In Darkness" Poland
- "Monsieur Lazhar" Canada
* "A Separation" Iran

Makeup
- "Albert Nobbs"
Martial Corneville, Lynn Johnston and Matthew W. Mungle
- "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2" 
Nick Dudman, Amanda Knight and Lisa Tomblin
* "The Iron Lady" 
Mark Coulier and J. Roy Helland

Music (Original Score)
- "The Adventures of Tintin" John Williams
* "The Artist" Ludovic Bource
- "Hugo" Howard Shore
- "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" Alberto Iglesias
- "War Horse" John Williams

Music (Original Song)
* "Man or Muppet" from "The Muppets"
Music and Lyric by Bret McKenzie
- "Real in Rio" from "Rio"
Music by Sergio Mendes and Carlinhos Brown; Lyric by Siedah Garrett

Best Picture
* "The Artist" Thomas Langmann, Producer
-"The Descendants" Jim Burke, Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor, Producers
- "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close" Scott Rudin, Producer
- "The Help" Brunson Green, Chris Columbus and Michael Barnathan, Producers
- "Hugo" Graham King and Martin Scorsese, Producers
- "Midnight in Paris" Letty Aronson and Stephen Tenenbaum, Producers
- "Moneyball" Michael De Luca, Rachael Horovitz and Brad Pitt, Producers
- "The Tree of Life" Sarah Green, Bill Pohlad, Dede Gardner and Grant Hill, Producers
- "War Horse" Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy, Producers

Short Film (Animated)
- "Dimanche/Sunday" Patrick Doyon
* "The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore" William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg
- "La Luna" Enrico Casarosa
- "A Morning Stroll" Grant Orchard and Sue Goffe
- "Wild Life" Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby

Short Film (Live Action)
- "Pentecost" Peter McDonald and Eimear O'Kane
- "Raju" Max Zähle and Stefan Gieren
* "The Shore" Terry George and Oorlagh George
- "Time Freak" Andrew Bowler and Gigi Causey
- "Tuba Atlantic" Hallvar Witzø

Sound Editing
- "Drive" Lon Bender and Victor Ray Ennis
- "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" Ren Klyce
* "Hugo" Philip Stockton and Eugene Gearty
- "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" Ethan Van der Ryn and Erik Aadahl
- "War Horse" Richard Hymns and Gary Rydstrom

Sound Mixing
- "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" 
David Parker, Michael Semanick, Ren Klyce and Bo Persson
* "Hugo" 
Tom Fleischman and John Midgley (pictured)
- "Moneyball" 
Deb Adair, Ron Bochar, David Giammarco and Ed Novick
- "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" 
Greg P. Russell, Gary Summers, Jeffrey J. Haboush and Peter J. Devlin
- "War Horse" 
Gary Rydstrom, Andy Nelson, Tom Johnson and Stuart Wilson

Visual Effects
- "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2" 
Tim Burke, David Vickery, Greg Butler and John Richardson
* "Hugo" (see article)
Rob Legato, Joss Williams, Ben Grossmann and Alex Henning
- "Real Steel" 
Erik Nash, John Rosengrant, Dan Taylor and Swen Gillberg
- "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" (see article)
Joe Letteri, Dan Lemmon, R. Christopher White and Daniel Barrett
- "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" (see article)
Scott Farrar, Scott Benza, Matthew Butler and John Frazier

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
* "The Descendants" Screenplay by Alexander Payne and Nat Faxon & Jim Rash
- "Hugo" Screenplay by John Logan
- "The Ides of March" Screenplay by George Clooney & Grant Heslov and Beau Willimon
- "Moneyball" Screenplay by Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin; Story by Stan Chervin
- "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" Screenplay by Bridget O'Connor & Peter Straughan

Writing (Original Screenplay)
- "The Artist" Written by Michel Hazanavicius
- "Bridesmaids" Written by Annie Mumolo & Kristen Wiig
- "Margin Call" Written by J.C. Chandor
* "Midnight in Paris" Written by Woody Allen
- "A Separation" Written by Asghar Farhadi