MUMBAI: Silent black and white film ‘The Artist‘ and Martin Scorcese‘s 3D children‘s film ‘Hugo‘ bagged five Oscar Awards each this morning. The 84th edition of the show aired live on Star Movies.
While ‘Hugo‘ dominated the technical categories winning in areas like sound, the Artist took home the big awards for picture, director and actor. It also won a couple of technical awards in score and costume design.
The biggest applause, though, was reserved for Meryl Streep who won an Oscar after 29 years playing Margaret Thatcher in ‘The Iron Lady‘. She said, "When they called my name, I had this feeling I could hear half of America go, ‘Oh, no, why her again?‘ But whatever.
"I really understand I‘ll never be up here again. I really want to think all my colleagues, my friends. I look out here and I see my life before my eyes, my old friends, my new friends.
Really, this is such a great honour but the think that counts the most with me is the friendship and the love and the sheer job we‘ve shared making moves together".
After ‘The Artist‘ won, the director Michel Hazanavicius thanked Hollywood great Billy Wilder thrice showing the influence that old Hollywood had on the film.
Streep received a standing ovation as did a tearful Octavia Spencer who won for ‘The Help‘ and Christopher Plummer who won for ‘Beginners‘. Plummer and Streep‘s awards could be seen as a reward for a lifetime of excellent work.
It was a triumphant night for Harvey Weinstein who is back in the Oscar race with a big bang. Last year ‘The Kings Speech‘ which he championed took home best picture. This time he bought the rights to distribute the Artist. The Weinstein Company had also gone into overdrive pushing Streep for a long awaited win. Its documentary film ‘Undefeated‘ also won for best documentary.
In the foreign language category, Iran‘s ‘A Separation‘ won. Woody Allen was a no show, although he won for Best Original Screenplay for Midnight In Paris. The George Clooney starrer, ‘The Descendants‘, was rewarded with Best Adapted Screenplay.
Meanwhile ‘War Horse‘, the Steven Spielberg and Anil Ambani co-production, went home empty handed as did ‘The Tree Of Life‘ and ‘Moneyball‘. One of the highlights was a performance by Cirque Du Soleil. The show‘s host Billy crystal did a crisp job and the show finished in just over three hours. It was shorter in duration than most of the previous editions of the Oscar Awards ceremony Awards.
