Winners at the 84th Annual Academy Awards Ceremony
Posted February 27, 2012 09:03 AM by Josh Katz
After months of Oscar speculating, the showdown at the Academy Awards between frontrunners Hugo and The Artist ended in a draw: together, both films dominated the proceedings with five wins each.
Despite a strong initial showing from director Martin Scorsese's 3D drama that suggested the beginnings of a Hugo sweep, the Academy Awards ceremony proceeded along lines familiar to many Oscar prognosticators. Hugo picked up many of the night's significant technical awards – including Best Cinematography for Robert Richardson and Best Art Direction for production designer Dante Ferretti and his wife, set decorator Francesca Lo Schiavo – while The Artist won the coveted Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Picture statues.
Also expected to win were Gore Verbinski for his surreal animated Western Rango; Octavia Spencer, The Help's star who delivered a tearful acceptance speech upon winning the Best Supporting Actress award; and Woody Allen, whose original Midnight in Paris screenplay netted the filmmaker his fourth career Oscar – though, in true Allen form, he did not attend the ceremony.
What surprises were to be found came infrequently. After picking up the Best Actress Award for her work as Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady, Meryl Streep joked that she "could hear half of America going, 'Oh, no. Oh, come on. Why her again,'" a comment referring to both her Oscar ubiquity – The Iron Lady marked her seventeenth nomination – as well as to the fact that many expected The Help's Viola Davis to take home the award, though most Oscar forecasters put the odds between Streep and Davis at an even split.
Editors Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall looked genuinely shocked when they received the Best Editing Oscar for their The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo work; while they won last year for The Social Network, 2012's predicted favorite was Hugo's Thelma Schoonmaker. Late in the evening, The Descendants' writing team of Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, and Jim Rash caused another upset when they won Best Adapted Screenplay over Moneyball scribes Aaron Sorkin and Steven Zaillian.
Perhaps most unexpected, however, was Hugo's Best Visual Effects triumph over Rise of the Planet of the Apes. This past Oscar campaigning season sparked controversy over the artistic merits of Andy Serkis' motion-captured lead performance as genetically superior ape Caesar, and it was widely assumed that a win in the Visual Effects category would compensate for Serkis' lack of a formal acting nomination.
For many viewers, the night's most indelible moment came when Beginners co-star Christopher Plummer accepted the Best Supporting Actor award. The award itself made Oscar history – at eighty-two, Plummer is now the oldest person to win an acting Oscar – but Plummer himself elevated the honor past a mere trivia footnote. Beginning with an amusing aside to the award – "You're only two years older than me, darling…Where have you been all my life?" – Plummer then delivered a moving, witty, and extremely polished speech that reflected his gratitude for both Beginners and for his career as a whole.
Below is a full list of the 2012 Oscar winners.
Best Picture: The Artist, Producer Thomas Langmann