Los Angeles: The Artist, a black-and-white silent film about a suave silent movie star who has trouble making the adjustment to the advent of sound in the late 1920s, was named best picture on Sunday night at the 84th Academy Awards at the Hollywood and Highland Center.

Lost for words Best actress winner Meryl Streep and best actor Jean Dujardin in the press room at the 84th Academy Awards. (Joe Klamar/AFP)

Hugo also took home five awards, but in technical categories. And in a mild surprise, longtime Oscar favourite Meryl Streep won best actress.

“I want to thank Billy Wilder,” Hazanavicius repeated three times in accepting the best picture honour, in reference to the legendary Hollywood director. It was the second win in a row for Weinstein Co., which last year shepherded The King’s Speech to a best picture win.

Though a French film, much of the The Artist was filmed in Hollywood. The last silent film to win the Academy Award for best picture was Wings at the first Oscars, 16 May 1929, at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, down the street from Sunday’s ceremony.

Dujardin was grinning ear to ear when named best actor for his lead role in The Artist.

“Oui, I love your country,” he celebrated. It was the first win for the 39-year-old.

Earlier in the ceremony, Hazanavicius was thrilled to win the best director’s award for The Artist. “I have an Oscar. I forget my speech,” said the 44-year-old film-maker, mostly known for comedies.

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He then thanked his crew and cast, including Uggie, the dog. Later, he thanked his wife, supporting actress nominee Berenice Bejo, for inspiring him.

“Oh come on. When they called my name I thought I could hear half of America, going ‘Oh, no’,” said Streep when her name was called for the best actress award for The Iron Lady, in which the 62-year-old actress played former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher.

She then thanked her husband and her makeup artist. It was Streep’s 17th nomination and third win.

“This is such an honour,” she added, “but what’s important to me are the friendships.”

Many had believed Viola Davis would win the best actress award for The Help, but Davis’ co-star, Octavia Spencer, did pick up the award for best supporting actress.

“I’m freaking out,” said the 39-year-old star, who played a maid in the film.

Christopher Plummer was named best supporting actor for his role in Beginners, and at 82 became the oldest actor to win an Oscar.

“You’re only two years older than me. Darling, where have you been all my life,” he cracked as he held up the statuette.

Also See | 2012 Academy Awards: The Winners (PDF)

The show was hosted by Billy Crystal. It began with Crystal doing a film bit involving some of the big films of last year, getting a kiss from George Clooney, and running into Tom Cruise and Justin Bieber along the way.

After a few jokes he went into his signature song, It’s a Wonderful Night for Oscar, in which he ran through the nine best picture nominees. The last time Crystal hosted was in 2004, when there were only five nominees, so Sunday night’s version seemed long.

The wow factor of the evening was the performance by the folks from Iris, the Cirque du Soleil show based at the Hollywood and Highland Center. The acrobats soared above the audience and did handstands and flips as clips from movies screened in the background.

During the evening, there were jokes about the age of the Academy members, but most of them fell flat. The show was uneven at best and longer than it needed to be.

When she came up to give the screenwriting awards, Angelina Jolie gave the audience a thrill when she stuck her leg out from the slit in her skirt. Maybe even she thought the show needed a little more life.

Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash won best screenplay adaptation for The Descendants. It was Payne's second Oscar; he won for Sideways in 2004.

The original screenplay award went to the 76-year-old Woody Allen for Midnight in Paris—about a Hollywood screenwriter who yearns for the days of glamorous 1920s Paris. The Academy member holdout has won three Oscars before, and true to his tradition was a no-show, with Jolie accepting for him in the name of the Academy.

Martin Scorsese’s Hugo, an elegant 3D family film about an orphan who meets up with pioneer French film-maker Georges Melies, won a number of the technical awards, including the first two of the night. Tom Hanks presented the first statuette for achievement in cinematography to Robert Richardson. It was quickly followed by best achievement in art direction, also won by Hugo, going to Dante Ferretti for production design and Francesca Lo Schiavo for set decoration. It was the third win for each of them.

Hugo’s Rob Legato, Joss Williams, Ben Grossman and Alex Henning won for visual effects, while the film won awards for sound mixing (Tom Fleischman and John Midgley) and sound editing (Philip Stockton and Eugene Gearty).

A Separation, an Iranian drama written and directed by Asghar Farhadi, won the Oscar for best foreign language film. It was the first win for a film from that country, which is in the news so much because of its nuclear programme. Farhadi spoke words of peace as he accepted the award for the film.

The Oscar for best animated feature went to Rango, the story of a pet chameleon (Johnny Depp) who becomes accidentally stranded in the Mojave Desert. It was directed by Gore Verbinski, who had made the Pirates of the Caribbean movies with Depp.

The best song was Man or Muppet (from The Muppets), written by Bret McKenzie of the musical comedy duo Flight of the Conchords. Ludovic Bource won for best score for The Artist, a film that, obviously, relied on music to tell the story.

Undefeated—about an underdog high school football team—took home the best documentary honour, while Saving Face, by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and Daniel Junge, about helping women in Pakistan who are victims of acid attacks, was named best documentary short.

The best live action short was The Shore, the story of an Irish exile (Ciaran Hinds), directed by Terry George (Hotel Rwanda, In the Name of the Father), while The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, about a man whisked away to a colourful old house full of books that come alive, won best animated short.

©2012/The New York Times