Of French toast and the magic of silence

Well,they say silence is golden and it was worth 5 golden oscar statues for the film of the moment,The Artist. As it stands, the Artist has swept almost every coveted award including the top honors by clinching the best motion picture of the year award.The "silent juggernaut" as I call it,left nobody surprised as many had predicted its victory run at the Kodak theatre,as it swept award after award in many pre-Oscar award ceremonies.Hugo was the other big winner of the evening,also with 5 Oscars including the cinematography and visual effects awards.There was huge disappointment in store for the Moneyball team as it lost out in each category it was nominated in,but that's the Oscars for you.

This year's Academy awards brought with it widespread anticipation as it marked the return of the legendary oscar host,Billy Crystal for a 9th time and after a hiatus of 8 years.While, many have stated that Billy's performance as host was a wee bit toned down this year than his bositerous exploits in previous years as Academy host; it was definitely an improvement over the lethargic" no show" hosted by anne hathaway and James franco last year.But it was  Emma stone and Robert Downey Jr. who created quite a buzz and were lauded in all circles and have definitely staked their claim as potential Academy awards hosts in the near future.A special mention must also go to the black outfit  adorned by Angelina Jolie as she literally scorched the red carpet, looking ultra sexy and left everybody in awe. On a more serious note,here is the lowdown on what my expectations/predictions were for the Oscars and who finally went away with the honors(includes only the major and most talked about award categories)

1) Best Picture: My prediction- The Artist; Eventual winner- The artist.Had to go with the strong pre-oscar buzz surrounding the flick but the classic silent movie is a worthy and deserving winner nevertheless. 

2) Actor In a Leading Role : My prediction-George Clooney; Eventual winner- Jean Dujardin.The french actor was the favorite for the best actor honors for this year,but I was blown away by Oldman's performance and he was the dark horse for the golden statue for me.Honestly,with due respect to his superlative performance as the miffed husband of a comtose wife in descendants,I went with clooney just based on my gut feeling only.Another Hollywood heavyweight,Brad Pitt must also be disappointed after being once again overlooked by the Academy.

3) Actress In a Leading Role : My prediction-Meryl Streep; Eventual winner- Meryl Streep.Meryl streep take a bow.It was the academy favorite,streep leading the way once again as she left every other nominee flattened in her wake yet again by her awe-inspiring act as Maggie Thatcher in the Iron Lady.If there was somebody well and truly deserving of an Oscar today evening it had to be Meryl Streep.Don't know how she does it with such ruthless efficiency,year in year out.Michele williams came a distant second for me.

4) Actor In a Supporting Role: My prediction-Chris Plummer; Eventual winner- Chris Plummer. The oldest ever academy award winner,the 82 year old's par excellent performance as ewan mcgregor's gay father was hot favorite to clinch the oscar, and win he did."Old is well and truly gold"

5) Actress In a Supporting Role : My prediction-Octavia Spencer; Eventual winner-Octavia Spencer. This winner was by far the easiest to pick this year. Spencer with her performance as the afro american maid was the bookie's favorite  and she was the winner by a mile. I had given her my oscar the moment I saw "the pie made out of crap" scene with Bryce Dallas Howard in The Help.

6) Directing:My prediction-Woody Allen; Eventual winner-The Artist(Michel Hazanavicius). The Frenchaman capped off a memorable evening for the team of the Artist by taking top honors in the showpiece award for the direction category, holding off stiff comepetition in the form of legends,scorsese and allen.Allen was my pick as I was mesmerised by the way he had depicted the city of Paris in all its resplendence and made it the central character in the film,Midnight in Paris, an instant classic in all ways.

7) Animated Feature Film::My prediction-Kung Fu Panda 2; Eventual winner- Rango. Gore Verbinski best known as the director of 2 flicks in the Pirates of Carribean series teamed up with Depp yet again,this time to telling effect as he won the oscar for the best animated film.

Other winners that deserve a special mention are Robert Richardson for cinematography(Hugo) and Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall(The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) forfilm editing. Iran was once again in the news;this time for artistic reasons,as The Seperation won the best foreign language film,staying true to the strong pre-oscar buzz that it had generated.

As the sun sets on the Kodar theater and the 84th academy awards which marked the return of the legendary Billy Crystal, the day belonged to a silent French film that stole the thunder leaving behind many illustrious and glittering competitors and rendered everybody specchless in awe.Hoping for a memorable evening and more fantastic flicks in the Hollywood showpiece event next year.Till then,keep getting bedazzled by the magic of cinema.