2012 Oscars

The Artist took home the Best Picture award.

The 84th Academy Awards ceremony took place on February 26, 2012, and was hosted by Billy Crystal. The Artist, an ode to silent film shot in black-and-white, won the Best Picture award, and Jean Dujardin, who starred in the film, took home the award for Best Leading Actor. The Artist’s Michel Hazanavicius won Best Director, and the film also won for Best Original Score and Best Costume Design. Meryl Streep, who holds the record for the most Oscar, Golden Globe, and BAFTA-nominated performer, won Best Actress for her performance in the Margaret Thatcher biopic The Iron Lady. Christopher Plummer won his first Oscar at 82 years old for his supporting role in Beginners. Best Supporting Actress went to Octavia Spencer of The Help. Best Original Screenplay went to Woody Allen’s widely acclaimed film Midnight in Paris about a writer time-traveling to the 1920s, while Best Adapted Screenplay went to The Descendents. 

 Before the awards, Sascha Baron Cohen arrived dressed as his character in the movie The Dictator, and spilled an urn filled with “ashes” on Ryan Seacrest, a TV interviewer covering the show. Host BIlly Crystal also stirred some minor controversy with his pre-recorded opening skit in which he parodies Midnight in Paris by dressing up as Sammy Davis Jr., which included darkening his face. Comedian Paul Scheer criticized him on Twitter, saying: “Octavia Spencer's win shows just how far we've come since Billy Crystal performed in Blackface.” Additional racial controversy was caused by one of his jokes that said he wanted to hug the first black woman he saw after watching The Help. He was also accused of being out of touch, and his jokes stale and dated. Crystal’s name trended on Twitter, especially due to many young people wondering who he was.

Billy Crystal's opening skit: