Best Picture Goes to The Artist

And the Oscar goes to:

• The Artist wins for Best Motion Picture.
• Meryl Streep wins Best Actress for Iron Lady, her third Oscar (and 17th nomination).
• Jean Dujardin wins Best Actor for The Artist. "I love your country!" he begins. "Merci beaucoup, I love you!" he ends.
• Octavia Spencer wins Best Supporting Actress for The Help, and gets a standing ovation. "I'm freaking out!" she yells, before crying.
• Christopher Plummer wins Best Supporting Actor for Beginners. At age 82, he's the oldest actor to win an Oscar.
• Michel Hazanavicius wins for Best Director for The Artist.
• Martin Scorsese's Paris adventure Hugo won the first two prizes of the night, claiming the Oscars for cinematography and art direction.
• You gotta look the part: The Artist wins for Costume Design; Iron Lady wins for Makeup.
• Iran's A Separation wins for Best Foreign Language film.
• Girl With the Dragon Tattoo wins for Achievement in Film Editing.
• Hugo wins Oscar No. 3 for Achievement in Sound Editing.

• Hugo wins Oscar No. 4 for Achievement in Sound Mixing.
• Undefeated wins for Best Documentary Feature.
• Rango wins for Best Animated Feature Film.
• Hugo wins Oscar No. 5 for Best Visual Effects.
• The Artist wins for Best Original Score.
• "Man or Muppet" wins for Best Original Song.
• The Descendants wins for Adapted Screenplay. (One of the writers mocks presenter Angelina Jolie, and it's fairly hilarious.)
• Midnight in Paris wins for Original Screenplay. (Woody Allen is an Oscars no-show again.)
• The Shore wins for Best Live-Action Short.
• Saving Face wins for Best Documentary Short.
• Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore wins for Best Animated Short.

Click to read about one of the buzziest red-carpet moments, involving (of course) Sacha Baron Cohen. (More Oscars stories.)