THE ARTIST TRIUMPHS WITH FIVE ACADEMY AWARDS® INCLUDING BEST PICTURE, BEST ACTOR AND BEST DIRECTOR. MICHEL HAZANAVICIUS RECEIVED “CAPRI AWARD – BEST DIRECTOR 2011”
Martin Scorsese's 3D film Hugo and silent movie The Artist topped the night with five wins apiece. The Artist took home several of the top awards, including best picture, director (Michel Hazanavicius) and actor (Jean Dujardin). The Iron Lady was the only other film to take home multiple awards with two honors, including Meryl Streep's third Oscar.
Other films represented with wins include The Descendants, The Help, A Separation, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Undefeated, Beginners, The Muppets, Midnight in Paris and the short films The Shore, Saving Face and The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore.
French newcomer Michel Hazanavicius won the Academy Award for director Sunday evening for "The Artist," a nearly silent, black-and-white film about a silent movie star whose life changes with Hollywood's transition to talking pictures and the arrival of a lovely starlet.
Hazanavicius, who also wrote the screenplay and edited the film, has written and directed several French TV productions, as well as the "OSS 117" movies, which star Jean Dujardin (lead actor in "The Artist") as a French secret agent akin to James Bond. But "The Artist" thrust Hazanavicius, 44, into the spotlight and has afforded him international acclaim. The film, which stars the director's wife Bérénice Bejo as ingenue Peppy Miller, swept the BAFTA awards two weeks ago, taking seven trophies including two for Hazanavicius. He also won the Directors Guild of America award.
For the Oscar, Hazanavicius was up against Terrence Malick for "The Tree of Life," Woody Allen for "Midnight in Paris," Alexander Payne for "The Descendants" and Martin Scorsese, who last month nabbed the Golden Globe for directing "Hugo."
"The Artist," which won the Golden Globe for best picture, received 10 total Academy Award nominations, including writing and editing nods for Hazanavicius and best picture.
The 84th annual Academy Awards took place Sunday, Feb. 26 with Billy Crystal hosting for a ninth time. They Awards are taking place in Hollywood and are being televised live on ABC. They are presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, whose membership was recently examined in depth by the Los Angeles Times.
ROME – The Artist, the period drama set during the 1920s changeover between silent and talking films that has earned six Golden Globe nominations, was named the 2011 film of the year by the 16th Capri, Hollywood - the International Film Festival, organizers announced Friday.
The next edition of the festival, which is the last and first film festival each year, runs from Dec. 26 to Jan. 2, 2012.
The award will be presented on Dec. 30 to the film's director, Michel Hazanavicius, and actress Berenice Bejo, the film's female lead, by Capri-Hollywood's honorary chairperson, Lina Wertmueller.
"This almost silent and black-and-white movie is a tribute to the Hollywood cinema of the 20s, and is enchanting audiences worldwide with its poetry, showing that even in the age of special effects and 3D, film lovers love and appreciate art in its purest form," Capri Hollywood director Pascal Vicedomini said.
On the same night, Wertmueller will honor Emanuele Crialese with the festival's prize for his work on Terraferma. The film is Italy's nominee for the best foreign language Oscar.
Wertmueller the festival's honorary chair, is best known as the first woman nominated for an Oscar for best picture in 1977, for Pasqualino Settebellesse (Seven Beauties).
The festival previously announced that Bejo would receive the festival's best actress honor, while Michael Fassbender will receive the best actor award for his work in Shame, a drama about sexual addiction.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/the-artist-capri-hollywood-film-festival-274726
